“Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States," Rudy Giuliani said. Giuliani: ‘Trump believes now that Obama was born in the U.S.’

Donald Trump is ready to accept that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, his campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani said on Thursday.

On MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, the former New York mayor was pressed to weigh in on whether Trump believes that Obama is in fact a native-born American.


“I confirm that and Donald Trump now confirms that,” Giuliani said. “Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States.”

Giuliani went on to say that Trump had stated this position as far back as five years ago -- a claim POLITICO was unable to substantiate.

Trump is "proud" of his 2011 campaign to get Obama to release his birth certificate, the former New York mayor added.

“He has told me that he is proud of the fact that he finally got Obama to produce his birth certificate,” he said.

Trump has come under mounting pressure to explain his past "birther" claims, but he has dodged questions about it several times in recent days.

But his own running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said this week that he accepted that Obama was born in Hawaii, while his campaign surrogate and former primary opponent Ben Carson said that Trump should apologize for insinuating otherwise.

Trump infamously insisted that Obama was in fact born in Kenya back in 2011, demanding that the president release his authentic birth certificate. When the White House did so, Trump questioned its validity and refused to back down.

Since entering into the spotlight last year as a prominent political candidate, Trump has mostly attempted to sidestep the issue, blaming the media for focusing too heavily on it.

Asked Tuesday by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly if he thought his questioning of Obama's birthplace had hurt him with African-American voters, he conceded that it might have.

But he passed up the opportunity to acknowledge that the president is in fact a citizen.

“I don’t know, I have no idea," the Republican nominee said of its possible effect on his polling numbers. "I just don’t bother talking about it but I don’t know. I guess with maybe some, I don’t know why, I really don’t know why. You’re the first one that’s brought that up in a while."