President Obama used an appearance last night on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno to make fun of Donald Trump, who appears obsessed with Obama’s birth certificate and his college records.
Leno asked Obama what had happened between him and Trump to cause Trump to be so fanatical about proving that something about Obama’s background is fraudulent.
In his response, Obama managed to mock Trump for his obsession and at the same time show how silly it is.
“It all started when we were growing up together in Kenya,” Obama said, prompting the audience and Leno to applaud gustily and explode in laughter.
The president’s response was especially biting because Trump has been the leader of the “birther” movement that suggested that Obama was actually born in Kenya and thus ineligible to be president of the United States. So by pulling Trump into an imaginary childhood with him in Kenya, Obama was getting a big laugh at Trump’s expense.
But the president wasn’t done with Trump yet.
“We had constant run-ins on the soccer field,” Obama said. “He wasn’t very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over.”
Yesterday Trump, the reality show star and one-time Republican presidential wannabe, continued his slide into a national punch-line when his alleged “October surprise” concerning Obama proved much ado about nothing.
“The Donald” had built anticipation of his lunchtime announcement, promising that what he had to say about the president could alter the race between Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney.
But Trump’s announcement turned out to be a pledge of $5 million on his part to a charity of Obama’s choice, provided the president makes public his college applications and transcripts and releases his passport history.
Trump released a video via Twitter at noon to much ballyhoo, and his online followers grew by the hundreds in the moments before the video was released.
“I have a deal for the president,” he said. “If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications, and passport application and records, I will give to a charity of his choice, a check immediately for $5 million.”
Trump has called Obama the “the worst president ever” and briefly threatened to run against him. But Obama destroyed him earlier this year at the White House Correspondents dinner, ending Trump’s supposed White House bid with a series of devastating jokes.
On Leno’s show, Obama didn’t let Republican challenger Mitt Romney off the hook either. When Leno asked the president what was the cure for “Romnesia,” the mocking name that the president has used to label Romney’s penchant for changing political positions, Obama responded that “Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions.”
Romney has promised to repeal Obama’s healthcare plan on his first day in office if elected.
“The real cure is to vote,” the president added.
