‘Birther’ Movement Leader Donald Trump Arrives In Hawaii, Mocked By Signs Reading ‘Welcome To Kenya’


Donald Trump received a bit of karma on his first trip to Hawaii as president, with protesters greeting the president with mocking signs that read, “Welcome to Kenya.”

As many in the state seem to remember, Trump was one of the most vocal leaders in the so-called “birther” movement, which claims that Barack Obama was not born in the United States but instead was from Africa. Trump made this stance the main point of his exploratory bid for the 2012 election, pressing Obama to the point that the president released his long-form birth certificate, showing he had been born in Hawaii.

This still did not appease Trump, who continued to question Obama’s birthplace until finally dropping the issue for good late in the 2016 election.

The people of Hawaii apparently did not forget, however. As the Independent noted, Trump arrived on Saturday on his way to a tour of Asia and he was greeted by protesters holding signs that read, “Welcome to Kenya.”

When Trump started to lead the birther charge back in 2011, he even went so far as to claim that he had sent investigators to Hawaii and that they had uncovered evidence that Obama was not born in the United States.

“I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding,” Trump told host Meredith Vieira in an interview on NBC’s Today show.

“You have people now down there searching, I mean in Hawaii?” Vieira answered.

“Absolutely,” Trump replied. “And they cannot believe what they’re finding.”

As the Huffington Post pointed out last year, there was never any evidence that Trump did indeed send investigators to Hawaii, or that Trump found any proof that Obama was born outside the country.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump backed away from his birtherism after coming under scrutiny, saying that Obama was indeed born in the United States and that the matter was closed. Trump claimed that he was simply picking up on a theory he claimed was originally floated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and that he was ending it. There was no evidence that Clinton’s campaign was responsible for starting the birther movement, however.

It wasn’t just birtherism on the mind of protesters this weekend. Hawaiian islanders also greeted Donald Trump with other mocking signs, including one that read, “Hawaii 3, Trump 0,” in reference to the state’s record in blocking Trump’s travel ban from Muslim-majority countries.

[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]

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