During Barack Obama’s campaign for president in 2008, throughout his presidency, and afterward, a number of conspiracy theories falsely asserted Obama was ineligible to be President of the United States because he was not a natural-born citizen as required by Article 2 of the Constitution.
Theories alleged that Obama’s published birth certificate was a forgery—that his actual birthplace was not Hawai but Kenya. Other theories alleged that Obama became a citizen of Indonesia in childhood, thereby losing his US citizenship. Still, others claimed that Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen because he was born a dual citizen(British and American).
A number of political commentators have characterized these various claims as a racist reaction to Obama’s status as the first African-American resident of the United States.
When Obama released his birth certificates and such documents for proof, the Obama website declared that the rumors “aren’t actually about that piece of paper – they’re about manipulating people into thinking Barack is not an American citizen”.
