On Tuesday Barack Obama produced his birth certificate, rebutting wide spread conspiracy theories that he was not born in the US. The president said, ‘I have watched with bemusement, I’ve been puzzled at the degree at which this thing just kept going on.’ The president went on to say that he had far more important issues to deal with and couldn’t afford to be distracted by sideshows.

The revelation comes as a blow to potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the flamboyant businessman and star of the apprentice, who recently gave new life to the claims. It has been suggested that Trump was hoping to garner support from the estimated 45% of Republicans who believed the claims had some merit. Trump said, ‘he was honoured to play such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue’.

Meanwhile British politician John Prescott harshly tweeted. ‘I wonder if Trump can provide a birth certificate for his hair?’

No doubt some will persist with the claims. However there was overwhelming evidence of Obamas US birth even before the certificate was released. Hawaiian newspapers documented his birth almost 50 years ago. It is interesting that the certificate has only just been released. Has Obama deliberately been holding the certificate back so that he can now knock his political rivals off balance? If so it may well have worked.