On Friday, Trump finally publicly acknowledged that Obama is born in the United States, but, more important, he refused to relinquish his project of calumny. After all, Obama is no longer his enemy. Clinton is. So he refocused his calumniating attack of false accusations on her: She, he falsely alleged, started birtherism.

By pivoting from a use of birtherism to calumniate the president to using it to calumniate his opponent, Trump reveals the truth about himself. He is a liar. Worse, he lies to harm. When a lie no longer serves his interest, he is willing to abandon it. But only to repurpose it against his current target.

All that has changed with Trump’s birther calumny is who his enemy is. It’s no longer Obama but is now Clinton. Birtherism isn’t dead; it just has a new target.

A vote for Trump is a vote for the Calumniator in Chief.