One birther (an RCP reader) made clear his reason for absolving Trump of the reversal with the email subject line “Trump can be forgiven for misinterpreting Obama’s birth certificate forgery.” In explaining that the billionaire birther could have been swindled by the bewildering paperwork, he cited wiggle room in the president’s statement that he was “pretty confident” about where he was born and wrote, “Obama’s decision to prefer one cacophony of hearsay over the other is fair enough, but that’s not something as innocent Birther will ever be allowed.” Note the capital B.

The decision by the shrewder campaign minds surrounding Trump to dump the birther movement on Hillary Clinton was cute but laughable even to the birthers themselves. To be sure, there is evidence some Clinton allies wanted to use this same question against then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary race, but they didn’t pursue it. Trump, on the other hand, has owned this issue with great pride, telling ABC News’ Jonathan Karl in 2013, “I think it made me very popular, if you want to know the truth.” Sam Nunberg, a longtime Trump political aide who was fired at the start of the presidential campaign but worked to help Trump find an opening with Republican voters, has acknowledged its intention. “The appeal of the birther issue was, ‘I’m going to take this guy on and I’m going to beat him,’” Nunberg said, adding, “It was a great niche and wedge issue.”