Donald Trump has admitted that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States after initially refusing.
And his campaign is cheering Trump for bringing an end to the "ugly incident'' that it blames, without evidence, on Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
But President Obama has said there are more important issues to focus on than his place of birth.
For many years, Trump was the most prominent proponent of the "birther'' movement, which claimed Obama was born outside the US and thus ineligible to be president - despite the fact that he was born in Hawaii.
As recently as Thursday, Trump would not acknowledge Obama's birthplace, declining to address the matter when asked by The Washington Post.
"I'll answer that question at the right time,'' Trump told the paper. "I just don't want to answer it yet.''
Clinton seized on Trump's refusal during a speech Thursday night before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
"He was asked one more time where was President Obama born and he still wouldn't say Hawaii. He still wouldn't say America,'' Clinton said. "This man wants to be our next president? When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?''
The answer to her question came hours later when campaign spokesman Jason Miller issued a statement that suggested the question had been settled five years ago - by Trump.
"In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate,'' Miller said.
"Mr. Trump did a great service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised,'' he added.
"Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama's birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.''
Yet Trump repeatedly stoked the issue in the years since Obama released his birth certificate. In August 2012, he was pushing the issue on Twitter.
"An `extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud,'' he wrote.
