Commentator Jonah Goldberg claims that President Obama is partially to blame for the rise of Donald Trump as a political force ("Obama's trolling helped give rise to Trump," Sept. 23).
Mr. Goldberg says the president intentionally provokes the conservative base and benefits when his critics overreact while he stays calm and presidential. For example, Mr. Obama purposely milked the issue of birthplace to mock Republicans when he could have settled the issue in 2008.
While M. Obama may provoke the GOP at times, the issue of his birthplace was not something he dragged out to keep his critics busy. His campaign released a short-form birth certificate from Hawaii in June of 2008, just a few months after questions about his birthplace began to surface.
The certificate he released contained less information than usual birth certificates, but Hawaii began using that shortened form exclusively in 2001. Hawaiian government officials attested to its validity, but Mr. Trump refused to believe them.
In 2011, the long form birth certificate was released after Mr. Obama began to feel people were turning politics into a reality show. However, even after this was released, many Republicans still accused the president of forging it.
Thus no matter what he did, Mr. Obama would still be subject to suspicions and accusations. He wasn't the one to drag out this issue in order to make Republicans look bad. Rather, Republican leaders and Mr. Trump chose to belabor it and shift their attention away from more serious matters.
If Mr. Obama's birthplace had not been in question, Mr. Trump would have gone after some other issue targeting the president and still would have built up a large following within the Republican Party.
Malika Gill, Chester, Va.