birtherism

noun

birth·er·ism ˈbər-thər-ˌi-zəm

variants or less commonly Birtherism

: belief in or endorsement of any of various discredited claims that former U.S. president Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore was not constitutionally eligible to be president of the United States

Examples of birtherism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In the years since Obama’s election, America has seen the birtherism movement, the rise of the Tea Party, Trump’s presidency, and the dismantling of cornerstone civil-rights victories, including key portions of the Voting Rights Act. —

Danielle Amir Jackson, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2024 The White House's approach may, however, be successful in driving birtherism entirely out of polite discourse. —

Chris Mooney, Discover Magazine, 27 Apr. 2011 Rene becomes the target of a racist online post and faces a push by a small number of party members to impeach him, an effort that feels like a microcosm of delegitimizing efforts like birtherism that Barack Obama endured as the first African-American president. —

Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 14 Aug. 2020 Trump's claims, commonly known as birtherism, have been repeatedly debunked. —

NBC News, 5 Aug. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'birtherism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.