Obama campaign courts cash off of birth certificate flap

With Donald Trump abandoning his presidential ambitions, the “birther” conspiracy theory lost one of its most prominent voices. But now an unlikely group is looking to keep birtherism in the conversation: President Obama’s reelection campaign.

A fundraising e-mail sent to supporters Wednesday morning offers up—for the donation of $25 or more—a “Made in the USA” T-shirt , featuring a picture of the president on the front and an image of his recently released long-form birth certificate on the back—a tweak at those who think Obama was not born in the United States and therefore not eligible to be president.

“Last year, the president said, ‘I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,’” writes deputy campaign manager Julianna Smoot. “This is about as close as we can get.”

The bid to raise money off of birtherism also needles author Jerome Corsi, whose book “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” was released Tuesday, a top seller on Amazon.com despite the fact the White House released a copy of the long-form birth certificate three weeks ago.

“There’s really no way to make this stuff completely go away,” the Wednesday email reads. “The only thing we can do is laugh at it -- and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.”

melanie.mason@latimes.com