Today's Trump Birther Brouhaha: 'Obama and His Minions' Have 'Co-Opted You' (VIDEO)

Donald Trump insisted Tuesday on 'Good Morning America' (weekdays, 7AM on ABC) that President Obama's birth certificate is "not a big focus of my campaign." Yet when George Stephanopoulos pressed him on the issue, things got contentious and bizarre.

"There's a real question about the birth certificate," Trump said. Stephanopoulos pushed back, citing the president's certificate of live birth and 40-year-old birth announcements in Hawaii newspapers as evidence of his U.S. citizenship. Then things got weird. Trump said, "George, they have co-opted you." Pressed to define who "they" are, Trump said he was referring to "Obama and his minions."

Trump then fell back into a battle-tested plank of damage control, and blamed the media for making his comments an issue. When asked directly if he thought Obama was born in the U.S., he mustered a feeble, "I hope he was."