Businessman and showman Donald Trump says he's thinking about running for president but can't announce anything until June after the airing of the finale of his reality show. Now in its 11th season, Celebrity Apprentice with the likes of Gary Busey and Meatloaf is currently the highest rated show on NBC. Trump has the money to make a go of a campaign and name recognition alone is enough to keep him up there in the polls right now. But starting with an appearance on The View March 23rd This week an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump tied for second among GOP primary voters for their choice of candidate. Among Tea Party supporters he finished first. A mid-March CNN poll found, among Republicans, 43% think President Obama definitely or probably was not born in the United States. There are many theories on why Trump has stepped out on the birther issue: TV ratings, ego, politics -- or all of the above. Donald Trump when we come back. We sat down with Donald Trump Friday at his offices saying we wanted to get past the birther issue. He said he preferred to talk about other things, too, but ten minutes later we were still on the subject. Next week, Trump on China, Libya and OPEC. Today, Trump and the widely debunked doubts about where the president was born. OK, let's get this out of the way, because you have been making a lot of waves lately. You came loaded for bear with a birth certificate. You'll be happy to know -- I'm sorry, certification of live birth. It is good enough for the state of Hawaii and the State Department. The U.S. State Department recognizes these as legitimately... Well, it is not a birth certificate, Candy. And people are trying to figure out why isn't he giving his birth certificate? It is not a birth certificate. A certificate of live birth, and you can see that one that you have, and the one that I brought you, because that's the one that's on the Internet and all over the place, it doesn't even have a serial number. It doesn't have a signature, it doesn't have a signature, one that I saw on television has a stamp but that's not a signature. Right. But that's how they... Excuse me, but that's not the one they were showing to everybody. After it released a copy of the certificate in 2008, the Obama campaign said the serial number was blacked out for concern over Hawaiian procedure. Since then many news organizations and the Annenberg Fact Check Project saw the original with the serial number and embossed seal and a stamped signature. Officials in Hawaii say this is standard. And I just say very simply why doesn't he show his birth certificate? Why has he spent over $2 million in legal fees to keep this quiet and to keep this silent. When I listened today to the tape of the grandmother and she was saying he was born essentially in Kenya and then all of a sudden -- don't forget, this is when Barack Obama was hot as a pistol because it looked like he was going to get the nomination and they had a lot of people, a lot of handlers in there. All of a sudden you hear people all over the room, no, no, no, he was born in Hawaii. He was born in Hawaii. But they say it was a misinterpretation. Excuse me, they drown her out. She was like -- there were a lot of people in that room. And she said Kenya, he was born right -- and then they started screaming, no, no, no, you mean Hawaii. You mean, Hawaii. Here's a portion of that taped international phone call. Was she present when he was born in Kenya? She said yes, she was present when Obama was born. Whereabouts was he born? I thought he was born in Kenya. No. He was born in America, not in Mombasa. Do you know where he was born? I thought he was born in Kenya. I was going to go by and see where he was born. Yes. She said he was born in Hawaii. You can hear the entire sometimes confusing conversation on our web site, CNN.com/sotu. I don't like to talk about this issue too much because I really would rather talk about China, I would really rather talk about what OPEC is doing to destroy us. I would really rather talk about other things. But I'll be honest with you, I started this and I heard the question for the first time four weeks ago and I assumed, although I had heard about it for years, I assumed that he was born in the United States, meaning in Hawaii. I assumed that. The more I go into it, the more suspect it is. Now, he doesn't have his birth certificate or he's not showing it. And I wish he did have one, but he doesn't have it. There is a huge difference between a birth certificate -- and I can show you mine, it's upstairs and it's in great detail and it's certified by everybody and it's got signatures all over it. It's got a birth certificate. He shows a certificate of live birth. And a certificate of live birth is easy to get and it is not the same thing. It's a totally different thing. And in many states a certificate of live birth you can't even get married or you can't get a driver's license with it. The fact is his own family doesn't know which hospital he was born in this Hawaii. And here's one other thing, wherever you were born, I can go to that hospital, and I can find out the name of your doctor, the name of the -- the number of your room... My hospital... ...excuse me -- how much you paid, how much this, how much that. I can find the information. I guarantee you my hospital has all the information, how much my parents paid for that unfortunate day when I was brought into this world, this rather crazy world. But the fact is, nobody has any information. And his people in the United States don't even know which hospital -- his relatives don't even know which hospital he was born in. So it's a very strange situation. That's all I can tell you. And, you know, it's a very sad thing because the people, the birthers, they got labeled and they got labeled so negatively, and even the word birther is a negative word. And I always tell people, I was a very good student; I went to the best college; I went to great schools; I had very high aptitude. Because, if you come out and say, and even question, the press goes wild. They get angry at even the question. And the fact is, if he wasn't born in this country, he shouldn't be the president of the United States. [End Clip] In fact, two separate Honolulu papers published birth announcements, which Trump says he can explain. It was eight days later, after the supposed birth. It was eight days later. And many people that are on a certain side of this say his grandparents said -- they made the announcement. You're not talking about the same day. You're talking about eight days. A lot of things happen in eight days. Excuse me. And the grandparents put that in because, obviously, they want him to be a United States citizen because, in those days, I mean, people were much more proud than they are today, unfortunately, for being a United States citizen. So they wanted him to be a citizen of the United States. For that purpose and also for hospitalization, for welfare, for this, for that, for all the other assets you get from being a United States citizen. So there are very smart people that say that's routinely done and that was done by his grandparents. I -- I just want to say, and then we'll move on... Candy, it's eight days -- excuse me -- eight days later. Well, I think you could make a case for people that -- whose birth announcements show up later. But I will tell you that we checked with both these papers earlier, not to this latest -- when you brought it back to the headlines, but the fact is that the hospitals reported this information to the papers and the papers printed it. Who knows? You're talking 50 years ago. Nonetheless, there is enough here that's going to -- we're going to be talking about this 20 years from now, I can almost guarantee you. I don't think -- you shouldn't be. Why? Here's my -- look, I'll leave it at this, because I'd much rather talk about China; I'd much rather talk about OPEC. I'd rather talk about how all these countries are ripping us off and how they shouldn't be and we can stop it easily. That's what I'd rather talk about. But I'll tell you, there's a real question -- and even you say you're going to be talking about this for 20 years. You shouldn't be talking. Why doesn't he give his birth certificate? He says he has a birth certificate, and I hope does he. And by the way, you know who's going to be the happiest if he produced a birth certificate, a real birth certificate, not a certificate of live birth, which is not a birth certificate? I would be. I would be very happy. Somebody would say, oh, wouldn't that be bad for you? I said absolutely not. I would be very happy if he produced a real birth certificate. So either they don't have one, which is very bad, or there's something on it that he doesn't want people to see. And I think that would be the lesser of two evils, no matter what's on it. Let me -- let me give you another conspiracy theory of a different sort, and that is from fellow Republicans who say -- who don't -- as you know, think this is a total losing issue for the Republican Party. Excuse me -- 55 percent of the Republicans believe in this issue and 70 percent think that there's at least a good chance he wasn't born in this country. On the other hand... I don't think it's a losing issue. Well, if you could get elected just by Republicans, I guess that's so. But if you look at the totality of the country... Well, you're right. You do have to go step by step. Right. This gets me to the conspiracy theory, that this is something that is an issue to the base of the Republican Party, and by that they mean voters who vote in the primaries, and that this is a cynical play to get their attention... By who? By you. Well, I don't think so. By bringing this up and saying, hey, I'm thinking about running for president; by the way, I don't think the president really was born... Let him show me a birth certificate. How come nobody has any records of his hospitalization? They don't know his room number. They don't know the nurse. They don't know the doctor. Let him show me or let -- not me. Let him show a birth certificate. It's a problem for them. [Crosstalk] [Laughter] Let me try to move this on just because I know we could get engulfed in this. And this is not conspiracy on my part, believe me. And because I can also tell you that there are others in the Republican Party who say, I think he's trying to help the president. Because this sort of thing sounds crazy to a lot of the country. Those are fools. Those are fools. And I don't think there are those people. I think anybody that would say that is a fool. I believe that this is a very bad issue for the president. I believe that there are a lot of very smart people, and I've had them call me, and I've had some say, yeah, get off that issue, Donald, you're better on China, OK, and you're better on the economy and you're better on jobs, because that is my strength. They say, Donald, get off that issue; you're better on jobs and you're better talking about the world, especially as it pertains economically, OK? And I agree. But, you know what, a lot of very smart people are very confused by what's going on here. And they don't know why did he spend all this money and they don't know why hasn't he given his birth certificate? Let me move on... And I think it's a very bad issue for the president, not for the Republican Party. [End Clip] There is not the slightest indication that Donald Trump is finished talking up this issue. But when we come back, a taste of the Donald and what he sees as the OPEC rip-off. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Donald Trump and I did get around to other subjects, his potential Republican rivals, Libya and the people he says are ruining the U.S. economy, oil- producing countries in the Middle East. Now, the worst abuser of all -- I mean, the worst abuser is obviously OPEC. And I watched a show the other day where you had these oil analysts sitting around saying, you know, there's so much oil; we don't understand why the price -- it's up to $110; it's going to go up to $150 a barrel. You're going to be paying $7 or $8 a gallon for gasoline very soon. So these analysts are sitting around, Wall Street guys -- they say, we don't understand why oil is so high; there's so much of it; it's all over the place. And I want to almost scream into the television set, It's OPEC. The only they didn't -- they talked about the psychology... So what -- I mean, in the end, there are certain things that even the U.S. doesn't control. And you've got this, sort of, angry -- I mean, I -- you, sort of, tap into this angry... No, I'm not angry. ... populist -- OK, aggressive populist... I can't believe that our politicians are so stupid to let people that we absolutely protect get away with it. Saudi Arabia wouldn't be there if it weren't for us. [End Clip] You can see more of the world according to Trump next Sunday here on State of the Union. Until then