Donald Trump Refuses To Release His Own Passport, College Information After 'Major' Obama Announcement

The giant announcement Donald Trump teased earlier this week turned the real estate mogul into a national punch line when, after days of posturing, Trump only offered to donate money to charity if President Barack Obama released his passport and college information. Perhaps Trump realized his gambit backfired, but he refused to be the hoist of his own petard when challenged to offer up some of the same information about himself.

In a video released Wednesday Trump said he would donate $5 million to a charity of Obama’s choice if the administration would provide the president's “college records and applications, and passport application and records.”

“I’ll tell you what, he’ll provide them to you when you provide yours to him,” Michael Cohen, executive VP at the Trump Organization and counsel to the Donald, told the Guardian when a reporter asked for Trump’s same credentials.

“But what’s your point? Mr. Trump’s not the president of the United States and he’s not running for the presidency,” he said. “And pretty much all you need to do is go to one of the thousand different books that Mr. Trump has been featured in or has written and so on, and you could learn more about him that you know about pretty much anybody else on the planet.”

Speculation about what Trump’s announcement would be centered around the idea that Trump would somehow accuse the president of hiding something in his history. Trump has been one of the most outspoken “birthers” (people who accuse the president of being born in Kenya) and has been adamant in his claims that Obama’s seat in the Oval Office is illegitimate.

Trump bragged to “Fox and Friends” Monday morning that the announcement would be “very big.”

His staff didn’t seem quite as willing to play along, though, as Cohen accused the Guardian of failing to understand the serious nature of the offer.

“I think what you’re doing is you’re whether you’re trying to be funny, intentionally or not, actually it’s a stupid request on your behalf.”