Donald Trump pulled a fast one on the media Friday morning, while attempting to stomp out the suddenly revived “birther” controversy with a stunningly brief statement that:

1. Pinned the whole Obama birthplace controversy on Hillary Clinton
2. Gave himself credit for solving the alleged mystery
3. Definitively declared the President was born in the United States.
4. Left the media feeling snookered

All morning long media outlets were hyping an appearance today by Donald Trump where the GOP nominee vowed to discuss the birther controversy. Trump had long questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, even bankrolling an investigation into the President’s Hawaiian birth certificate. On Thursday Trump refused to say whether he still questioned where Obama was born, telling the Washington Post, “I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet.”

With Clinton in a polling free fall, the “birther” story roared back into the headlines. Hillary Clinton said Friday morning that Trump owed Obama and the American people an apology, declaring that Trump was trying to “delegitimize our first black president” and his whole campaign was “founded on this outrageous lie.” President Obama weighed in as well, saying he’s “pretty confident about where I was born, I think most people were, as well.”

As for Trump, he told Fox Business Network he was “going to be making a major statement on this whole thing.” He also repeated the claim that it was Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008 that began raising the issue of whether Obama was born in the U.S. “She is the one that started it, and she was unable or incapable of finishing it. That’s the way it worked out.”

News that Trump would be making a major announcement sent the cable news networks and Twitter into a frenzy. The setting would be Trump’s new hotel, the restored Old Post Office Building in Washington, DC. Trump came out and, with the news-watching audience glued to their screens, began promoting the hotel. And then he turned the podium over to a string of military veterans who sang his praises. Finally, Trump delivered his “major announcement.”

“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. … President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”

He thanked the audience and left the stage. Mic drop. That was it. Took him all of about 38 seconds.

“We got played, again, by the Trump campaign,” said CNN’s John King. “He got a live event broadcast for some 20 minutes.”

As for the claim that Clinton gave birth to the birther movement, Politifact notes that the birther theory first was raised not by Clinton’s campaign, but by some of her supporters. Also, a 2007 strategy memo from former Clinton aide Mark Penn advised pointing out Obama’s “lack of American roots.” But, Politifact argues, that’s not the same thing as questioning Obama’s birthplace.