Donald Trump has said he will look into claims that Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for the US vice presidency because her parents were immigrants, prompting an immediate backlash over the interest in a new “birther” conspiracy. 

The US president praised the lawyer who wrote a piece outlining why he believed Ms Harris may not be allowed to run for the position because she is not a natural born citizen, though Mr Trump also said he did not know if it was true. 

Ms Harris was born in Oakland, California. However speculation online has claimed that because her Indian mother and Jamaican father may not have been US citizens at the time of her birth she does not meet the requirement to be a “natural born citizen”. 

Constitutional lawyers have been quick to dismiss the claim and multiple prominent US fact-checkers have concluded that Ms Harris is a US citizen, meaning the allegation is false. But Mr Trump was more equivocal when asked about the idea at a White House press briefing. 

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