As MSNBC's First Read reported, Trump claimed that those in the media are the biggest threat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. After watching his latest birther rant at the North Carolina Republican Party Convention banquet from this Friday evening, I'm wondering if continued appearances from Trump are a likely bigger threat if he keeps this nonsense up. It's going to turn off everyone but the hard core racists who have lost their minds ever since our first black president got elected.

Trump: Media are biggest threat to Romney's presidential campaign:

Donald Trump on Friday warned that the media are the biggest threat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, but added that the press he has garnered for the Republican nominee has caused his poll numbers to rise "very substantially."

Speaking at the North Carolina GOP Convention, Trump praised Romney for his business experience and promise to stand up against China and fight for American economic interests. But the business mogul also focused a portion of his speech on his questions about where President Obama was born. It is the reason why on Tuesday, when Romney earned the 1,144 delegates necessary to secure his party's nomination, much of the news cycle was devoted to his decision to appear with Trump at a fundraiser that day. [...]

And during his address, Trump again used his appearance as a platform to question the president's birth certificate, the reason he has branded himself as a controversial figure on the national political scene. Calling for the president to release his college records, Trump said, "There is one line called place of birth, I’d like to see what he said..Perhaps it’s going to say Hawaii, perhaps it’s going to say Kenya."

He dismissed that his motives were based in race by citing his recent decision to award African American actor Arsenio Hall the winner of his reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice."

"Somebody said, 'Oh, because I brought up the birth certificate, I'm a racist. I said, 'How can I be a racist, I just picked Arsenio Hall," said Trump.

Asked after the event why he continues to bring up the issue of the president's birth certificate, Trump said it was the demand from people who want to hear him talk about it, pointing out that the loudest applause line of his nearly hour-long speech came when he was questioning the president's birthplace.

I believe Stephen Colbert would call that the "I have one black friend so I can't be a racist" defense.

You can watch the whole horrid mess at C-SPAN's site here if you're in the mood to torture yourself:

North Carolina Republican Party Convention Banquet.

Update: Here's President Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents Dinner which Trump still obviously hasn't gotten over.

Part 1

Part 2