President Obama's birth certificate continues to be a controversy

Reverend Jesse Jackson has said the birther movement is an attack on the legitimacy of the nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama, which raises "ancient racial fears."

"Any discussion of his birthplace is a code word. It calls upon ancient racial fears," Politico quoted him, as saying.

Talking about Donald Trump, who had earlier demanded a copy of Obama's birth certificate after his own birth certificate was declared a fake by the New York's Department of Health, Jackson said: "Trump has trumpeted this cause. For him to go down this low is a bit surprising. He is now tapping into code-word fears that go far beyond a rational discourse."

Earlier, Oscar-winner actor De Niro had indirectly asked Trump to get facts first before making allegations.

"I won't mention names, but certain people in the news in the last couple weeks, just what are they doing? It's crazy. They're making statements about people that they don't even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people," he said.

Trump, however, downplayed the demand saying De Niro is "not the brightest bulb on the planet," and therefore, should not comment on the birther issue, especially when it comes to President Obama.u00a0

"I like his acting, but in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we're not dealing with Albert Einstein. He can say what he wants but the fact is that this guy President Barack Obama has not revealed his birth certificate, a lot of people agree with me," he added.