The Hill News

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) on Saturday applauded billionaire businessman Donald Trump for opening a private investigation into President Obama's birth certificate. 

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said she believes that the president was born in Hawaii, but claimed there is something on his birth certificate he is trying to hide. 

{mosads}“More power to him. He’s not just throwing stones, you know -- from the sidelines. He’s digging in there. He’s paying for researchers to know why President Obama would have spent $2 million to not show his birth certificate. So more power to him," she said during an interview on Fox News. 

Trump -- who is also considering a presidential bid -- has embraced so-called "birtherism," or a belief in false the! ories that Obama is not constitutionally permitted to serve as president since he was born outside the United States. 

Other likely GOP candidates have rejected Trump's recent "birther" kick: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently said that Republicans should not "play into" birther theories.

But Palin said that "The Donald" is simply trying to dig for more information. 

"Well you know I think he was born in Hawaii because there was the birth announcement put in the newspaper. But obviously, if there’s something there that the president doesn’t want people to see on that birth certificate," she said. "Then he seems to go to great lengths to make sure it isn’t shown, and that's kind of perplexing for a! lot of people."

Questions over Obama's birthplace have ! persiste d since his 2008 campaign, during which he released a certificate saying he was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. But some "birthers" believe that the copy released by the campaign withheld certain information.

Trump told NBC last week that, "I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding."