Trump: Republicans want me to speak at their convention

Billionaire birther Donald Trump on Monday revealed that Republican officials are hoping that he will play a part at the Republican National Convention in Tampa later this month.

During a weekly call-in interview, Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade noted that it had been confirmed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Fox News host Mike Huckabee and others would be speaking ahead of Mitt Romney's formal acceptance of the Republican nomination for president.

"Do you think that you're going to have a role there?" Kilmeade asked Trump.

"Well, I know they want me to," Trump replied. "And I'll see what happens."

Just one day before the convention kicks off, Trump will already be in Tampa to receive the "Statesmen of the Year" award from the Sarasota County Republican Party.

Conventional wisdom is that Trump's insistence that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen would bring Romney unwanted criticism at a time when the candidate is trying to win over independent voters. But those views didn't stop the former Massachusetts governor from attending a political fundraiser with Trump in Las Vegas earlier this year, just one day after the reality star told CNBC that "nothing's changed my mind" that Obama was born in Kenya.

“In his own words, @BarackObama ‘was born in Kenya, and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.’ This statement was made, in writing, in the 1990s. Why does the press protect him? Is this another Watergate?” Trump opined on Twitter the day after the Romney event.

And on Monday, Trump was at it again, insisting that Romney should not release his tax returns if the president continued to refuse to release documents that the billionaire believes will prove his point.

"I'd like to see his college records, I'd like to see his college applications, I'd like to see something about his past, which many people know nothing about," Trump told Fox News. "I'd like to see his passport records, which are sealed. You know that Obama's spent over $4 million in legal fees to keep these things quiet, and then he stands up and says he wants to see [Romney's] tax returns."

"If Obama gives some of his sealed records where all of this money has been spent to keep them sealed, I would certainly make that trade," he added. "I think that would be a trade that you'd like to see. I tell you Fox & Friends would like to see it. I'd think you'd find some things that are very, very interesting and very shocking."

Watch this video Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Aug. 6, 2012.

(h/t: Politico)