A disgruntled political rival of Barack Obama claims to possess evidence that the US President and his wife Michelle were once at the verge of divorce. Business mogul Donald Trump dropped hints on Monday when he vowed to make an announcement today, Oct. 24, that would be “bordering on gigantic” and that it would “possibly” change the presidential race. Obama, the Democratic party’s candidate, is favoured to win re-election on Nov. 6.

The billionaire told Fox & Friends that he had “something very, very big concerning the president of the United States,” saying: “It’s going to be very big. I know one thing – you will cover it in a very big fashion.”

Trump declined to elaborate, but yesterday a respected financial pundit with links to the tycoon who appears on the same business talk show as him claimed to have more details. Douglas Kass, a Florida-based investor who appears on CNBC’s talkshow ‘Squawkbox’ where Trump is often a commentator, tweeted to his 48,000 followers: “High above the Alps my Gnome has heard that Donald Trump will announce that he has unearthed divorce papers between the Prez and his wife.” 

When the UK newspaper Daily Mail, from which this story derived its foundation, asked about the Tweet, Trump spokeswoman Holly Lorenzo said: “All we know is that he is going to announce it on his Twitter and Facebook accounts tomorrow. I don’t know what time it will be, that’s all I know.”

According to Daily Mail: “The claims about divorce papers have previously been made in a book released earlier this year by author Ed Klein. The White House rubbished the allegations then and claimed Klein had a history of making things up.”

In Klein’s book, called ‘The Amateur’, he claimed that Mrs. Obama prepared the divorce papers to separate from the President in 2000 following his disastrous attempt to win a House seat in Chicago.

After he lost miserably the future First Lady was supposedly disgusted that her husband had put at risk their “stable and secure future.”

The book claims their marriage – in its eighth year at the time – was “on the rocks” with Obama so depressed some of his friends feared he was suicidal. Things however turned around when Obama ran for a Senate seat in Illinois and won, assuming office in 2005.

Among the other claims in Klein’s book are that Bill Clinton branded Obama an ‘amateur’, which was denied by the former President.

“Trump,” according to Daily Mail, “also has a questionable record when it comes to his own allegations, most notably being a leading ‘birther’, so-called because he believes Obama was born in Kenya and not Hawaii, thus disqualifying him from being President of the United States.”

News Express reports that Obama and Trump are political enemies. Trump regards Obama as ‘the worst president ever’ and threatened to run against him but he failed to do so, eventually endorsing Obama’s main challenger, Republican Mitt Romney.

The White House has refused to comment on the fresh allegations by Trump and Klein.