WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the nation’s leaders won’t be able to solve big problems if they’re distracted by what he calls “sideshows and carnival barkers.”

He says that’s why he made the decision to release a detailed Hawaii birth certificate — hoping to quiet the continuing questions about whether he was, in fact, born there rather than in Kenya.

The certificate says Obama was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii, which makes him eligible to hold the office of president.

In criticizing those who are keeping the issue alive, Obama and the White House didn’t mention Donald Trump by name — though he’s been among the most prominent supporters of the “birther” movement in recent weeks.

Trump, a potential GOP presidential candidate, today took credit for getting Obama to release the certificate, and said Obama should have done so “a long time ago.”

He said he’d want to make sure the certificate is real.