- Obama says Trump’s obsession with him shows a lack of focus on serving the American people.
- Trump’s repeated criticism of Obama’s record reveals a president preoccupied with the past, not the present.
- Obama frames Trump’s fixation as evidence that a leader should direct their attention to the nation’s issues, not a predecessor.
Donald Trump’s legacy contains a bevy of despicable behaviors, but one of which is being a racist slumlord, so the irony of a Black man, one superior to him in every imaginable way, living rent-free in his head of depleted follicles is not lost on us.
Former President Barack Obama is making it clear that he finds Donald Trump’s continued fixation on him more puzzling than flattering. During a wide-ranging appearance on the popular All the Smoke podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Obama addressed Trump’s frequent references to him and his family nearly a decade after he left the White House.
The discussion began when Barnes noted that Trump, whom he referred to as the leader of the current administration, continues to bring up Obama on a regular basis. Barnes asked how Obama has managed to maintain his composure while facing years of criticism, attacks, and what he described as negativity and racism.
“The thing about it is, look, you’ve gotta ask him what it is…the obsession. I obviously have a room in his head. A suite in his head.”
The 44th POTUS continued:
“First of all, when I was president, the last thing I had time to do was worry about what somebody said or my predecessor did. They’re gone. I’ve got work to do.
“The idea that I’d be worrying about somebody who came before and me trying to measure like, ‘What’s he done today?’ Constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who is not focused on the American people and the job they’re supposed to do.”
President Obama’s comments come amid a long-running feud between the two men that stretches back to Trump’s promotion of the offensively false “birther” conspiracy theory questioning Obama’s citizenship. The tension has continued throughout Trump’s political career, with the president repeatedly criticizing Obama’s record while also targeting the former first family in public remarks and social media posts.
Obama’s latest response was notable not because it was angry, but because it treated Trump’s fixation as something almost inexplicable. Rather than trading insults, he framed it as evidence that a president’s attention should be directed toward the nation’s problems, the citizens’ problems, instead of a predecessor who left office years ago. Isn’t that putting “America first”?
