For almost four years Barack Obama pulled his punches with Donald Trump. No longer. Instead he has eviscerated Trump on the national stage like no former president has ever done to his successor.
Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention was as brutal and as cutting as anything he has delivered in his career, hitting Trump squarely between the eyes on issues of character, record and legacy.
‘Trump hasn’t grown because he can’t’
When can you last recall a former president speaking like this about his successor: “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before”.
And on issues of character Obama accused Trump of never taking the job seriously or understanding the weight of the office. “He’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves”.
Breaking unspoken rules
In giving this remarkable speech, Obama has broken the unspoken rule that former presidents are respectful when speaking about their successors and predecessors regardless of their political differences. But then Trump broke that tradition on day one and has spent much of the last four years accusing Obama of leading “the most incompetent and corrupt administration in US history”.
And then there was “Obamagate’ where Trump has accused Obama of overseeing attempts to undermine his incoming administration in January 2017 over the Russia investigation. “It the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA,” says Trump.
The two have long shared a mutual disdain for each other that transcends politics, from Trump’s role in the birther movement to Obama’s humiliation of Trump at the 2011 White House correspondents dinner.
As president Trump has tried to dismantle what Obama saw as his greatest legacies from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord. This is no surprise, it is what Trump promised voters he would do. “I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies,” Obama said in his speech.
“(But) I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2020
Part of Trump’s everlasting fury towards John McCain is because the late Republican senator’s vote prevented Trump from achieving his election promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.
Since Obama left office, he has thrown the occasional minor jab at Trump but mostly kept silent rather than enter the political fray. With this speech Obama has let loose and signalled he intends to play a central role in the campaign rather than merely help Joe Biden from the sidelines.
With the notable exception of Trump the surviving US presidents all get on well regardless of their party. But when it comes to Obama and Trump their dislike of the other is palpable, deeply personal and getting stronger. Indeed it is hard to imagine two leaders with such different personalities, styles and visions for America.
Now the gloves are well and truly off. Obama’s bold speech was just the beginning of a new phase of hostility between these two presidential opposites.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)
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