It’s not a thought Donald Trump would ever say out loud; perhaps he has never consciously concluded that he’s jealous of Barack Obama. But he is. Donald has never been comfortable in his own skin. He is constantly surrounded by people who pretend to adore him, some with no qualification other than the ability to provide a Diet Coke or McDonalds Big Mac and a vanilla shake.
When Trump finds someone he views as a competitor, he has two go-to moves. He tries to degrade them with insults or elevate himself, usually with fake praise. Think of the times he’s falsely claimed he was Man of the Year or provided a publication with inflated stats about his income or business success. Trump once called People magazine, using the name John Miller, to brag about his prowess with women and how desirable he was.
Barack Obama got on Trump’s radar during his first run for president in 2008. Obama was experiencing record crowds not only in America but also in Europe. In October 2008, Obama got his largest crowd in the United States when 100,000 attended a rally in St. Louis. Obama drew 200,000 in Berlin that year, though the overwhelming majority were not voters. It needs to be said that Trump never had crowds that large. Do we really need to show pictures of their respective first inaugurations side by side?
Maybe it was Trump’s fascination with crowd size that gave Trump the impetus to join the birther movement to lie about Barack Obama’s birth certificate and ancestry. We need to make the media complicit in aiding Trump, giving him a venue to stay in the news with new and greater lies about Obama and reporting what his investigators were finding in Hawaii.
“I have people that have been studying Obama’s birth certificate," said Trump in April of 2011. "They cannot believe what they’re finding … I would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be honest with you? I hope he can. Because if he can’t, if he can’t, if he wasn’t born in this country, which is a real possibility … then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics.
"He doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him," said Trump the month prior. "Now, somebody told me — and I have no idea if this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be — that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’ And if you’re a Muslim, you don’t change your religion, by the way.”
Donald was working hard to lessen the Black man who was the leader of the free world and far more popular than the main villain of The Apprentice. Trump never passed a camera without making outrageous claims about President Obama, then the day came that changed the narrative and pushed Trump into a serious run for the White House.
April 27, 2011, was the day of the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, during which Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump for five minutes while Trump sat and stewed, plotting revenge. The laughs at Trump’s expense did one thing: it made Trump determined to win the presidency. Who knew the backlash to America’s first Black president would make that possible?
Obama is everything that Trump will never be. Trump is arguably taller, but his permanent slouch removes the 1-inch advantage he might have had.
An op-ed submission to the Los Angeles Times said in two paragraphs what I might have taken two pages to say:
“The former president is everything that Trump would love to be but is not," wrote writer Liselotte Millauer. "Obama is a brilliant intellectual, highly literate, athletic and a gifted politician and leader with an intense dedication and compassion for the country and the American people.
"Politically, the former president is beloved and deeply respected all over the world, especially among our allies in Europe. With Obama, the U.S. would never have become the confused shipwreck without any compass that it is now with Trump.”
Once Trump became President, he spent whatever time he had after fighting off two impeachments, trying to undo everything Barack Obama had accomplished in office. He ran out of time after dozens of failed attempts to kill the bill. Barack Obama has a lasting achievement. Trump had multiple Infrastructure Week’s during which he accomplished nothing.
In 2024, Trump often forgets who he’s running against, much as he did in 2016. Trump went on a social media rampage after the Democratic National Convention when Obama mocked Trump mercilessly, as did his wife, Michelle, before him. Even Melania lost in the comparisons to Michelle Obama after it was learned that Melania had plagiarized one of Michelle’s speeches.
Barack Obama is slim whereas Trump has been obese much of the last two decades. Obama has a full head of hair, while Trump is paying his stylists overtime to cover the bald spots. Obama is an eloquent speaker. Trump might lose his place in the teleprompter and force an audience to watch him sway to music for 39 minutes.
When it’s time for Barack Obama to go, he will be given all the honors normally bestowed on a former president. Dignitaries will come from around the world, speaking his praises. Who will come to Donald Trump’s funeral?
The final thing Barack Obama has that Donald Trump does not is joy. Obama had a radiant smile, and Trump is surrounded by darkness and dark people (not African Americans, to be clear.). People will miss Barack Obama when he’s not around. Can anyone — even Rudi Guliani —say the same of Donald Trump?
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.