Ex-RNC chair slams Trump for 'dangerous Obama obsession' that’s going from bad to worse

24 July

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele on September 7, 2024 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)

Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said Trump has been obsessed and jealous of former president Barack Obama since 2008.

On Thursday, Steele said Trump again showed “his lack of class” when he reposted AI generated footage depicting former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. Steele said the video serves to distract the nation from Trump’s “past associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”

But why make Obama a target when there are so many people on Trump’s perceived enemies list, asks Steele.

“The AI-generated video was a projection of everything Trump fears and envies about his predecessor: Obama’s grace, intellect, global stature and, most of all, the fact that Obama’s very presence in the White House redefined what power could look like in America,” said Steele.

“It’s clear that Obama has been living in Trump’s head rent-free for the last two decades,” said Steele, arguing that some believe Trump first ran for president because Obama ribbed him at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. Steele points out that Trump has mistakenly called Biden “Obama” at campaigns stops. He even once claimed he beat Obama in 2016. Not to mention that time Trump boasted to be in better health than Obama, Steele said.

“Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize? Trump spends years obsessing about winning it himself,” said Steele. “Obama passes a historic health care law? Trump makes it his top priority to overturn it. Trump is convicted on 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers? He posts a deepfake of Obama being arrested. … From global popularity and eloquence to the respect he commands from world leaders and celebrities, Obama is a lasting reminder of everything Trump wishes he could be.”

The video also suggests Trump is worried “the walls may be closing in,” Steele added. “Facing a debacle over the Epstein files, Trump is throwing red meat at his base, falsely claiming that Obama may have falsified the records, even though they date back to 2019, long after he left office.”

But Trump is doing more than sharing a meme and throwing red balls to distract the public, said Steele. He’s also following the “authoritarian playbook by normalizing … the concept of a president imprisoning his predecessor.”

“Retribution is vindication; and vindication is at the heart of Trump’s dangerous Obama obsession,” he said.

Read the full MSNBC report at this link.

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