Donald Trump arrives with Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., January 20, 2017 (Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos/Wikimedia Commons)
On Thursday, June 18, media coverage in the United States was dominated by President Donald Trump's Iran ceasefire deal and the opening celebration of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Journalist Jill Lawrence, writing for the conservative website The Bulwark, argues that between the two, Trump's "Obama envy" has been inescapable.
The Chicago event featured a long list of major musicians, including Bruce Springsteen,
U2 leader Bono, John Legend, rapper Common, Christina Aguilera (who performed the Louis Armsrong-associated "What a Wonderful World"), Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, and Stevie Wonder — who, now 76, sang favorites like "Higher Ground" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours." All the focus on former President Obama infuriated Trump, who, Lawrence observes, has been mentioning him repeatedly.
"Whether by fate, a devious Iranian conspiracy or a major miscalculation by Donald Trump, the U.S. surrender in his failed 112-day 'excursion' is coinciding with the triumphal opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago," Lawrence explains. "The split-screen contrast is telling, from Iran to presidential libraries. Trump's 'memorandum of understanding' to end his doomed war of choice on Iran does not fare well compared with the 2015 Obama deal that was constraining Iran's nuclear program when Trump tossed it out in 2018."
Lawrence emphasizes that "Trump's Obama envy" has "been an enduring psychopolitical feature of the national landscape for what seems like forever."
"He mentioned Obama's name nearly two dozen times during the three-day G7 Summit, by the New York Times' count, and repeatedly insisted that his deal was better than Obama's, despite glaring evidence to the contrary," Lawrence observes. "Cartoonist Patrick Chappatte nailed the dynamic eight years ago. 'What was so bad in that Iran deal?' asks an annoyed European Union representative. Trump's reply: 'Obama's signature.' Trump's preoccupation with his predecessor has long centered on challenging Obama's citizenship and his eligibility to even be president."
Lawrence continues, "He started raising questions about Obama's birth certificate in early 2011, and his promotion of this 'birther' conspiracy theory escalated after a famous incident that year at a White House Correspondents Dinner. It was Saturday night, April 30, at the Washington Hilton."
The "birther" claim that Obama wasn't really born in the U.S. is easily disproved, as his birth certificate clearly states that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961.
"Obama released a long-form copy of his birth certificate in 2016, and Trump, as president in 2017, speculated that it had been faked," Lawrence notes. "He has moved on to much grander conspiracies and lies since then, topped by his imaginary win in 2020. But he has never stopped trying to top Obama."