Obama and Trump, a History of Animosity

If someone desires to define the relationship between President Barack Obama and the real estate businessman [and] Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, they would be [being] nice if they describe it as bad.

In reality, it is an intensely personal fight, and no one is sure how deep it is.

Trump flirted for more than 12 years with the idea of seeking a presidential nomination, Republican or Democratic, without ever managing to achieve anything that was not news headlines and reports on radio and television programs.

[This is] nothing out of the ordinary for someone like him. Well, [it is nothing out of the ordinary] even for audiences of “The Apprentice,” where a group of people supposedly learned to be businessmen and where he made the phrase “You’re fired” famous.

Trump is a media personality, and much of his fame and earnings are due, precisely, to that: [his] presence in the media and the fact that in New York, there is a center of world attention that favors him, even still today.

And in this context, one day, he decided to adopt the idea that Obama was not American, echoing the right-wing core that claimed the president was not born in U.S. territory.

Trump went so far as to offer an $1 million reward for whoever could prove that the president was not American by birth, and incidentally, Muslim.

Partly due to that campaign, Obama was forced to present his Hawaiian birth certificate, even though that did not put an end to the speculations.

However, almost five years ago, during the traditional White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner, before the White House, President Obama dedicated a good portion of his speech to making fun of Trump, who was in the audience.

Amid laughter in the audience, Obama said that he would present a video of his birth, and in fact, he showed a part from the film “The Lion King.” Trump did not appear amused.

And since then, the animosity between the two seems to be within the limits of civility.

Last week [on Feb. 16], President Obama stated, “I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people, and I think they recognize that being president is a serious job. It’s not hosting a talk show or a reality show. It’s not promotion. It’s not marketing. It’s hard.”

To some extent, there is a reason for the disagreement. It is not just personal, although, as such, it can be considered that Obama is a politician of depth, and Trump is as superficial as he is brilliant for propaganda.

Perhaps Obama is right. To some extent, he can strengthen his confidence with statements, supported in the polls, that Trump has a high floor, around one-third of Republicans, but a low roof — his approval among other groups is not so big.

But with everything, for better or for worse, today Trump seems a more capable politician than the professionals that are vying for the presidential nomination.