Obama Criticizes Trump for the ‘Makeshift Administration’ Dealing with the Coronavirus

The former president of the United States attended a graduation ceremony for African American students, stating that “the pandemic has raised the curtain on what those in charge are doing.”

With only three lines in a four-page speech, Barack Obama tried to dismantle how Donald Trump’s administration has managed the COVID-19 crisis. “The pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they are doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

In other words, Obama is referring to the haste in their decision-making and the sloppy judgments that were made, but without mentioning Trump. However, this is not the first time he has criticized the White House in this way. He said around a week ago that the situation was “an absolute chaotic disaster.”

His Speech to Recent Graduates

On Saturday, May 16, Obama attended a graduation ceremony for students attending historically black colleges and universities, a network of established universities used to promote the integration of African Americans. The entire ceremony was carried out virtually, with people tuning in remotely. Obama began talking about the socioeconomic status of black people. He underlined how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected black communities, particularly among the poorest and those most exposed to disease, on average. He addressed the institutional racism that still flourishes within society, as well as referring to the case of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery (without mentioning his name), who was killed while out jogging in the residential area of Brunswick, Georgia. However, he then went on to reassure the new graduates: “[T]hese aren’t normal times. You are being asked to find your way in a world in the middle of a devastating pandemic and a terrible recession … Injustice like this isn’t new. What is new is that your generation has woken up to the fact that the status quo needs fixing; that the old ways of doing things don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and democracy only works when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.”

A Lesson about Freedom

It’s also vital that people within the African American community do not shut themselves away from society. Here, Obama appears to provide some guidance on constructing the broadest social bloc possible, in which we can establish a set of progressive aspirations to guide the nation. “So rather than say what’s in it for me or what’s in it for my community and to heck with everyone else, stand up for and join up with everyone who’s struggling – whether immigrants, refugees, the rural poor, the LGBTQ community, low-income workers of every background, women who so often are subject to their own discrimination and burdens and not getting equal pay for equal work; look out for folks whether they are white or black or Asian or Latino or Native American. As Fannie Lou Hamer (Democratic leader in the 1970s, ed.) once said, ‘nobody’s free until everybody’s free.’”

Reality beyond the Network

At the end came a comment on the “approach,” which was interesting because it came from a political leader who created part of his electoral success through online campaigns: “[M]ake sure you ground yourself in actual communities with real people – working at the grassroots level. The fight for equality and justice begins with awareness, empathy, passion, even righteous anger. Don’t just activate yourself online.”