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Donald Trump praised his predecessor in a rare remark hours before Barack Obama took the stage at the Democratic National Convention.
The Republican nominee claimed he “respected” Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, despite the fact that he has spent years bashing his predecessor and proliferating false claims about him, including questioning whether Obama was a US citizen, alleging he ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower, and even claiming he founded ISIS.
But hours before Obama headlined the second night of the DNC, Trump offered rare praise for him.
“I like him. I think he’s a nice gentleman,” Trump told CNN on Tuesday. He criticized some of Obama’s trade policies before adding, “But I happen to like him. I respect him and I respect his wife.”
The Obamas did not return the favor.
In his speech, Barack Obama told the crowd that Trump is only concerned about his own wellbeing, not America’s.
The GOP nominee is a “78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” the former president said.
Trump’s “act has gotten pretty stale,” Obama continued. “We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos. We’ve seen that movie – and we all know that the sequel’s usually worse.”
In a moment that has since sent social media users into a frenzy, Obama seemed to be making a reference to male reproductive organs using hand gestures while talking about Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes.” The Republican nominee has been dubbed “small hands” in past years, also apparently referring to his anatomy.
Former first lady Michelle Obama spoke before her husband. In her speech, she called Trump a misogynist and racist, criticized his divisive rhetoric, and blasted his stances on health care and reproductive freedoms.
At one point, she used Trump’s own words against him. Referring to Trump’s now-infamous comment from June about so-called “Black jobs”, the former first lady warned him that the role of commander-in-chief might just be one of them.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” she told the crowd.
