When Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016, then-President Barack Obama hosted him remarkably in his oval office, following a tradition of keeping aside partisan differences for the greater good of the country.
It was only eight years ago, but that moment seems like a completely different era.
Earlier this week, Trump posted an AI-generated video on social media, based on footage from that meeting showing the former president being forced into detention by the FBI and then paced within the prison cell.
Trump once again demonstrated his lack of rank and politeness by his descent use of footage from that meeting.
Trump once again showed his rank and lack of worship by describing footage from that meeting to create an authoritarian threat to divert the country from questions about past associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But Trump has plenty of presidential targets to attack. He lost to Joe Biden and rebutted George W. Bush. He raised questions about Bill Clinton's past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
So why Obama? I think we all know the answer.
The video generated by AI was all the predictions Trump feared about his predecessor: Obama's grace, intelligence, global height, and, more than anything, the fact that Obama's presence in the White House has redefine what it looks like in America.
It is clear that Obama has lived a life without the rent for Trump's head for the past 20 years. Some think he ran for the president first, as Obama made fun of him at a White House Correspondents Association dinner. He even said he defeated Obama in 2016 was called Biden multiple times by Obama's name during the campaign.
Has Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? Trump has spent years obsessed with winning himself. Will Obama pass historic healthcare laws? Trump makes it his number one priority.
Has Trump been convicted of 34 felony numbers by his fellow ju-death judges? He posts a deepfake of Obama who has been arrested.
From global popularity and eloquence to the respect he commands from world leaders and celebrities, Obama is a permanent reminder of everything Trump wants.
The video is gross, but it also suggests that Trump is worried that the wall will close. Faced with catastrophe against Epstein's files, Trump has been throwing red meat at his base, falsely claiming that Obama may have falsified records for a long time since he left office.
Trump's political career came from Obama's hatred.
Trump's political career came from Obama's hatred. It was birthism that gave him his base, and the lie that Obama was foreign, non-American and didn't want a presidency. Now, as the Epstein scandal escalates, Trump is reaching for the same playbook.
In a way, the Trump era has only just been a long backlash against Obama.
However, there are serious undertones.
Trump doesn't just share memes. He is drawn from an authoritarian playbook by normalizing and even celebrating the concept of a president who incarcerates his predecessor. Especially when its predecessor was Barack Obama. Retribution is proof. And the evidence lies at the heart of Trump's dangerous Obama obsession.
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