President Trump did not attend the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago — he wasn’t invited. But his presence was felt in the speeches by former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago has officially opened to the public. All four living former presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Joe Biden and, of course, Barack Obama – were at the opening ceremonies this week. The one who wasn’t – and was not invited – is the current president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith joins us now to talk about the relationship between Obama and Trump. Tam, thanks so much for being with us.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good to be with you.
SIMON: Should we even call it a relationship?
KEITH: Well, if it implies any regard between the two men, then we should not. There’s really no love lost between Obama and Trump, but their stories are inextricably linked. And that was certainly the subtext of this week’s Obama Center dedication ceremony.
SIMON: Well, how so?
KEITH: You know, Trump was never mentioned by name. But Obama’s criticisms of Trump and his approach to the presidency were clear in the way he talked about American ideals and the current state of the country. In his speech, Obama encouraged people to reject cynicism and division, or risk opening the door to the most ruthless among us.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARACK OBAMA: Who see some groups and some people as more equal than others and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies.
KEITH: It sure sounds like he’s describing the second Trump term there. Obama’s case, which he has been pitching all along, is that this isn’t what America was created to be.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: People aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut, we want to find a way to turn towards each other again, not further away.
KEITH: The Obama Presidential Museum and that event dedicating the Obama Center this week were like a blast from the past, as if the past 10 years of a Trump-dominated political discourse had never happened.
SIMON: But, of course, it has, and Donald Trump is president now. How does he talk about Barack Obama?
KEITH: You know, it’s actually remarkable how much Trump talks about the former president. This week at his press conference at the G7, Trump referred to Obama eight times. And he brought him up in meetings with other world leaders.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama, and they said he’s a stupid son of a b****.
KEITH: This isn’t a new phenomenon. Trump regularly brings up Obama completely unprompted, like at this Cabinet meeting in late March.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: And I’ll tell you about President Obama – he wasn’t a smart man either. I know all about him. He wasn’t a smart man – highly overrated. He was a great divider.
KEITH: And he recently posted an AI-produced image of the Obama Center depicting the museum tower as a giant trash can.
SIMON: Course, that’s a lot more specific than what former President Obama said in his remarks. You have covered both administrations, Tam. How do you view this whatever we’re calling it, if not a relationship?
KEITH: These men are polar opposites in their approach, in their view of the country and what makes it great. Trump’s hatred of Obama is visceral. But there’s an argument that without a President Obama, there wouldn’t have been a President Trump. Trump rose to political prominence as a peddler of the racist theory that Obama wasn’t born in America, as he toyed with on “The View” in 2011.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “THE VIEW”)
TRUMP: I want him to show his birth certificate. I want him to show his…
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Why?
TRUMP: …Birth certificate.
BARBARA WALTERS: Wow.
TRUMP: There’s something…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK.
TRUMP: …On that…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Why not, I guess.
TRUMP: …Birth certificate that he doesn’t like.
GOLDBERG: Oh, my God.
WALTERS: Oh, that’s a terrible…
GOLDBERG: That is just a…
WALTERS: …Thing to say.
KEITH: And now Obama’s legacy really depends in part on whether Trump is a real reflection of the soul of America, the start of a trend, or whether he’s an aberration, which became harder to argue after he was elected a second time. Obama said he wants his presidential center to inspire people to believe that change is possible again. But it’s hard not to look at the timeline of the Obama administration’s accomplishments on a wall in the museum and see all the things that Trump has reversed. CNN has a new poll asking which presidents Americans view favorably, and Obama’s favorability is 57%. Trump’s is at 33% – a low for his presidency. History hasn’t issued the final verdict here. But in this moment, an unpopular president is raging against his vastly more popular predecessor.
SIMON: NPR’s Tamara Keith. Thanks so much.
KEITH: You’re welcome.
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