Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with leaders at the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago to discuss strategies for community organization, April 24, 2017. (Shutterstock)
By Dean Obeidallah, MSN
Obama is right. Trump’s daily antics are exhausting. We went from “No Drama Obama” to “Drama King Donald.” Not sure about you, but Trump is aging me. The four years of his presidency have probably taken eight years off my life! My blood pressure is higher than Trump’s now and ironically Trump is to blame for it. (Or at least partly!)
How many friends do you not speak to now because of fights prompted by Trump’s behavior? How many times has a conversation over the past four years began with the words, “You are not going to believe what he just tweeted?” with no need to explain who the “he” is in that sentence.
This isn’t because Trump is a Republican. During President George W. Bush’s presidency, I can recall numerous policy disputes with friends on issues — yet they are still friends. But with Trump, it’s far different. With Trump it feels personal — and in many cases it is.
Trump has caused real pain to countless communities — from his comments calling Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate” in the midst of people demanding justice for George Floyd, to his horrific family separation policy at the border that resulted in children being ripped from the hands of their parents. The list goes on and on.
Trump has also, apparently by design, continually pitted Americans against each other. For example, at Thursday’s presidential debate, Trump even justified his criticism of the stimulus bill passed by the House Democrats to help Americans in need by saying it’s a “bailout of badly run, high-crime, Democrat… cities and states.” In response, Biden slammed Trump saying, “I don’t see red states and blue states. What I see is American, United States.” It comes as zero surprise that a recent CNN poll found that on the issue of which of the two candidates can best unite the country, 61% of likely voters said Biden while only 33% said Trump.
Obama’s criticism of Trump on policy was spot on. And there’s something soothing about the former President’s comment that electing Biden would mean ending the Trump drama and “just having a normal president.” While “normal” isn’t always exciting, after what we’ve been through with Trump over the past four years, “normal” is exactly what our nation needs now.