Barack Obama was back in the spotlight on Tuesday night with a speech at the Democratic National Convention that lit up the Internet when many believed he had made a crude joke about Donald Trump.
The 44th president delivered what sounded less like a speech in support of Kamala Harris and more like a childish dig at Trump when he laughed at his successor’s “bizarre obsession with crowd sizes.”
Obama began making hand motions, from large to small, before looking down and realizing what he was doing as the partisan liberal crowd roared in approval.
As one commentator on social media noted: “This is no longer the ‘When they go low, we go high’ party.”
Conservative commentator Todd Starnes called Obama “weird” and “creepy” for weighing “the size of President Trump’s private parts.”
Barack Obama was back in the spotlight Tuesday night with a speech at the Democratic National Convention that lit up the Internet when many believed he had made a crude joke about Donald Trump.
Another account X mocked Michelle Obama’s famous line, “when they fall low, we fall high,” saying that eight years later, the Democratic platform was “Trump has a small penis.”
“They’re leading a strange life at these conventions,” added another user, frustrated with both sides.
Conservative influencer Benny Johnson responded by mocking Obama’s party for inviting Lil Jon, saying “Democrats have to bring rappers to their events to fill seats.”
“We all knew what that hand gesture meant @BarackObama,” former CNN anchor Don Lemon posted, interpreting the comment in a more suggestive way.
Others praised Obama for the crude joke, with one person saying “Barack Obama’s joke about crowd size might be the biggest joke in political history.”
Obama apparently hadn’t heard a rare moment of kindness from Trump before his predecessor’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.
Trump was asked what he thought of the 44th president and longtime nemesis, but while he criticized Obama’s trade policies, Trump spoke highly of his character.
“I like him, I think he’s a good gentleman, but he was very, very weak on trade; if you look at what happened to our country in terms of trade, it was a disaster.”
Obama apparently hadn’t heard a rare moment of kindness from Trump before his predecessor’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.
Trump cited Obama’s relations with China and Japan as a major failing of his presidency, but had some praise for the former president and his wife Michelle, who also spoke Tuesday.
“I happen to like him. I respect him and I respect his wife,” Trump told CNN.
Before Trump’s positive comments against Obama on Saturday, he spent several years feuding with the former president.
Trump, while still a private citizen, spent years promoting the theory that Obama was not born in the United States and therefore ineligible to serve as president.
After becoming a politician, Trump claimed that Obama was the “founder of ISIS” and “one of the worst presidents in American history.”
Despite a difficult election season in 2016, Obama wrote Trump a letter on Inauguration Day and left it in a drawer in the Oval Office. Trump said at the time that it was “beautiful.”
Obama dusted off his message of “hope” and “change” to ignite the Democratic convention and repeated some of the taunts he has used against Donald Trump for years.
The first black president introduced another candidate with a “funny name,” before comparing Donald Trump to an annoying neighbor while promoting Kamala Harris as his new successor.
Despite a difficult election season in 2016, Obama wrote Trump a letter on Inauguration Day and left it in a drawer in the Oval Office. Trump said at the time that it was “beautiful.”
At a convention that has seen numerous speeches against Trump for his policies and videos released alternating between ridiculing him and calling him a grave threat, Obama said: “We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos. We’ve seen that movie and we all know the sequel is usually worse,” Obama said to applause.
The former president put a twist on his 2008 campaign slogan and a stamp of approval on Harris and her outlook.
Barack and Michelle Obama headlined the second night of the Democratic convention in Chicago, which also included Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders.
Trump is preparing to debate Kamala Harris for the first time on September 10 in Philadelphia.