More of my criticism this year has been directed at Donald Trump than at Democrats, and this is because a) I’m more concerned about preserving conservatism, and b) I take it as a given that liberals are mostly wrong. But I think it’s worth noting that President Obama has more in common with Donald Trump than most people realize, and that they both deserve to be criticized for their inappropriate behavior.
Let’s take, for example, Mr. Obama’s comments about Donald Trump at the G-7 summit in Japan. Regarding how world leaders perceive Mr. Trump, the president said:
“They’re rattled by him and for good reason,” Obama said. “Because a lot of the proposals that he’s made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what is required to keep America safe.”
It is not appropriate — and certainly not diplomatic — for a sitting president of the United States to publicly say such things about the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, particularly while abroad. One could imagine that there’s even a chance it this could have ramifications if Trump becomes president. I mean, isn’t he in danger of rattling things, himself?
Wouldn’t President Obama, for the good of America, want world leaders to at least respect his successor? Is scoring domestic political point points against the other party more important than presenting a unified face to the world — even if he has to fake it? Apparently so.
It’s funny. You wouldn’t hear a football or baseball coach talk publicly about the other team like this. Granted, the stakes are higher in politics, but that only means our sensitivity to the power and implications of our rhetoric should be heightened. Sports, it seems, require a higher, more civilized (if fake), public relations standard.
This is not new behavior for the president. In fact, I would suggest that, in some ways, Mr. Obama created Donald Trump. In some ways, his own behavior and actions (see Obama’s executive overreach) have paved the way for Trump, inuring us to Trump’s behavior. In other ways, his presidency has made space for Mr. Trump by creating a backlash.
Don’t believe me? Remember how Obama blamed his predecessor for years after he became president? Remember his message to Republicans, “I won. Deal with it“? These are not the comments of a classy leader.
So why are we more jarred by Trump’s behavior? For one thing, he’s the 2.0 model. More than that, however, is the fact that Mr. Obama’s temperament and style betray his penchant for abandoning agreed-upon rules of decorum. Obama employs the shibboleths of sophistication that signal to the media he’s “one of us.” This belies his often inappropriate, braggadocios, and unchivalrous behavior.
Both men, it turns out, are thin skinned and egotistical. Both seem to have authoritarian tendencies and demonstrate little regard for separation of powers.
They may seem like opposites, but President Obama’s not all that different from Donald Trump.
