Conservatives have long theorized that Joe Biden is an incapacitated figurehead under the influence of a shadowy cabal that actually controls the White House. But Monday, Donald Trump cosigned this unfounded hypothesis with another spin: that Barack Obama is somehow calling the shots. “You’ve been ripped off by everybody and betrayed by the corrupt globalists, Washington, Wall Street people, those combinations of Washington, Wall Street, they’re the worst of all,” Trump said at a New Hampshire event. “And it’s never been worse than it is now under crooked Joe Biden, and frankly, his boss, Barack Hussein Obama. I think it’s his boss.”
His emphasis on “Hussein” is noteworthy: Obama’s middle name has become a dog whistle that conservatives have repeatedly used to frame the former president as un-American or a closeted Muslim. After all, a key aspect of Trump’s political rise was his promotion of the “birther movement,” which falsely alleged that Obama was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii, thus making him constitutionally ineligible to run for or serve as president.
As for Obama’s post–White House life, the truth is far more boring than what conspiracists on the right have alleged. He has spent the past five years working as a podcaster, Netflix producer, and nature documentary narrator, while occasionally offering support to Biden and other public officials. The two men have only appeared together a handful of times since Biden’s inauguration.
Nonetheless, Trump is insistent that Biden is nothing more than Obama’s puppet. “This is obliteration, and Obama has plenty to do with it,” Trump said on Monday, according to NBC News, alluding to his belief that another global conflict—like those in Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza—could soon erupt. “Obama has plenty to deal with. I call him, I call him Biden’s boss.”
Earlier this month, per NBC News, Trump told a crowd in Iowa that Biden isn’t “smart enough to be doing this stuff,” adding that “it’s the people that are surrounding him” who, supposedly, are actually steering the nation. He also described Biden as “cognitively impaired” during a speech in Washington last month, in which he seemingly confused Biden with Obama and warned that the president could trigger “World War II.” (The looming event Trump was grasping for was World War III—not the war that concluded nearly eight decades ago.) “We have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country, who is cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead, and is now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war,” Trump continued.
At 80, Biden is already the oldest president in history. While the majority of Republicans and Democrats are concerned about his age—particularly in the context of his reelection bid—the White House has repeatedly dismissed claims that Biden is incapable of leading the country. “Look, here’s what I know, here’s what I can speak to. I can speak to that—a president who has wisdom,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last month in response to a question on whether Biden’s staff treats him with kid gloves. “I can speak to a president who has experience. I can speak to a president who has taken historic action and has delivered historic pieces of legislation.”
Caleb Ecarma
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