Donald Trump Upset That He Isn’t As Respected As Barack Obama, Pundits Claim

President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, over the past week, and at least one critic says that part of the reason for this it that Trump is jealous of Obama’s seeming popularity.

According to a report from The Guardian, former Republican communications director — and current CNN analyst — Tara Setmayer claimed that there are several reasons for the president’s attacks against Obama. First, she said, he “always needs a foil.”

“This riles up his base” so that they have someone else to blame, she said, indicating that Obama is the target right now.

Trump may have gone after the former president due to racist sentiment, per the CNN analyst.

“I think he has a problem with people of color who are in authority that don’t do the kind of song and dance that he wants them to do.”

But the other issue that reportedly upsets Trump, according to the president’s critics, is that Obama is respected.

The former director of the office of public affairs at the Justice Department, Matthew Miller, echoed these sentiments.

“There’s some racism there but, most of all, it’s driven by the fact that Obama has the thing that Trump has always craved but never achieved, and that’s respect. I’ve always thought that the respect that Barack Obama gets from people in this country and around the world is something that just eats Trump alive inside.”

Author and journalist Michael D’Antonio claimed that it seems as though Trump is always mentally comparing himself with Obama, per The Guardian report.

Trump has attacked Obama numerous times even before taking office, as he did during the so-called birther scandal. But his most recent conflict seems to have emerged after leaked audio revealed Obama slamming Trump, and his administration, for their response to the coronavirus crisis.

Since then, Trump has pushed the idea that Obama was involved in a conspiracy to frame Trump as having worked with Russia during the 2016 race for the Oval Office. While Trump hasn’t fully explained what he believes took place, the president has called for Lindsey Graham to compel Obama to testify before Congress to address what he is calling “Obamagate.”

While Graham shut the idea down — warning Trump that it would set a dangerous precedent to force a former president to testify — Miller says he worries that the justice department might go after people from the Obama administration in the days to come.