Obama stumps Trump
Idowu Omoyele’s comment piece, “Vile stain of racism taints the US” (January 2 2018), struck a chord with me especially because we are about to mark a year of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The first year of the Trump presidency has been characterised by his inscrutability. I believe he has been practising deception, as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War recommends: “If you are strong appear weak.” He may appear to be a provocateur but perhaps he is a pacifist. On the campaign trail he posed as an outsider but may actually be, innately, an insider.
The other characteristic is his systematic assault on former president Barack Obama’s legacy — Obamacare, the Paris agreement on climate and so on. I suppose, in ushering in a successor, the predecessor has to be rubbished. Yet Trump’s denigration of Obama is unending and unprecedented when compared with previous presidencies. Trump’s unveiled and unobjective dislike of Obama is almost an obsession.
I think that, given the US’s racial tensions, Trump can’t give credit where it is due, believing black excellence is an oxymoron. He might not want to admit it but he is having nightmares unstitching some of the beautiful policy tapestries woven by a black president.
There comes a time when the incumbent must have a “stop order” (cut losses and lock in profits) against the past and focus on the future — building his own legacy (let profits run). Surely Trump can’t build his legacy on the ruins of his predecessor’s legacy? The irrational quest to erase Obama from the history books betrays his lack of originality. Perhaps Trump should rather invest his time, power and energy in brainstorming creative ideas on how to make the US great again rather than relentlessly attacking Obama’s legacy.