Donald Trump can only dream of attaining levels of popularity as high as those enjoyed by his predecessor Barack Obama. The belligerent businessman’s years-long campaign to try and prove Obama was not born in the United States was far from enough to drag him down, and Obama left office with an approval rating nearly 20 percent higher than Trump’s current dismal approval rating.
Obama didn’t become so popular for nothing. During his time in office, he worked tirelessly on behalf of the interests of all Americans, not just the corporate execs that Trump seems so fond of favoring.
In that light, on Monday, he took to Twitter with his first social media message of 2018 in light of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
He didn’t specifically call out his successor in his message, but he did slant his words to make them clearly relevant for the present day.
He wrote:
‘Dr. King was 26 when the Montgomery bus boycott began. He started small, rallying others who believed their efforts mattered, pressing on through challenges and doubts to change our world for the better. A permanent inspiration for the rest of us to keep pushing towards justice.’
It’s deeply ironic for a message simply advocating for pro-justice activism to have anti-Trump implications. The sitting U.S. president has set himself up that dramatically in opposition to law and order — which is far from a good look for the United States.
His moves to that effect have ranged from such dramatic steps as his abrupt decision to fire the FBI Director to his incessant incendiary tweets to his various policy steps that have proven more than difficult for the Trump administration to defend in court.
Among these items were the president’s abrupt decision to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces — a decision effectively overturned in court — and, of course, Trump’s repeated efforts to keep the inhabitants of Muslim majority countries out of the U.S.
Trump has also proven insensitive to racial issues, infamously dismissing NFL players’ peaceful demonstrations on behalf of African Americans as the actions of “sons of bitches” who should be fired.
Thus, Obama’s pro-justice comments are effectively anti-Trump, and that’s not even where the examples of this discrepancy between the current president and justice end.
For example, just last Thursday, Trump was credibly alleged to have called nations including El Salvador, Haiti, and some African countries “shithole countries” in a report he eventually halfheartedly denied.
Last week, the day after reports about his alleged “shithole countries” remarks came out, Trump signed the official proclamation making this Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day and he couldn’t, of course, be bothered to post any specific personal message about the holiday as of the time that Obama posted his message.
The only message about the holiday that Trump did post was a public relations style video clip of his remarks from last Friday’s signing.
Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King’s life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
No “official” tweet from the president will do away with the fact that he simply does not exhibit the same kind of personal care for justice that Martin Luther King Jr. did.
Check out replies to Obama below.
Featured Image via Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images