Trump says he likes and respects Obama: ‘He’s a nice gentleman’

[mystery-ak]

 Trump says he likes and respects Obama: ‘He’s a nice gentleman’
by Lauren Sforza - 08/21/24 7:52 AM ET

Former President Trump offered rare praise of his White House predecessor Tuesday, calling former President Obama a “nice gentleman” before his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes asked Trump for a “prebuttal” of Obama’s remarks to Democrats Tuesday before he was set to take the stage to his own rally in Michigan. Instead of hammering home his typical attacks of Obama, the former president told CNN that he liked and respected him, while also criticizing his trade policies.

“I like him. I think he’s a nice gentleman, but he was very, very weak on trade,” he said. “If you take a look at what happened to our country, trade wise, it was a disaster.”

“Take a look at Japan. Take a look at China,” Trump told Holmes. “Take a look at what happened with some of these countries, what they did.”

The GOP nominee added, “But I happen to like him. I respect him and I respect his wife.”

The former president’s comments showed a stark contrast to his usual insults thrown at Obama. Trump was one of the stronger promoters of the “birther” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Obama was not born in the United States.

His comments also came before former first lady Michelle Obama delivered her remarks in Chicago. The former first lady ripped into the GOP presidential hopeful throughout her speech, but her loudest applause came from referencing Trump’s “Black jobs” comment.

“By the way — Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those “Black jobs?’” the former first lady said as the crowd burst into applause.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4838707-donald-trump-barack-obama-kind-words-2024-dnc/

[Smokin Joe]

Obama ran for Senate as a Kenyan...
You can't have both.
Which time was he lying?

[Maj. Bill Martin]

This is smart Trump.  We need to see more of this.  By not lashing out at a popular former President, he makes himself look more reasonable and under control.  And that is true regardless of how bad a President we think Obama was.

Democrats count on Trump blowing up when he's attacked, and they then capitalize politically on his reactions.  By not doing what they are hoping for, he essentially pulls the chair out from under them as they smugly try to take their seats.

It's a very clever tactic at this point in the campaign.  And before anyone says that not punching back is a sign of weakness, Trump has clearly already established that he's not afraid to punch back verbally at anyone.  Nobody is going to accuse him of being a pushover.  So in that context, him going easy on Obama is pretty brilliant.