The Obamas made America laugh at Trump—that was worse for him than losing in 2020!

Trump wants to be feared, not laughed at

Laughter. That is something Donald Trump is no fan of. But he really, really hates it when people are laughing at him.

That has been one of the few constants with the pathetically thin-skinned Trump who over the years has angrily slammed (and even sued) comedians who mocked him. As a candidate in 2016, Trump demanded that Saturday Night Live be cancelled for ridiculing him. Worse, as President, Trump called on the FCC to investigate the iconic late night comedy show for causing people to laugh at him, saying SNL had waged a “hit job.” (I’m serious!)

This explains Trump becoming the first President of the modern era to skip the White House Correspondent’s Dinner all four years in office. Trump refused to sit there and be ridiculed. You see, Trump, like all dictators (or in his case, a wannabe dictator), hates being mocked. “Strongmen” leaders like Trump want and need to be feared to stay in power. The last thing they want is people laughing at them because it takes away their power.

That’s why what Michelle and Barack Obama did to Trump at Tuesday’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) was so deeply painful for the convicted felon. They made him the punchline of numerous barbs. In fact, it probably hurt more than losing the 2020 election given it aired on all the networks--even Fox News!

We—including adjudicated rapist Trump—expected the Obamas to criticize him. But it’s the comedic barbs that they delivered that are stinging Trump today.  

Let’s start with the always elegant Michelle Obama who began her speech by praising Kamala Harris with lines such as she has “shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others.”

But it was the comedic lines directed at Trump that cut to the quick with the biggest laugh line coming when Michelle referred to a comment Trump made in Chicago two weeks ago at the National Association of Black Journalists conference about undocumented migrants taking so-called “Black jobs.” That is when the former First Lady quipped, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he is currently seeking might be one of those Black jobs?”  Thunderous laughter and applause filled the United Center in response.

Michelle also drew a contrast between the privileged Trump and the rest of us noting, “If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win.” She added to uproarious laughs, “If we see a mountain in front of us we don’t expect there to be an escalator there to take us to the top.” (Of course, referring to Trump kicking off his 2016 campaign by taking the escalator down in his building to the ground floor.)

Then came Barack, who Michelle introduced as “the love of her life.”  The 44^th President of the United States landed even more comedic blows at Trump’s expense.  Some of the lines that elicited big laughs include, “We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos,” adding, “We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse.”

At one point Barack—again to big laughs—compared Donald to a “leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day.”

The former president then built to the biggest laugh of the night at Trump’s expense. He began with the line, “Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”  He continued, “It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he is afraid of losing to Kamala.” And then finally he delivered the final line together with a hand movement that broke the internet, “There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.”

What made that line so memorable—and even comically notorious—was that Barack delivered the crowd size line by mimicking Donald’s hand movements indicating bigger and smaller. (Like lying about the size of a fish you caught.) But as the internet and media outlets noted, it looked like Barack could’ve been mocking Trump’s penis size. (See image below)

We will never for certain, but the devilish look on Barack’s face made it clear that he enjoyed ridiculing the father of the racist birther movement.  Of course, Obama as President, destroyed Trump from a comedic point of view at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner—which is likely a big part of why Trump never returned to the event as President.

Trump despises being laughed at because he wants you to fear him. This point was actually part of the origin story for why Tim Walz labeled Trump and JD Vance “weird.”  The Minnesota Governor—before he was tapped to be Harris’s running mate—stated, "These guys are just weird. That's who they are.” He added, “a bully has no self-confidence, a bully has no strength.”  

Then Walz said these instructive lines, “The fascists depend on fear.” However, to undermine that desire for fear that Trump so desperately wanted to foster, Walz called him “weird,” explaining, “we're not afraid of weird people.” He added, “We're a little bit creeped out, but we're not afraid.”

Trump is already spinning out of control as his poll numbers drop faster than the price of his DJT media company. However, as both the Obamas noted, this election will be close and we need to work harder than ever to win.

But on Tuesday night the Obamas filled us with joy with two powerful and comedically cutting speeches at the expense of Trump. Michelle summed it up so well near the end of her speech, “America, hope is making a comeback!”

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