Say what you will about the Trump presidency: whether you think he’s good, bad, or indifferent, it’s certainly been interesting. Now we’ve reached a new stage, where a former first lady compares President Trump to a sad dad.
First Lady of the United States is an interesting position.
The spouse of the president has traditionally been expected to remain at her husband’s side at key events and champion a non-controversial cause. We can see this right now with Melania Trump and her anti-bullying advocacy.
Some recent First Ladies have flipped the script.
Going back to the Bill Clinton presidency, Hillary Clinton was able to use her position to springboard herself into a career in politics — and, eventually, very nearly win the presidency herself.
Michelle Obama’s pretty impressive as well.
While she largely followed the First Lady script during her husband’s time in office with her campaign for better nutrition and physical activity among young Americans, Michelle Obama distinguished herself in other ways as well.
She was an immensely popular First Lady.
Following Trump’s win in the 2016 election, some even tried to encourage her to run for president in 2020. Aside from that, her memoir sold a ridiculous number of copies, breaking bookselling records.
She hasn’t retired from public life.
To promote said memoir, Obama has been on an international tour to appear in interviews. As we’ll see, she isn’t shying away from speaking her mind about what could be called the elephant in the room of American politics: Donald Trump.
She raised an interesting analogy.
In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert in London, Obama ripped the president in a pretty unique way. Rather than directly criticizing his actions or his words, she used an analogy.
He’s like a “divorced dad”.
“We come from a broken family, we are a little unsettled,” she explained . “Sometimes you spend the weekend with divorced dad. That feels like fun, but then you get sick. That is what America is going through. We are living with divorced dad.”
It’s pretty relatable.
Even if your parents never got divorced, you probably grew up with someone who experienced the whole back and forth between their divorced parents. It’s an experience that’s enough to throw anyone for a loop.
She wasn’t done, either.
The “divorced dad” comment threw plenty of shade on Trump. But Obama also said, “For anyone who had any problems with Barack Obama, let’s just think about what we were troubled by. There were never any indictments.”
How was it received?
There was plenty of vocal support for her comments on Twitter. But, unsurprisingly, her off-the-cuff remark about divorced dads rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. Things quickly devolved.
Even some of her supporters weren’t having it.
Some of those who condemned her comments were clearly driven by their political ideology. But others raised some good points about what she said — even if they consider themselves to be fans of hers.
Divorce doesn’t make someone a failure.
Parents run the gamut: there are great divorced parents, lousy married parents, and everything in between. Obama’s remarks probably weren’t intended to hurt and offend divorced dads, but this response is still understandable.
Things are more polarized than ever.
We actually had to look pretty hard to find thoughtful comments on Twitter, because most of them — whether they praised or condemned — were extended into a larger political argument rather than simply focusing on what she said.
She’s still an inspiration.
This is evidenced by the 15,000 or so people who packed into London’s O2 Arena to watch her speak. Even though she may have misspoken, it doesn’t detract from any of her other points.
What do you think?
Watch the video and let us know your thoughts. Does this change your impression of the former First Lady? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments, and let’s try to keep things respectful.
