Obama compares Trump to Richie Rich

• Former President Barack Obama said that while he wasn’t surprised that Donald Trump had political traction, he expected a populist to be “a little more appealing.”
• He then remarked that instead of being a “classic male hero” like John Wayne, Trump was more like a “complaining, lying” Richie Rich.
• He explained that previous populists understood the people and childhood heroes are supposed to defend the vulnerable.

Former President Barack Obama shared his views on Donald Trump’s political involvement in an interview with The Atlantic magazine published on Monday.

Obama remarked, “I will say that I’m not surprised that somebody like Trump could get traction in our political life. He’s a symptom as much as an accelerant. But if we were going to have a right-wing populist in this country, I would have expected somebody a little more appealing.”

He explained that previous populists, like Huey Long, was “rooted” and genuinely understood “the lives of the people he is rallying.”

“I guess I would not have expected someone who has complete disdain for ordinary people to be able to get attention and then the following from those very same people,” the former president added.

Obama acknowledged that many Americans look to a “classic male hero,” but pointed out that “The John Waynes, the Gary Coopers, the Jimmy Stewarts, the Clint Eastwoods” had a certain “code of masculinity.”

“There’s a notion that a man is true to his word,” he explained. “That he takes responsibility, that he doesn’t complain, that he isn’t a bully; in fact he defends the vulnerable against bullies.”

Obama continued, “I thought that the model [for conservatives] wouldn’t be Richie Rich. The complaining, lying, doesn’t-take-responsibility-for-anything type of figure.”

Obama was referring to the fictional character “Richie Rich” from the 1950s comic book series and a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon with the same name.

As a real estate heir in New York City, Trump’s fame as a brash and flashy billionaire tycoon rose in the late 20th century, especially following the start of his show, NBC‘s “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Critics considered him to be more of a brilliant marketer instead of a successful real estate magnate which he portrayed himself to be, however.

But Trump’s fame, so-called populism, and birther movement won him the 2016 presidential elections.

Obama remarked that his own historic win as the country’s first African American president in 2008 may have seemed threatening to Trump’s base: “What I think is indisputable is that I signified a shift in power. Just my mere presence worried folks, in some cases explicitly, in some cases subconsciously.”

Obama stated how certain media outlets exploited that: “If a Fox News talking head asks, when Michelle and I dap, give each other a fist bump, ‘Is that a terrorist fist bump?,’ that’s not a particularly subtle reference. If there’s a sign in opposition to the ACA in which I’m dressed as an African witch doctor with a bone through my nose, that’s not a hard thing to interpret.”

Source: Aol.com