Trump's envy soars over Obama Center [View all]

The new Obama Presidential Center ramps up Trump’s jealousy
The Iran war loss cements the current president’s failed legacy

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published June 19, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Years before he ran, the throughline that would define Donald Trump’s presidency was set: his racist, unhinged obsession with Barack Obama. Trump could have gone down in history with a minor but positive reputation, remembered vaguely but fondly by most Americans as the goofy New York character who hosted “The Apprentice.” Instead, he fell into a spiral of outrage that a Black man who was smarter, more handsome and more beloved than he could ever be had been elected president.

Trump famously spent much of 2011 pushing the racist conspiracy theory that Obama could not be a native-born citizen. This resulted in Obama mocking him while Trump seethed at the White House Correspondents Dinner, a narcissistic injury that clearly stings Trump to this day. Trump spent the next decade-plus trying to destroy Obama’s legacy, which he hasn’t been able to do, despite two presidential wins. If anything, Trump’s malevolence and clownishness have only served to heighten the nation’s nostalgia for the Obama years.

On Thursday, the contrast grew starker with the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which Trump was pointedly not invited to, though George W. Bush was. It was a star-studded affair, featuring blockbuster performances from megastars like Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, and the Roots. This adds insult to Trump’s recent injury, in which a series of far less dazzling musical acts canceled their appearances at Trump’s Freedom 250 event, which is ostensibly to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, but is dominated by Trump’s ever-present desire to suck up all available attention.

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Trump’s jealousy of Obama is almost certainly a major, perhaps primary, reason he decided to attack Iran in the first place. During his presidency, Obama had negotiated a deal with the country to stop their nuclear development program. Trump almost certainly didn’t understand the details or the work that went into that effort, but seized on Republican criticisms of it as evidence for his ongoing crusade to “prove” that the first Black president was unqualified. One reason the Iran war dragged on for as long as it did was Trump’s unwillingness to accept a worse deal than what Obama got through diplomacy. Trump only caved because, as he admitted to reporters, he’s trying not to be remembered as another Herbert Hoover. (He shouldn’t worry. He’ll be remembered as far worse.) ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/19/the-new-obama-presidential-center-ramps-up-trumps-jealousy/