Former First Lady Michelle Obama had some harsh words for President Donald Trump in her soon-to-be-released memoir. Apparently, Michelle Obama is taking issue with President Trump’s “birther comments.” President Trump was a vocal proponent of the conspiracy that Michelle’s husband, former President Barack Obama, had a forged birth certificate and had been born elsewhere.
This called President Obama’s eligibility for the highest office into question. Michelle Obama said in her memoir that she’d never forgive President Trump for such comments, stating “Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him.”
Labeling the allegations “crazy and mean-spirited,” Obama was also apparently worried that someone might try to go after her two daughters. She further alleged that the entire conspiracy was “deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks” and constituted bigotry.
Michelle’s worries weren’t unfounded. Her husband faced as many as 30 death threats per day, marking a 400 percent increase from the preceding president, George W. Bush. At one point, white supremacists had planned to shoot 88 black people, then decapitate another 14, before assassinating Barack Obama, who was the first black president in American history.
The birther allegations, on the other hand, do appear to have been unfounded. Barack Obama produced a copy of his Hawaii birth certificate and no evidence of tampering has ever been found.
As for President Trump, he isn’t taking Michelle Obama’s dis laying down. He argued: “I’ll give you a little controversy back, I’ll never forgive [former President Barack Obama] for what he did to our US military. It was depleted, and I had to fix it,” Trump said. “What he did to our military made this country very unsafe for you and you and you.”
It’s unclear what President Trump meant by the U.S. military. Military spending under President Obama peaked at over $700 billion in 2011, while the U.S. was still heavily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, before steadily declining to about $600 billion. Military spending spiked to nearly $700 billion under President Trump.
