Social media goes wild for Obama’s hand gesture innuendo while talking Trump’s crowd sizes
Obama made a curious hand gesture to emphasise his point – sending social media into a spin
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Barack Obama has sent social media wild after he appeared to make a not-so-subtle innuendo while talking about Donald Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes” at the Democratic National Convention.
Speaking on the second night of the event, Obama kicked off his speech with plenty of digs at Trump, who was Obama’s successor for the presidency in 2016.
Calling Trump a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama went on to say his “constant stream of gripes and grievances” has only grown worse now that he is “afraid of losing to Kamala.”
The crowd listened intently as Obama touched on Trump’s resumé of “childish nicknames” and “crazy conspiracy theories”.
But, there was one moment that really prompted laughter – and caught the attention of viewers at home.
“There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.... it just goes on, and on, and on,” Obama said.
During his comments, Obama made a curious hand gesture to emphasise his point – before eyeing his hands and looking back up to the crowd for dramatic effect.
The audience in Chicago broke into raucous cheers – and social media quickly followed suit.
“Barack Obama just got under Trump’s skin BIGLY...” reads one X post.
Another person chimed in: “I think he’s being WAY too generous.”
Others let Obama do all the talking, choosing instead to simply punctuate his phrase with pointed emojis.
Meanwhile, others seized on the opportunity to make reference to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who famously had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 – and was paid hush money to keep silent about it during his 2016 White House run.
“Stormy knows,” posted one person.
While others coined the nickname “Dinky Donald”, claiming Trump is “sensitive about size.”
Trump has become somewhat fixated on crowd sizes during this election cycle.
This month, he falsely suggested that his January 6 rally – moments before the Capitol riot – drew a crowd to rival the crowd who gathered to hear Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington.
He has also laid into Kamala Harris for the size of her rally crowds, falsely claiming that a photo of a huge group of people waiting to greet Harris and her running mate Tim Walz on the tarmac of an airport in Michigan was fake and AI-generated.
Photographic and video evidence proved him wrong.
But Trump’s obsession over their respectiv crowd sizes comes at a time when Harris is leading him by 2.9 points in the polls and when he and his running mate JD Vance are facing backlash over several controversial comments.
Trump has been slammed for calling Harris “stupid” and wildly questioning her racial heritage while Vance has been slammed for his derogatory comments about women.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments