Trump accuses Obamas of getting too ‘personal’ with their attacks

Trump has been urged by advisors and conservative commentators to target Kamala Harris’s record instead of making personal attacks

Donald Trump is complaining that Barack and Michelle Obama got a bit too personal with their attacks against the former president in their Tuesday night speeches at the Democratic National Convention.

Trump, who falsely claimed for years that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, asked a crowd at a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina on Wednesday if they had seen “Barack Hussein Obama ... taking little shots.”

Trump has in the past used Obama’s middle name to falsely suggest that he’s Muslim.

“He was taking shots at your president and so was Michelle,” Trump said. “You know, they always say, ‘Sir, please stick to policy, don’t get personal,’ but they’re getting personal all night, these people.”

Trump’s advisors and conservative pundits have been urging the former president to target Vice President Kamala Harris’s record instead of making personal attacks against her.

Donald Trump points after speaking about national security during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina, August 21, 2024. Trump has been getting increasingly personal in his attacks against Kamala Harris (AFP via Getty Images)

Trump has repeatedly called her names and even falsely claimed that she has misrepresented her race as he appeared for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists late last month.

The former president asked the North Carolina crowd on Wednesday: “Should I get personal, or should I not get personal?”

Getting personal seemed to be the more popular option with the crowd.

Barack and Michelle Obama spoke at the DNC on Tuesday night and they appeared to leave their 2016 call “when they go low, we go high” behind and instead rallied the raucous crowd with forceful rejections of Trump.

“Going small is petty, it’s unhealthy, and, quite frankly, it’s unpresidential,” Michelle Obama told the convention.

“It’s his same old con – doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better,” she added.

Barack Obama at one point appeared to suggest that Trump is not only concerned about crowd sizes as he looked down at his hands.

Barack Obama gestures while speaking about Donald Trump’s crowd size at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on 20 August 2024 (Independent US)

Democrats as a party appear to have abandoned the notion of going high as Harris’s running mate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz rose to prominence slamming Republicans as “weird” and “creepy.”

Trump has increasingly attacked his foes on both sides of the aisle with personal attacks and lies, such as calling Harris a Marxist and referring to her as “Comrade Kamala.”

Michelle Obama slammed Trump for his comments on race during her 20-minute speech on Tuesday night, saying that the former president has done “everything in his power to try to make people fear us.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama speaking during the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago (AP)

“His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black,” she said.

Barack Obama blasted Trump as a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”

“It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” he added.