Donald Trump said Wednesday he was giving up being nice to the Obamas, after they used their speeches at the Democratic convention to mock his record, his crowd sizes and even his manhood.
He called former first lady Michelle ‘nasty’ and said they had been the ones calling for more policy, less poison before launching their own personal attacks.
A day earlier he had even said he had respect for the couple.
‘I’m trying to be nice to these people,’ he told DailyMail.com after coming offstage at a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, his first outdoor appearance since being shot.
‘They were lousy presidents, and you know this one coming. It’s the worst.’
He pivoted to attack Kamala Harris, his new opponent since Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month.
‘She makes Obama look like … I mean, forget it … She’s a radical Marxist person that ruined everything in her path.’
Trump used his rally and interview to underline his case that Harris is a danger to the nation, as he tries to define the Democratic candidate in the eyes of voters.
But the Obamas’ appearance a day earlier revived an old rivalry.
Trump and Obama have long had a prickly relationship, with the 44th president still furious about the way 45th president questioned his nationality with the ‘birther’ claim that Obama was not born in the U.S.
Michelle Obama has become a particular target for some Trump supporters, who share memes suggesting she is transgender.
‘I don’t know who would do that. I certainly wouldn’t say that,’ said Trump.
‘No, no. But she is very nasty to me. I mean, look, they say, Oh, don’t be personal. Talk about policy. I want to talk about policy…. But people say, don’t get personal, but then they get personal.’
The Obamas were the big draws at their party’s convention on Tuesday.
And they used their prime-time moment to attack Trump.
‘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,” Michelle Obama said.
‘I want to know—I want to know—who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him, that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those “Black jobs”?’
Her husband described Trump as a 78-year-old billionaire with a long list of grievances, that had got longer since he became ‘afraid of losing to Kamala.’
‘There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes,’ he said, making a hand gesture as if to suggest he was mocking Trump’s manhood.
Earlier Tuesday Trump stunned critics when he was asked about their appearance.
‘I think he’s a nice gentleman, but he was very weak on trade…’ he told CNN.
‘I happen to like him. I respect him and I respect his wife.’
That was all forgotten by the time he took the stage at the North Carolina Aviation Museum, where he appeared behind bulletproof glass.
It was billed as an event on national security. But as ever Trump used the excitable crowd, some of whom had slept in their cars to secure good seats, to attack his enemies and make his audience laugh.
Starting with the Obamas.
‘You know, they always say, “Sir, please stick to policy, don’t get personal,'” Trump said.
‘And yet they’re getting personal all night long, these people. Do I still have to stick to policy?’