Michelle Obama is the world's beautiful leading "influencer". An important trend setter even in her absence

Michelle Obama Isn’t Sick — She Just Hates Trump

Echo repoer published in The New York Magazine Intelligencer by Margaret Hartmann

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

The state funeral for President Jimmy Carter was attended by all five living presidents and their spouses — except for Michelle Obama. Although CNN reported that the former First Lady missed the January 9, memorial due to a scheduling conflict, searches for “is Michelle Obama sick” spiked on Google.

And when the Obamas announced last week that Michelle would not attend the second Trump inauguration, people started speculating that they were headed for divorce.

Thankfully, it does not appear that Michelle is ill or having marital troubles. Judging from the available evidence, she just really hates Donald Trump.

The statement from the Obamas’ office on January 14, which was shared with the Associated Press (AP), said: “Former president Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”

Sure enough, Barack Obama was flying solo at Trump’s swearing in on January 20, 2025.

Meanwhile Michelle posted this message on Instagram — which could be a subtweet aimed at Trump, or just an earnest celebration of MLK Day, which also happened to fall on Monday:

Former President Barack Obama arrived at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for the second inauguration of President-elect Trump.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is not in attendance. https://t.co/81S7rzN0DZ #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/hqIkHuCFPr— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 20, 2025

Meanwhile Michelle posted this message on Instagram — which could be a subtweet aimed at Trump, or just an earnest celebration of MLK Day, which also happened to fall on Monday:

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of service always inspires me.

This #MLKDay, I hope you’ll join me and @WhenWeAllVote in honoring Dr. King’s life and legacy by getting involved in your community. Whether you’re mentoring students at your local school or volunteering for a cause that matters to you, it all helps make a difference. Tell me how you’re giving back today in the comments.

No reason was given for Michelle’s absence from Trump’s swearing in, nor did the Obamas say why she skipped Carter’s funeral. 

Earlier this month, an Obama spokesperson merely confirmed in a statement to The Hill that she was “not in attendance” adding, “Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former president.”

Is it possible that something more serious is going on? Sure. But no PR team wants a repeat of last year’s Kate Middleton debacle, and there’s no real reason to think that. There is, however, ample evidence that Michelle Obama has had it with pretending she doesn’t dislike Trump.

Obama explained her exasperated looks in her 2018, memoir, Becoming. “Sitting on the inaugural stage in front of the U.S. Capitol for the third time, I worked to contain my emotions,” she wrote. However, after surveying the crowd of Trumpworld figures that surrounded her, she gave up. Though the “optics” might have been bad, “I stopped even trying to smile,” she said.

She recalled her terrible inauguration experience again during an episode of her podcast in 2023, saying she was “uncontrollably sobbing” by the end of the day. “Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, ‘You weren’t in a good mood?’ No, I was not❗ But you had to hold it together like you do for eight years.”

Eight years later, Obama went after Trump by name while campaigning for Kamala Harris. In her Democratic National Convention speech, she accused Trump of doing “everything in his power to make people fear” her and Barack because he felt “threatened” by “two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.” Then she dropped the memorable jab, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”

Obviously, the Ex-Presidents Club is full of people who have said terrible things about each other. 

Nevertheless, that did not prevent Barack Obama from yukking it up with Trump at the Carter funeral. But had Michelle attended, the task of chatting with Trump would have fallen to her, as she would have been seated next to him. She is not a professional politician, and it seems her willingness to engage in fake niceties with the Trumps has only waned over the years. Her rumored excuse for skipping the funeral wasn’t even very good. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that she was “still in Hawaii on an extended holiday vacation.”

Several anonymous Michelle Obama “allies” told The Hill that her decision was all about Trump:

“She meant every word she said on the campaign trail with every fiber of her being,” one ally said. “And she’s no hypocrite.”

By not attending the inauguration, Michelle Obama is “saving some credibility,” one longtime aide to her said.

“She campaigned the hardest against him personally, of anyone,” the aide said.

And a “source familiar with her thinking” told People that she “did all the public good that she could for eight years as first lady.” 

Now we’ll see her when she has a project or cause to promote, “but she doesn’t feel the need to be a public figure anymore.”

“There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source added. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

So who was there to supply meme-able looks on Monday with Michelle sitting this one out? Another former First Lady came through: "Hilary Clinton reacts to Donald Trump declaring he will rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America."

Hillary Clinton laughs as Trump announces ‘Gulf of America’ order:

“There’s no overstating Mrs. Obama's feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source added. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

Disgusting undignified vile Donald ("Done") Trump lies on his fake Truth Social bullshit media

Donald Trump was so embarrassed by coverage of his meltdown over the DNC on Truth (Lies 😡)Social and Fox (Fake❗ ) News that he was still posting dubious excuses days later. But he definitely didn’t learn a thing from the experience. 

Weird and leud vulgar stuff 💩

Echo report by Margaret Hartmann published in New York Magazine Intelligencer.  

After special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump over his attempt to steal the 2020, election, the former president decided to “tweet through it” once again. And this time, he jazzed up his Truth Social meltdown with QAnon memes, calls for jailing his political foes, and vulgar claims about Kamala Harris.

(Frankly, to quote Vice-President Kamala Harris, "Trump is out of his mind❗🧠😳😲)

To be sure, Trump’s Truth Social feed is never a bastion of measured political discourse. On a typical day, he might post an incoherent tirade or two about “Comrade Kamala,” repost a meme that depicts him as MAGA Jesus, and share some fawning Fox News videos. But since news about the new indictment broke on the evening of August 27, Trump has posted and reposted dozens of messages, and the concentration of unhinged vitriol is much higher than usual.

When asked if her boss was okay during a Thursday-morning CNN interview, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt dodged. “Look, I don’t think your viewers at home are concerned about social-media posts,” she said.

JOHN BERMAN: "Why was Donald Trump over the past 36 hours reposting QAnon slogan and misogynist and sexist content about Vice President Harris? "

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOX KAROLINE LEAVITT: "I don't think your viewers are concerned about social media posts" 😀💥

But if you’re curious about what kind of unhinged stuff a major presidential candidate has been dumping on social media, here’s a sample of the type of content Trump has been posting.

Rambling about political persecution

He initially responded to the new Jack Smith  indictment with a nearly 500-word screed ❗about Smith and “Kamala’s Weaponized System against her Political Opponent.” This was spread over four posts, but the first gives you the gist:

A cruel and crude sexual remark about Harris

(Maine Writer 🖊️ comment to quote Governor Tim Walz "Trump needs to mind his own damn business!")

Trump has said a lot of vaguely sexist things about his Democratic opponent, but he took things to a new level when he shared another Truth Social user’s post showing a photo of Harris with Hillary Clinton captioned, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently …” This is a reference to Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, paired with a suggestion that Harris slept her way into a political career by dating former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown in the 1990s.💩😩😧😞😧

(But no metion about "Done" Donald's sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels when his wife Melania was recovering from pospartum delivery of their son.)

Trump had sex with porn actress Stormy Daniels but no metion of it on his leud media screeds

As the New York Times noted, this is the second time that Trump — who has “repeatedly been accused of sexual misconduct and was found liable last year for sexual abuse and defamation” — shared a sexually oriented attack against Harris:

Previously, on Aug. 18, Trump had shared a video from the Dilley Meme Team — a group of right-wing internet content creators that makes pro-Trump videos and memes denigrating his opponents — that parodied the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” to attack Ms. Harris as “moronic.” In the parody song, the singer says Ms. Harris “spent her whole damn life down on her knees,” at which point a photo of Mr. Brown appears onscreen.

Calls to “lock up” his enemies: Trump has taken to pretending he never said “Lock her up” about Hillary Clinton (which is not true). But he definitely reposted multiple images showing his major political foes (and Bill Gates?) in orange jumpsuits, and calling for Jack Smith, the House January 6 Committee, and top Democrats like Barack Obama to be prosecuted, maybe via “public military tribunals.”

Lots of QAnon content: These memes may not make sense if you aren’t deep into conspiracy theories, but as ABC News explains, they all feature QAnon slogans:

Some of the other posts Trump shared included phrases circulated among followers of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, including “Nothing can stop what is coming,” “Hold the line,” and “WWG1WGA”, which is an initialism for “Where we go one, we go all.”

Other weird stuff👿👺👹💀👽: You know, memes showing Trump hanging with a lion....🦁❓

In other words....Donald "Done" Trump has lost his mind. 

Donald Trump is a jealous politician who craves all media attention either with or without merit

Echo essay published in the New York Magazine the Intelligencer by Margaret Hartmann:

Kamala Harris has been featured on a lot of magazine covers recently. This is to be expected, as she just became the Democratic presidential nominee in an unprecedented last-minute switch, and polls now show her leading the race. 

But, Donald Trump seems upset that he’s losing his main-character status in the press, and one recent cover has really gotten under his skin: this illustration of Harris on his beloved Time magazine.

Trump first brought up her Time cover during his disastrous chat with Elon Musk on Monday night. “She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” he complained. “It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like our great First Lady Melania. She didn’t look like Camilla [Kamala], that’s right. But of course, she’s a beautiful woman, so we’ll leave it at that, right?”

Many people pointed out that this was a very weird thing to say, as Harris looks nothing like Melania Trump in the cover image, and comparing your female opponent’s looks to your wife’s is generally a bad move. But Trump is still fixating on the image. He brought it up again during a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday evening, which was ostensibly about the economy but included lots of personal attacks against Harris.

“Now they are putting her on the covers of Time magazine with an artist’s sketch,” Trump said. “They don’t use a picture. They don’t use a picture, they use an artist sketch. I want to use that artist. I want to find that artist, I like him very much.”

Trump mentioned the Time cover yet again during a press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey residence on Thursday, which was supposed to be about the economy.

“Like the cover of Time magazine,” Trump said. “They didn’t put a picture, they got a great artist to do it. What was that all about? You know? What was that all about? The whole thing is crazy.”

For weeks, conservatives have been making the (arguably dubious) accusation that mainstream-media coverage of Harris has been too positive. A handful of right-wing media outlets have complained about Time’s coverage specifically, calling this week’s cover story too worshipful. 

But it’s unclear if Trump has even read the piece. His critiques have focused solely on the cover — and not just its portrayal of a hopeful Harris surrounded by excited supporters. Trump’s specific gripe is the vice-president’s appearance; he said “she looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live” and complained that “they don’t use a picture” to show what Harris actually looks like.

Time actually used a picture to create the cover. Neil Jamieson made the photo illustration, and the magazine also credits “Andrew Harnik — Getty Images.” The illustration appears to incorporate this photo of Harris taken by Harnik last month; while the cover image is stylized, her facial features aren’t altered. (Jamieson did not respond to questions about his process.)

Trump’s issue with the cover is probably based in his long-standing, retro obsession with Time. Trump first appeared on the cover in 1989, and he’s bragged that he’s been featured more than anyone else. That isn’t true; at the end of his presidency, Trump had been on the cover 35 times, putting him fourth behind three other presidents. But he made up for it by putting himself on fake Time covers, which are framed and displayed at at least four of his golf clubs.

Time hasn’t been ignoring Trump. The magazine interviewed him in May, and he was featured on the cover (a subsequent Joe Biden cover was styled similarly) and  Time put out a single-issue edition about the Trump assassination attempt.

But Trump will not be satisfied until his favorite magazine puts a pretty filter over his face and issues a cover showing Harris with devil horns.

Donald Trump is finally on trial in Manhattan!

Echo essay published in Trump On Trial, in Intelligencer by Margaret Hartmann:

April 15, 2024, courtroom photo in Manhattan

“Sleepy Joe” was always a low-energy Trump nickname. Donald Trump’s derisive name for Joe Biden never had the zing of “Crooked Hillary” or “Liddle Marco,” and it was too similar to other Trump nicknames like “Sleepin’ Bob” Casey and “Sleepy Eyes” Chuck Todd. Now there’s a new problem with it that no one anticipated: It’s easy to turn it back on “Sleepy Don” when he nods off — repeatedly! — during a criminal trial over hush-money payments he allegedly made to cover up an affair with a porn star.

In an interview during a break, journalist Maggie Haberman told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump looked sleepy during previous court appearances but this incident was worse:

During day one of Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan — which will determine whether he broke the law by paying off Stormy Daniels just before the 2016, election, then disguising the payments — the former president reportedly fell asleep in the courtroom. Maggie Haberman wrote on the New York Times’ trial liveblog on April 16:

• Trump appeared to be sleeping. His head kept dropping down and his mouth went slack.
• Haberman said Trump was roused a short time later:
• Trump was apparently jolted back awake, noticing the notes his lawyer passed him several minutes ago.

Stewart Bishop, a reporter for Law360 who was in the courtroom, made the same observation: "It very much looks like Trump is dozing off right now." Perhaps Trump was embarrassed — but incredibly, it wasn’t enough to keep him from dozing off again during the proceedings again, the next morning.

Failed Yemen operations a Donald Trump jealousy moment

When dear President Jimmy Carter was asked about  the one regrettable decision he made during his presidency, he didn't hesitate to respond that it was the failed Iranian rescue attempt during the Tehran refugee crisis.

As a result, when President Obama launched the successful SealTeam6 operations in Pakistan, to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, the tribute went to President Jimmy Carter in recognition of his intentions to save the lives of the 52 Tehran hostages.

President Jimmy Carter was recognized by President Obama during his tribute to the Seal Team 6 successful attack and assassination of Osama Bin Laden conducted on May 2, 2011

And that is why I believe the President Apprentice Donald Trump launched the failed Yemen raid using SealTeam6, where nothing was accomplished that a drone attack couldn't have done better than what happened in "real time".

NewYorkMagazine.com reports:
U.S. Military Sources Claim Trump Approved Yemen Strike Without Enough Preparation By Margaret Hartmann

New questions have emerged about what went wrong in the U.S. military raid against Al Qaeda in Yemen last weekend. 

Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the operation and three other U.S. service members were injured. Nawar Al-Awlaki, the 8-year-old daughter of American Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, was also killed, and local reports say as many as 30 people died. The raid was the first operation approved by President Trump.

Earlier this week, a senior military official told NBC News that “almost everything went wrong” during the mission. 

In fact, the aim was to detain Yemeni tribal leaders working with Al Qaeda and gather phones and computers that could yield intelligence. But Navy SEALS found themselves in an intense 50-minute firefight, with Al Qaeda fighters using women and children as cover, and some of the women firing at the commandos.
Airstrikes were called in to take out the Al Qaeda fighters, and then two MV-22 Ospreys were sent in to extract the SEALs. 

One experienced a “hard landing,” injuring crew members, and the $75 million aircraft had to be destroyed by a precision-guided bomb to keep it from falling into enemy hands.

Now several military officials are suggesting that President Trump was to blame. Per Reuters:
U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support, or adequate backup preparations.

As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced Al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas responded, “CENTCOM asks for operations we believe have a good chance for success, and when we ask for authorization we certainly believe there is a chance of successful operations based on our planning.” He also noted, “Any operation where you are going to put operators on the ground has inherent risks.”

The Obama administration spent months planning the raid, but the New York Times reports that President Obama did not authorize the attack because the Pentagon wanted to conduct the attack on a moonless night, which wouldn’t happen again during his term.

One of the three officials told Reuters, “The decision was made … to leave it to the incoming administration, partly in the hope that more and better intelligence could be collected.”

The Times said Trump decided to approve the raid during a dinner attended by Defense Secretary James Mattis, Vice-President Mike Pence, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Top advisers Jared Kushner and Steven Bannon were also present.

The Reuters report does not offer any more detail on whether the officials fault the Obama administration for inadequate prep work as well, or what exactly they think the Trump team should have done differently. But the Times notes that Flynn “has said that it wants to speed the decision-making when it comes to such strikes, delegating more power to lower-level officials so that the military may respond more quickly.” And the Pentagon has been working on plans to move faster against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

It’s significant that three military sources were willing to suggest President Trump was too hasty, particularly when the administration is having public disagreements with the State Department, the acting attorney general, and other public agencies. But so far it’s not clear what — if anything — could have been done to prevent the tragic events in Yemen.

(Maine Writer to Donald Trump- Just so you know, every month of every year contains at least one "moonless night". This failed decision could easily have waited or it could have been a drone attack. In my opinion, Donald Trump acted out of jealousy.)