Michelle Obama Is Done With Trump

Michelle Obama delivered a withering takedown on Tuesday of former President Donald Trump amid his third consecutive run for the White House.

Speaking at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Obama said her now-famous line, “When they go low, we go high.” Eight years on, the former first lady abandoned her own plea to take the high road.

Instead, she enthralled the convention audience at the packed United Center in Chicago with criticism of the Republican nominee, whom she accused of “going small.”

“Going small is the opposite of what we teach our kids,” she said. “Going small is petty. It’s unhealthy. And quite frankly, it’s unpresidential. So why would any of us accept this from anyone seeking our highest office? Why would we normalize this type of backward leadership?”

Elsewhere in her speech, Obama declared, “America, hope is making a comeback,” as she urged the country to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket after he dropped his reelection bid last month. If she defeats Trump in November, she would be the nation’s first female president.

Obama, one of the most popular voices in the Democratic Party, praised Harris as “one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency” and “more than ready for this moment.”

However, she spent much of her speech criticizing Trump. She drew parallels between Trump’s attacks on Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, and the lies he spread about herself and her husband, former President Barack Obama.

“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” she said. “His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black.”

She then hit back at Trump’s comment in a June debate that migrants were taking jobs from Black people.

“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” Obama said. “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.”

Newsweek contacted the Trump campaign for comment via email.

Obama’s speech ended with a call for Democrats to not be their “own worst enemies” and to do everything possible to get Harris elected in November.

“We only have two and a half months, y’all, to get this done—only 11 weeks to make sure every single person we know is registered and has a voting plan,” she said.

“So we cannot afford for anyone … to sit on their hands and wait to be called. Don’t complain if no one from the campaign has specifically reached out to ask you for your support. There is simply no time for that kind of foolishness. You know what you need to do,” Obama said, adding, “Our fate is in our hands.”