In September 2019, there was an article in Psychology Today titled The Psychology of Trump’s Preoccupation with Obama by Noam Shpancer, Ph.D. The subtitle: “Obama is antithetical to Trump. So long as he exists, Trump is threatened.”
Shpancer documents several examples, some noted elsewhere, going back to djt’s 2011 birtherism attacks. The Unreality King suggested that the 44th President was/is a secret Muslim who possibly sympathizes with radical terror attacks. At an event in 2015, the then-candidate declared, “I don’t know if [Obama] loves America.”
You’d think once he was in office, the bellicosity might have subsided. No such luck. He says other countries wouldn’t talk trade policy with Obama, including the European Union and Japan. That wasn’t even close to being true.
More recently, djt brought up Obama’s Netflix deal, well after Barack was out of office. This was done in the defense of his attempt to host the G7 at one of his Florida properties while he was in office.
Motive
Shpancer makes some interesting observations. “Some may posit racism as the primary motive—as Trump has a history of racist statements and actions. Yet racism is not a primary motive for Trump. It cannot be. By all evidence, Trump is not truly animated by big ideas or abstract values. The only thing that matters truly is him.”
The therapist suggests that djt “will accept another person’s (or group’s) worth only to the extent that they approve of and serve [him]. There is no other, independent test of merit. This is why the racism (and anti Semitism) explanation won’t stick on Trump. Racism is an ideology, and a tribal cast of mind. Trump has neither ideology nor tribe, as he lacks the capacity to attach to either. He only has himself.” Interesting.
Shpancer also addresses the “constant lying. He doesn’t do it to further a social, political, or ideological agenda. He lies about the facts when the facts fail to fulfill his needs or flatter him)…
“But what is it about Obama that so injures Trump’s narcissism, compelling him to rage? The answer is not that Obama is black or a Democrat. Rather, it is that in Obama, Trump sees his antithesis–everything he is not and cannot be.
“Politics aside, a fair look at what is already publicly known about the two men will suffice to conclude quite readily that Obama has basic decency… Many of those who disagree with what he’s done as a politician would not mind being who he is as a person.
Shallow and transactional
“Trump is at his core indecent. As a man… he struggles mightily with self-control, by his own admission fears self-reflection, and is clearly incapable of a range of human emotions…
“Despite his gilded life, he’s constantly aggrieved, embittered, and at war with the world… His relations with others [are] shallow and transactional and depend on constant external affirmations, none of which can fill the bottomless pit of his need… Even among those who agree with what he’s done as a politician, few would aspire to be who he is as a person.
“What this comparison makes clear is that Obama, psychologically, is antithetical to Trump. Therefore, so long as Obama exists, Trump is threatened.” An interesting article which you should read, especially the analytical second half.
Forbes, September 2019: He Has Created 1.5 Million Fewer Jobs Than Obama