Donald Trump’s weird preoccupation with Joe Biden is well documented. An analysis conducted by The New York Times, for example, found that during the first 50 days of the Republican president’s second term, he mentioned “Biden” an average of 6.32 times per day. The Times’ report added, “It is among his most frequently used terms (he said ‘Biden’ in more speeches than he had said ‘America,’ for example).”
By his 100-day mark, according to NBC News, Trump had spoken about Biden, his family or his administration at least 580 times either in public remarks or on his social media platform.
But as the Republican nears his 200-day mark, he’s starting to focus far less on his immediate Democratic predecessor and much more on his other Democratic predecessor.
REPORTER: Gabbard has submitted a criminal referral. Who should the DOJ target?TRUMP: It would be President Obama. And Biden was there with him … the leader of the gang was Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. He's guilty. This is treason.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-22T15:57:47.596Z
At a Tuesday morning event in the Oval Office, the Republican incumbent explicitly endorsed the Justice Department targeting Barack Obama, suggesting that the former Democratic president is “guilty” as part of a scheme that Trump considers “treason.”
Moments earlier, the current president, apparently indifferent to reality, added that “it’s time to go after people” and Obama “has been caught directly.” Trump went on to describe the former Democratic president as “the ringleader.”
At the same event, the Republican said that his administration found “proof” that Obama was “seditious” and “trying to lead a coup.”
All of this was stark raving mad — there is no such “proof” — though Trump has been working his way to this point for a while. Ten days ago, for example, he published an odd missive in which he said Obama was at least partially responsible for “creating” the Jeffrey Epstein files, which was bonkers for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that former Democratic president had already been out of office for years when the Trump administration investigated, arrested and charged the late millionaire pedophile.
This week, the Republican also declared that “Obama himself manufactured the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX,” which was every bit as ridiculous.
Between the two absurdities, Trump also amplified a fake video that appears to have been created with AI that depicts Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. The New York Times reported:
The fake video purports to show F.B.I. agents bursting into the meeting, pushing Mr. Obama into a kneeling position and putting him in handcuffs as Mr. Trump looks on smiling, while the song ‘Y.M.C.A.’ by the Village People plays. Later, the fake video shows Mr. Obama in an orange jumpsuit pacing in a cell. The start of the video shows a compilation of actual footage of Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., saying, ‘no one is above the law.’ This coincided with Trump also promoting fake mugshots of Obama and his team wearing prison jumpsuits. If this sounds at all familiar, that’s because during Trump’s 2024 candidacy, while obsessing over Obama, the then-Republican candidate used his social media platform to promote a photo of the former Democratic president alongside text that called for “public military tribunals.” It’s worth emphasizing that there’s literally zero evidence of Obama having done anything wrong in connection with Trump’s Epstein and Russia scandals, and the suggestion that the Democratic president would be arrested because of Trump’s controversies is insane, even by 2025 standards. What’s more, it’s very easy to believe that the incumbent Republican president is peddling this garbage in the hope of creating distractions and shifting blame away from himself. But if that’s the case, why not just ignore Trump’s obvious absurdities? Because of an unfortunate truth: Just because his anti-Obama crusade is a distraction doesn’t mean nothing will happen. On the contrary, it’s very easy to believe that Trump — who’s already directed the Justice Department to investigate Biden — is moving toward the same step with Obama. This post has been updated to reflect Trump’s Tuesday morning comments.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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