President Trump said that former president Barack Obama is “behind” the angry protests that have erupted at Republican town halls around the nation during an interview on the Fox News morning program Fox and Friends scheduled to air Tuesday morning.”I think he is behind it,” Trump said when asked about Obama’s role in the protests. “I also think it’s politics. That’s the way it is.”No, I think that President Obama is behind it,” Trump said, “because his people are certainly behind it and some of the leaks, possibly come from that group, some of the leaks — which are really very serious leaks because they’re very bad in terms of national security — but I also understand that’s politics. And in terms of him being behind things, that’s politics. And it will probably continue.”
This is, in many ways, the perfect Donald J. Trump Conspiracy Theory.First, this allows the president, who remains convinced of his broad popularity, to dismiss the legitimacy of his critics, which he’s obviously desperate to do.Second, Trump, clearly resentful of his popular and successful predecessor, has never come up with an anti-Obama conspiracy theory he didn’t immediately embrace, and this latest tack allows him to believe everything is always Obama’s fault.And third, by spouting this new conspiracy theory, Trump can continue to argue that he is in no way responsible for his own troubles. It’s all part of the “mess” he likes to pretend he “inherited.”To the extent that reality still has any relevance, it’s worth appreciating the fact that the former president is not, in fact, pulling the strings and orchestrating an anti-Trump backlash from behind a curtain. There are all kinds of factors helping drive progressive activism, but the idea that Obama is secretly delivering marching orders is pretty silly.Just as importantly, the idea that officials loyal to Obama are leaking information damaging to Trump is also badly flawed — because many of the leaks reveal developments in Trump’s own West Wing, filled with Trump’s political appointees, who appear eager to dish dirt on Trump’s White House.Nevertheless, I assume “let’s blame Obama” will become a popular rallying cry in far-right circles, because it’s vastly easier than dealing with the facts.
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."