The fanfare around the Democratic National Convention only continues to build, with the latest buzzy moment coming courtesy of former First Lady, Michelle Obama (because, who else?).
Obama took to the stage for a speech-meets-roast on the second day of the convention — currently taking place in Chicago — alongside a lineup of fellow speakers Barack Obama, and vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, among many others.
For her part, Obama delivered a devastating takedown of Donald Trump, taking particular aim at his penchant for exploiting race for political gain as part of a 20-minute speech that likely sent the former president into a tailspin. If only there were reaction cameras wherever Trump is holed up at Mar-a-Lago, although we’d probably only catch him rewatching his Home Alone cameo, nowhere near MSNBC.
In any case, it seems Obama has done away with her iconic quote about “going high when they go low”, because she delivered a searing read of Trump that proves she’s just as adept at mud-slinging, only with far more class. To do so, Obama made a callback to one of Trump’s favorite (and unsurprisingly nonsensical) phrases, the so-called “Black jobs.”
Trump first used the expression during his presidential debate with Joe Biden, to describe the supposed threat posed by immigrants seeking employment. Naturally, the phrase spawned backlash as people questioned exactly what a “Black job” was or otherwise dismissed the comment as more racially-motivated rhetoric.
Repurposing the phrase, Obama said to the crowd, “who’s going to tell [Trump] that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”. The quip was met with rapturous applause from the audience, partly celebrating the masterclass in savagery, and partly anticipating Kamala Harris as the first Black female president.
But it wasn’t just convention-goers who revelled in Obama’s graceful sucker punch to Trump. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper described Obama’s address as the “most powerful political speech I’ve ever heard,” while MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow likewise said it was “one of the best convention speeches I’ve ever seen by anybody in any circumstance.”
Of course, you don’t need to be a news anchor to appreciate Obama’s swift turn from “going high” to “calling out”, with legions of social media users flocking to the now-viral soundbite to sing their praises. “One of the greatest speeches of all time,” one user wrote on X, with another adding that “Michelle Obama cooked that fraud.”
Between Obama’s mic drop moment and Hilary Clinton’s electrifying takedown of the former president, the DNC is becoming something of a Donald Trump Roast (and I’m totally here for it.)