President Donald Trump attempted to take a jab at former president Barack Obama on Saturday, this time using a side-by-side image posted on Truth Social comparing younger versions of both men.
The image includes a photograph of young Trump, wearing a military uniform from his time at New York Military Academy, alongside a photo of a college-aged Obama, smoking what appears to be a cigarette and wearing a Panama hat, taken by photographer Lisa Jack.
Many online were immediately stuck by the differences between the two young men —but probably not in the way Trump wanted.
Liberal commentator Adam Mockler described Obama as “aura mogging” Trump, meaning Obama’s coolness outshone Trump’s
“Curious what the messaging goal is here,” former Obama aide and “Pod Save America” co-host Tommy Vietor wrote. “One guy looks like a good hang while other looks like he would’ve been fragged by his unit in Vietnam (if he hadn’t gotten five deferments).”
Plenty of others weighed in as well.
Some people were also confused by the Trump’s purported age in the photo. The images were labeled “D. Trump, 20” and “B. H. Obama, 18.” But Trump’s photo was the same one found in his 1964 yearbook at the military academy, when he would have been 17 or 18.
“This is a picture of Donald when he was a teenager in high school. You’d think he’d know that,” Trump’s niece Mary Trump wrote on X.
While the president’s post was boosted by his die-hard loyalists, others thought the post misleadingly implied the president had been in the military.
“Interesting to post that knowing he’s a draft dodger,” one X user wrote, referring to Trump avoiding the Vietnam War draft with multiple deferments for college and one for bone spurs in his heels.
“For the love of GOD, Trump was not in the military FFS,” Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) wrote.
Trump has a long history of attacking Obama. The former president addressed Trump’s “obsession” in a recent episode of “All The Smoke” podcast, calling it “strange.”
“The idea that I’d be worrying about somebody who came before and me trying to measure like, ‘What’s he done today?’ Look, constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me,” Obama said. “It shows me somebody who is not focused on the American people and the job they’re supposed to do.”