President Donald Trump and his team have spent weeks trying to kill damaging headlines about their mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, and while doing so, they have lashed out at a very familiar target: former President Barack Obama.

The Obama Distraction (Attempt)

The public has repeatedly told pollsters they think the government and Trump are covering up evidence related to Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking network. As a result, Team Trump has insisted that Obama was the mastermind of a convoluted conspiracy to interfere in elections, repeating long-debunked allegations alongside claims of treason and the threat of criminal trials.

Fox News, Trump’s most valuable propaganda ally, was on the case. The network blanketed the airwaves with hour after hour amplifying the Trump smear of Obama, desperately trying to drown out the Epstein coverage. Thus far, there are few signs that the campaign is working, but the right is giving their all.

Familiar Ground

Trying to weave a conspiracy theory around Obama is well-worn territory for the right—and for Trump’s team in particular. Back in 2020, many of these same people, led by Trump, attempted to create an Obama-related scandal titled “Obamagate.” Unlike its namesake, the infamous Watergate scandal, the Obamagate conspiracy fizzled, and a few months after all that sound and fury, the public elected Joe Biden over Trump by a significant margin.

Similarly, when Trump first took office in 2017, it was just a few weeks in that the right began to argue that the grassroots protests against Trump’s bigoted policies were an Obama creation.

Trump has made it quite clear that he hates Obama. He always takes great pains to name the former president in full as “Barack Hussein Obama,” an attempt to invoke bigoted fears of the name’s Middle Eastern roots.

Millions watched in 2011 as Trump uncomfortably squirmed in his seat at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Obama mercilessly mocked him over his racist birther crusade. It has been reported that the moment may have pushed Trump into the electoral arena, out of his desire for revenge.

The Roots Of Anti-Obama Rage

Obama is the first Black person to be elected president of the United States. He first did so by running in 2008 against then-Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a decorated military veteran and an icon in the conservative movement. Obama’s win was an affront to conservatives, who have historically treated Democratic presidents like usurpers, but with Obama, conservatives perceived it as more egregious because of his race.

The right, led by Trump, didn’t merely object to Obama’s stance as a Democrat—they argued that the first nonwhite person to occupy the presidential office was there illegally and was not even qualified for the job. Trump repeatedly claimed he had investigators looking into Obama’s birth certificate.

During an appearance on “The View,” Trump touted his purported team’s visit to Hawaii, Obama’s birthplace. “They cannot believe what they are finding,” Trump claimed.

Nobody found anything, of course, because conservatives were lying.

Four years later, Obama further angered the right by winning a second term, this time against self-described “severely conservative” Mitt Romney.

By this point, a Black man had twice beaten the Republican Party’s best efforts and the right-wing media smear machine.

GOP Unhinged

While Republicans have always fostered a conspiratorial culture, Obama’s double win appears to have been the party’s tipping point. Crackpots like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones became mainstream within conservative circles, and figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who went on at length about purported Jewish space lasers, were elected to Congress.

And of course, the birther-in-chief himself, Donald Trump, became the leader of the party and has spent the last decade shaping conservatism in his twisted image. Central to that is hating Obama.

Trump’s racism, working in tandem with conspiratorial thinking, is now the standard in the party. It’s no wonder that his team has reached for the familiar in trying to rid themselves of the stench of pedophilia and other sex crimes.

Obama has not been president for over 3,100 days. But Trump and his team believe the former president is always in the shadows, lurking and controlling world events. And when things go wrong for Trump, three words will always be on his lips: Barack Hussein Obama.