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Donald Trump tells North Carolina crowd Michelle Obama ‘hit me the other day,’ asks, 'Am I allowed to hit her now?’
Donald Trump suggested he would like to “hit back” Michelle Obama, days after claiming the former first lady has been “nasty” to him.
Donald Trump closed his election campaign by suggesting he would like to “hit back” Michelle Obama, days after claiming the former first lady has been “nasty” to him. The former president asked a crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday, October 4, whether he was “allowed to hit her now.”
Recounting a conversation with his advisers, Trump said,“Michelle ... I was so nice to her out of respect. She hit me the other day. I was going to say: ‘Am I allowed to hit her now?’ They said: ‘Take it easy, sir.’ My geniuses, they said, ‘Just take it easy.’ ‘What do you mean? She said that about me, I can’t hit back?’ ‘Sir, you’re winning. Just relax.’”
“Is that good or bad advice?” he asked the crowd. “I think it’s neutral.”
Trump then asked, “What do the ladies of North Carolina think, hit back or just relax?” He then admitted, “I’d actually love to hit back, but we’ll hold it a little while.”
Trump’s latest attack on Obama showed an escalation in his language, as the presidential candidate appeared to deliberately lean into the ambiguity of the term “hit.”
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Donald Trump’s previous criticism of Michelle Obama
At a previous rally too, Trump had appeared to threaten Obama, saying she had made“a big mistake” by not being nice to him. At an October rallyin Atlanta, Georgia, Trump said Obama was "nasty" to him even though he has been "nice and respectful" to her. "You know who's nasty to me? Michelle Obama, oh," he told supporters.
"I always tried to be so nice and respectful. Oh, oh, she opened up a little bit of—a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something. Oh, she was nasty, woo. Shouldn't be that way. That was a big mistake that she made," he added.
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Obama criticised Trump at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she endorsed Kamala Harris. "We are holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent. We expect her to be intelligent and articulate and to prove time and time again,” she said, in part. "But with Trump, we expect nothing at all. No understanding of policy. No ability to put together a coherant argument. Instead, too many people are willing to write off his mean-spirited antics.”
