You have to sympathise with America’s 44th president. As post-presidencies go, Barack Obama’s would have been among the best — still young, massively in demand and happily married to someone with no plans to run for high office. Instead, he has been thrust back into a very unwelcome spotlight by Donald Trump. He is unlikely to leave it.
Mr Obama may even be dragged into a constitutional crisis over Mr Trump’s claim that he personally ordered the wiretapping of the Trump campaign. To paraphrase the aphorism about war, Mr Obama may not be interested in Mr Trump. But Mr Trump is interested in him. You might say that he is obsessed.
Mr Trump’s Obamaphobia stretches back years. In 2011, Mr Obama was forced to produce his long-form birth certificate to disprove Mr Trump’s claim that he was born in Kenya.