How Trump set the stage for UFC fighter insult of Michelle Obama

For years, President Donald Trump has provided a “permission slip to be as brazenly racist and sexist as possible,” says Reecie Colbert, host of Sirius XM’s “The Reecie Colbert” show.

President Donald Trump‘s extravagant “UFC Freedom 250” event, held on the White House South Lawn, to mark his 80th birthday, resulted in controversy after UFC fighter Josh Hokit hurled a nasty insult at former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama after his winning match.

“Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?!” said Hokit to applause from the audience of approximately 4,300 people.

While the remark, echoed across the country and online, was quickly condemned by critics, it was perhaps not a surprising moment at a Trump-sanctioned event. President Trump has spent his entire political career and two presidencies taking personal digs at Michelle Obama’s husband, America’s first Black president, Barack Obama. Aside from Obama’s signature policies, many of which he’s sought to dismantle while in office, he’s also attacked the former president personally, including questioning the Hawaiian-born Harvard Law School and Columbia University graduate’s citizenship and intelligence.

Trump’s long history of animosity toward Obama and everything attached to his historic and relatively popular presidency, paired with his brand of offensive rhetoric that has been embraced by the political right as a needed rejection of political correctness, set the stage for Hokit’s very insulting remark about Michelle Obama, long before the UFC ring was erected on the White House South Lawn.

For years, Trump has provided a “permission slip to be as brazenly racist and sexist as possible,” says Reecie Colbert, a political commentator and host of Sirius XM’s “The Reecie Colbert Show.”

“The other Republicans have the same policies as Trump, but they had at least an ounce of decorum. But this is what MAGA, what a majority of white voters wanted; to be able to say things like what that degenerate said with their whole chest, and not have anybody be able to do a doggone thing about it,” Colbert told theGrio.

The White House did not immediately respond to theGrio’s request inquiring whether the president condemned Hokit’s insult of Michelle Obama.

CNN reported that Trump “appeared to show a half-smile” seconds after Hokit’s remark. According to White House pool report from the New York Post’s Steven Nelson, Trump removed a chain Hokit had placed around his neck shortly after.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Michelle Obama has been on the receiving end of a racist or sexist attack from Trump world. In February, the president infamously posted a video depicting both the Obamas as apes. After the video was removed, the Trump White House blamed the social media post on an unidentified staffer. President Trump repeatedly refused to apologize for the racist video. Weeks later, Trump reshared a post from ally Laura Loomer calling Michelle Obama an “anti-white racist.”

Colbert says an apology from Trump or the White House is pointless, telling theGrio they wouldn’t mean it.

“I think an apology at this point is patronizing. The best apology is changed behavior. The best apology is changed policy, not pretending to take issue with the kinds of comments that this felon president has fostered or has encouraged,” she said.

Hokit’s insult of Michelle Obama may have seemed random to some; however, the former U.S. first lady has been a vocal critic of both Trump presidencies, particularly his personal attacks on her family.

While campaigning for Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election cycle, Mrs. Obama condemned Trump for doing “everything in his power to try to make people fear us.”

“His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black,” Obama said at the DNC convention in Chicago.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, Michelle Obama has made headlines for declining to attend Trump’s inauguration and the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, which were interpreted as deliberate attempts to avoid Trump’s presence.

Michelle Obama later explained on her podcast “IMO” that the decision “suited” her and where she was in life.

“My decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism. People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart,” said Obama.

“I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice. Making the choice that was right for me. And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that was for me, that was a hard thing for me to do.”