
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It happened at the funeral services for President Carter. ; Every living President was in attendance. ; They were seated from left to right according to the sequence in office – President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama and President Trump. They were separated by their wives to their left &#8212; except Obama and Trump. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Obama’s wife was not in attendance. ; She was in Hawaii on a personal vacation. ; And that put Trump to Obama’s left. ; Imagine that. ; Obama to Trump’s right. ; (Unless you are into stage crafting, in which case Obama was to Trump’s “stage left” – as we see it on the screen. ; But I digress.)</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Not only were Obama and Trump seated together, but they were actively engaging in what appeared to be a very friendly conversation – occasionally smiling and laughing together. Trump later reported that the conversation was very friendly.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The elitist never-Trump resistance movement folks would have none of that. ; They went ballistic on social media. They are the faction in the Democratic Party who demands that Trump should never be “normalized” – only demonized. Nothing positive should ever said about anything Trump says or does.  ;In fact, nothing positive should ever be said about anyone who says anything positive about Trump. (You will see that in comments from a couple of my more ardent and obsessive “fans.”)</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The most immediate and most obvious disgruntled reaction came from Vice President Harris. She looked over her shoulder and saw Obama and Trump chatting amiably. Her facial expression clearly expressed her annoyance – which was widely reported, and the video went viral on social media. In that one moment, Harris put the lie to her calls for unity and comity. She is not a happy camper.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But Harris is only one person – and her bitterness is understandable. On a larger scale, the radical left went ballistic all over social media. Some accused Obama of kissing Trump’s ring. According to those on the left in the Democratic Party, Obama should have snubbed Trump &#8230; refused to engage in polite conversation &#8230; and even expressed disgust.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There was a similar wave of social media reaction when Biden not only invited Trump to the White House after his reelection but seemed effusively friendly. ; There was some negative reaction when Biden announced that he would attend the Inauguration – but nothing like the reaction to the Obama/Trump tête-à-tête.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The deranged left is also upset over the general trend of treating Trump like a normal incoming President – and not the Hitler-style fascist dictator who will end American democracy, as they have tried to portray since Trump first came down the escalator in 2016 – and especially since the 2016 presidential election. They have been grousing about the tech leaders meeting with Trump. There was Amazon’s Jeff Bezos scuttling the Harris endorsement in the Washington Post, which he owns. The same for the Los Angeles Times, owned by fellow tech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. They attacked Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman for saying that Trump’s hush money case trial was politically motivated.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While the never-Trump faction of the Democratic Party and the media (did I say MSNBC?) continues its absolutist universal resistance movement, many on the left accept that they lost –- that the absurd and unrelenting scare mongering failed.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two of the major defenders of the Obama/Trump chat are MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. They took a drubbing from their friends on the left after they met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home. They defend themselves by saying that now that Trump will be President again, it is their duty as professional journalists to engage with him. That is a significant about-face since they were members in good standing of the cancel Trump culture that permeated MSNBC for the past eight years.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While the never-Trump faction of the Democratic party is boisterous – and has a lot of presence in the national media – they do not reflect the opinions of the vast majority of Americans – half of whom voted for Trump. ; They do not even represent the rational and sane portions of the Democratic Party.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most folks want to get past the brittle divisiveness that afflicts American politics today. ; That will never happen if one side insists on demonizing the other side. ; I think most folks actually liked to see Obama and Trump talking to each other like civilized human beings. ; They would like some normalization.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

Trump and Obama: The chat seen around the world
