That’s right. The person everyone loves to hate, and the person who loves to love himself. The man, the myth, the “Donald”. The 45th President of the United States of America is unpopular amongst most, with an approval rating of around only 40% (according to Gallup news). Most of the world, or rather should I say almost all of it, considers his predecessor, former President Barack Obama to be a better leader. Now, Trump is by no means a traditional politician, and over the course of the article, I want to show you, dear reader, through comparisons with his predecessor, that hating him and considering him bad isn’t as black and white as one might think. Make no mistake however, I am not suggesting or insinuating that Trump is better than Obama, or that Obama is better than Trump because that is a debate for another day. All I’m trying to do is provide the whole picture, all the facts, and make the fight fair.

Firstly, a lot of people consider Trump an “idiot”. To be honest, I personally find these claims rather unfounded. Nobody, nobody I say, who becomes the President of the United States of America is an idiot. I don’t think many people would consider Obama, a Columbia undergraduate transfer student, and Harvard law student an “idiot”. Whether you think Obama is “smarter” than Trump is up to you, but given that Trump has worked strategically to reach the same position of power Obama was in, perhaps with an even harder path, labeling him an outright “idiot” is unfair and short-sighted at best

Trump is also probably one of the hardest working people on the face of the planet, as hard as it is to believe. He sleeps a measly couple hours a day and works 80-100 hour weeks on a regular basis. On top of that, he is a billionaire. Now, make no mistake, he did get help from his late father, Fred Trump, but arguably, one does not become a billionaire by slacking off, or making bad business decisions do they?

Furthermore, if we take a brief overview of Trump the President, and his policies, I think there is a legitimate case to be made for him being the most active President in their first term ever. He has delivered on most of his promises, no, not the infamous “wall”, but he’s taken on China, tackled immigration, and (in my opinion) rectified some of Obama’s foreign policy blunders. And that’s another point to Trump because as aforementioned, he is not a traditional politician, he is a businessman. He had promised to get stuff done, and he has done so. Obama was a politician, and although he did implement changes, I think there were definitely areas where playing the politician role took precedence, where he talked more about change than actually implementing it. Even his most famous contribution, the Affordable Health Care Act, or “Obama Care” in layman’s terms, has had some major issues (such as increased health care prices for most of the people already insured) despite its benefits (more people getting insured)

Alright, credit where credit is due to Trump, but as we all know the man is far from perfect. I think Trump’s biggest weakness is in presenting himself. Like I keep on saying, he isn’t a traditional politician, and presenting themselves is something politicians are great at. Trump shouts, plays golf at regular intervals, writes angry tweets at the wee hours of the morning, makes fun of others, and comes off as generally extremely egoistic. And I think this is where the focus moves away from the policies Trump is implementing and the relative efficiency with which he’s implementing them, and to the man himself, preventing his actual messages from properly getting across. Obama on the other hand spoke delicately and was able to articulate himself well, dealt with hecklers at rallies, and had a knack of going on random outings for food to shake hands with locals, making himself seem less “elite” and more relatable to the everyday Joe.

In conclusion, Trump isn’t perfect, but neither was Obama, and that’s my entire point. It seems obvious, but in today’s day and age, when on social media, liberal news channels and accounts unequivocally attacking Trump and praising Obama, while Fox news does the opposite, it’s wise to take a step back and switch perspectives to that of a neutral bystander. Try not to see things as black and white, but rather, as shades of grey.

-By Neel Agrawal