Michelle Obama has faced criticism over remarks about Americans who voted for Donald Trump, suggesting many backed him because they ‘didn’t know what else to do’.
The former first lady, who spent eight years in the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency, was asked by Sam Fragoso on his Talk Easy podcast how she views the state of the country now that Trump has returned to office.
“I was deeply, deeply disappointed,” she said of his two election wins. “But my husband is such a good person to have for context and clarity.”
Michelle continued: “And he’s right, that outcome has as much to do with the people’s pain and confusion about where they are in their lives.”
She went on to argue that the US still hasn’t ‘completed the assignment of actualizing this democracy’, saying the system can work for some people while repeatedly failing others.
Michelle also pointed to the widening wealth gap in the US, warning that more people are being left behind and ‘fall between the cracks’ as the divide grows.
“When you don’t have a chance and you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do, […] that makes you angry and it makes you susceptible to find someone to blame other than the people who are rightfully part of the problem,” Michelle went on to divulge.
“That’s true that anger, you know, I can’t look some people in the face and tell them you have no right to be angry or to do something that maybe is against your own interest,” she continued.
“That’s what — that’s human nature. Many of the people who voted for my husband twice.”
From her perspective, those who supported Trump shouldn’t automatically be boxed into a single explanation, including being broadly branded racist.
Michelle shared: “You can’t just pigeonhole them and say you just don’t care, and you’re racist or whatever you’re thinking. This is an act of ‘I don’t know what else to do.'”
“I just wish we had more leaders that were figuring out how to do more for the middle class, for the working folks, because those are the folks who are drowning in this economy,” she added. “It’s not me anymore, but I know those folks, and they’re good people, and they don’t have a way out and that makes for bad choices.”
Although her comments struck some as empathetic toward people who chose Trump, others accused her of being disconnected from those voters by suggesting they supported him out of uncertainty rather than conviction.
Addressing the discussion on Sky News Australia’s The Kenny Report, contributor Kristin Tate said: “Liberals still fundamentally don’t understand Trump voters. When she says people voted for Trump because they didn’t know what else to do, that sounds incredibly dismissive.”
Tate went on: “This is why Democrats struggle with working-class voters; they analyse voters like anthropologists instead of just listening to them.”
She also argued that figures like Michelle should directly ask Trump supporters what drove their vote, adding that many Liberals may not even have Trump voters in their circles to speak with.