Former President Barack Obama got the last laugh Tuesday night as voters delivered a devastating rebuke to President Trump and handed Democrats sweeping victories that threaten to derail the final two years of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
More than a decade after Mr. Trump launched his political ascent by questioning Mr. Obama’s birthplace, the former president helped rally voters against his longtime rival, campaigning aggressively in the closing days of an election that cost Republicans control of both the House and Senate.
As the election results rolled in, Mr. Obama said the American people sent “a clear message — they want a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face.”
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“While this administration has another two years in office, our job now is to roll up our sleeves, make changes wherever we have the power to do so, prevent further damage, and lay the groundwork for the future,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
The devastating losses for Republicans in the midterm elections capped one of American politics’ most heated rivalries.
Now Mr. Trump, who attacked his predecessor and dismantled his policies for years, faces a Democratic-controlled Congress with the power to investigate his administration and frustrate his agenda by blocking legislation and appointments.
For Mr. Obama, the Democratic tsunami offers some vindication after Mr. Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 and his dedication to undoing his legacy, including efforts to scale back the Affordable Care Act.
Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, said Mr. Obama was enjoying a bit of revenge.
“Obama has deeply resented Trump’s attacks on his identity, and I think the stuff he says about Trump tends to have a much, much sharper edge than what he says about other Republicans,” Mr. Baker said. “There’s more of a feeling of trying to wound Trump rather than just make fun of him or make him look ridiculous.
“I think this comes from a much deeper place,” he said.
The bitter rivalry stretches back to 2011, when Mr. Trump emerged as the most prominent champion of the so-called birther movement, which claimed Mr. Obama was born outside the U.S. and was therefore ineligible to serve as president. The controversy transformed Mr. Trump from a real estate mogul and reality television star into a conservative activist.
Mr. Obama ultimately released his Hawaii birth certificate, but Mr. Trump continued questioning its authenticity for years before acknowledging in 2016 that his predecessor was born in the U.S.
Mr. Obama responded by famously mocking Mr. Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, portraying him as a deranged conspiracy theorist who would also question the moon landing. He also mocked Mr. Trump’s real estate background and presidential ambitions, joking that he would transform the White House into “a tacky casino with a whirlpool in the garden.”
“Each man has found a weak spot with the other, aimed for it and struck a pretty painful blow,” Mr. Baker said. “Trump questioned Obama’s origins and his religion and Obama humiliated Trump at the Correspondents’ dinner.”
This election cycle, Mr. Obama seized on his opportunity to strike back. He returned to the campaign trail in the final weeks of the midterms, delivering blistering attacks against Mr. Trump and his Republican allies and urging voters to turn their frustration into Democratic victories.
Mr. Obama appeared in Ohio to support Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton before traveling to Detroit to campaign alongside Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson. He then rallied voters in Georgia with Democratic Senate incumbent Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.
All six won their races handily Tuesday.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama ridiculed Mr. Trump, saying his legacy is “10 years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, tomfoolery [and] nonsense the likes of which this country hasn’t seen in modern times.”
Mr. Obama laid into Mr. Trump, saying he had never seen a president “excel in straight-up grifting on your dime.”
The former president also savaged his successor over renovations to the White House, joking that Mr. Trump was so focused on home renovation that “he should be on HGTV.”
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Gold everywhere,” he said in a line that particularly rankled Mr. Trump.
Robert Rowland, who teaches political rhetoric at the University of Kansas, said Mr. Obama’s remarks were successful because they not only irked Mr. Trump but also appealed to Republicans who crossed party lines to support his presidential bids in 2008 and 2012.
“He appealed to Reagan Democrats who are for less government than Democrats, but they just hate everything Trump stands for,” he said.
The election results gave Mr. Obama something he had been unable to accomplish during Mr. Trump’s first term: an opportunity to help deliver a major electoral defeat to his successor while the president was still in office.
The victory carried an additional irony. Mr. Obama sustained his own devastating midterm defeats in 2010 and 2014, when Republicans capitalized on dissatisfaction with his presidency to capture congressional seats.
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