Today marks Barack Obama’s 61st birthday, so it is natural for people to look at the good and bad aspects of his tenure as a former American President. Before and during his presidency, Obama was also the subject of some amusing conspiracy theories.
Given his mixed ethnic background, the conservative Republicans floated all sorts of rumours during his campaign. And when he did become the first Black President of the United States, the haters did not stop from exaggerating his impact on the Oval Office.
Obama’s plan of Islamic States of America
Barack Hussein Obama has not shied away from talking about his middle name. His father Barack Obama Sr inherited the name Hussein from his own father who had converted from Catholicism to Islam. But as for Barack Obama’s own religious views, he has been a Protestant Christian. This hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists to suggest that Obama is a hardliner Muslim who was even secretly sworn-in as President on the Quran!
Jewish political commentator Avi Lipkin went on to the extent of saying he fears Obama because he will invade Israeli Jews and start a new Holocaust. How exactly? In a now-deleted YouTube video, Lipkin claimed that Obama would bring 100 million Muslims to America by the end of his second term, effectively creating the Islamic State of America. Then, this militia of Sunni Muslims would then be used to march towards Israel and destroy it!
Married a Pakistani Man
The common tendency among conservative conspiracy theorists in America is to brand a person as either Muslim, peadophile, devil worshipper, or a homosexual. Obama too fell prey to such claims with some overanalysing his bromance with a Pakistani man called Sal Maqbool. Obama and Maqbool were roommates back in his Harvard days. Sharing an apartment in Harlem, Obama has referred to Maqbool in his memoir Dreams of My Father as an easygoing, drug-taking, party animal of a friend.
Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and a correspondent for the far-right fake news platform WorldNetDaily, posted a (now-deleted) video claiming that the photos where both friends are visibly close and chummy can be seen as strong evidence of Obama’s homosexuality! More commentators were quick to point out that Obama had been sporting a gold ring on his finger for several years (other than his wedding ring). A gay wedding ring is what these theories suggested!
Caused Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive hurricanes in America, leading to $68 billion in damages. As the hurricane took place in 2012 when Obama was still President, far-right radio personality Alex Jones’s website was quick to suggest that Obama alone caused the hurricane so that the subsequent disaster relief efforts could maintain his popularity.
Ignoring all meteorological possibilities, it was blatantly claimed that Obama had access to a secret Pentagon project that could manipulate the weather and that the evil President was cooking up his own storm. This seems like something straight out of a sci-fi disaster flick.
Hypnotised Americans into voting for him
I'm convinced Pres. Obama is either a hypnotist or an alien. Who else could get people to follow them by turning their brains to mush?
— CraigDeLuz (@CraigDeLuz) August 15, 2012
Propagated by conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh and even Georgia Republican candidates, there is a popular theory that brands Obama as a master hypnotiser. More specifically, he was a master of ‘neurolinguistic programming’ and used subliminal messages in his campaign speeches to attract voters.
Previously, all sorts of leaders have been alleged to be master hypnotists, ranging from Adolf Hitler to John F Kennedy to Martin Luther King Jr.
Pornstar mother and communist father
As reported by publications like Uproxx, a scandalous DVD was sent out to several voters across multiple American states during the final year of Obama’s first term. Probably an attempt to demotivate voters from electing him for the second term, the video included an exaggerated voiceover (claiming that it’s Obama) that made tall claims like Obama’s mother posing nude for pornographic magazines even when she was pregnant with him.
This isn’t enough. Without any strong photographic evidence, the creators of the video also add that his mother posed with other women, proving that she was also a lesbian! Neither Obama’s biological Kenyan father or Indonesian stepfather were mentioned in the video. Instead, labour movement activist and journalist Frank Marshall Davis was alleged to be his biological father and mentor. The video added that Davis taught Obama all about Marxism, wanting him to spread Marxist agenda all over the country.
All the wild conspiracy theories aside, Obama remains a US President that perhaps millennials most relate to (given that his successor was Donald Trump).