Ever since he was elected the President of the United States, Donald Trump has loved drawing comparisons with his predecessor, Barrack Obama.
His recent visit to Yad Vashem – Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust – starkly brings out the gulf between the present and former heads of state.
Famous visitors to the memorial typically show reverence by writing a message in the Book of Remembrance. Trump chose to write about the wonderful time he was having during his visit. His message was originally tweeted by Ian Bremmer, an American political scientist specialising in US foreign policy.
Trump’s message read:
The upbeat and self-absorbed nature of Trump’s message quickly attracted criticism, with many on Twitter lambasting him for treating the visit with the same casual irreverence as his tweets.
In stark contrast, President Obama had penned a thoughtful message during his visit to the memorial in July 2008.
Obama’s message read:
Twitter users drew similar comparisons to a message written by Trump’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, who, like Obama, penned a sombre message that reflected the memorial’s significance.
While former President George W Bush’s message was even shorter than Trump’s, the sentiment is likely to have resonated much louder with Israelis.
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