The world of politics is always filled with scandals. The antics of powerful figures like presidents and their families inevitably make headlines. And wild headlines are enough to get even those who are completely tuned out of politics to suddenly care about what’s going on in the White House.
Of course, as time passes, it’s easy to tell which “scandals” were just a big old nothingburger. This was the case with many of the craziest headlines concerning Barack Obama and his family. Controversial events that seemed very important way back when just don’t seem to matter that much these days, and we can hardly believe anybody cared about this stuff in the first place.
What kind of headlines are we even talking about? Keep reading to learn all about the silliest Obama family scandals of all time.
Barack Obama’s infamous tan suit
The best example of an absurd Barack Obama “scandal” can be summed up with two little words: “tan suit.” On August 28, 2014, the former president appeared at a White House press conference rocking a tan suit. Normally, he wore darker colors, but he decided to change things up that day. He looked fine and the press conference went well, but the tan suit sent shockwaves throughout conservative media circles.
For example, as the Sydney Morning Herald reports, Republican Congressman Peter King told Newsmax “If you were the head of ISIS … [w]ould you be afraid that the United States was going to use all its power to crush ISIS? Or would you think, ‘Here’s a person who’s going to go out and do a few fundraisers over the Labor Day weekend?’ It seemed crazy then and seems crazy now, but King spoke for a very vocal minority of conservatives who hated Obama’s outfit and thought he wasn’t taking his responsibilities seriously.
After years of Donald Trump controversies (including, most recently, worldwide tariffs that threaten to send America spiraling into a recession), it’s now fair to say the tan suit scandal was no scandal at all.
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Michelle Obama’s bare-armed scandal
As a general rule, conservatives are major fans of the Second Amendment and its promise that US citizens have the right to bear arms. Apparently, though, many of them feel that “bare arms” is a different story, especially when it comes to Michelle Obama. For her first official photo as FLOTUS, she wore a tasteful pearl necklace and matching dress. But the dress exposed her arms, and many of her critics thought this was far too informal of a look.
This entire scandal was propped up and sustained by the idea that Michelle Obama wasn’t taking her roles and responsibilities seriously enough. Wendy Donahue, the Chicago Tribune style editor, later told ABC News what kinds of complaints her publication got about Michelle’s bare arms. “Most of the complaints centered on the dress conveying a sense of informality on a serious occasion.” These days, most people realize what an odd complaint this is…frankly, most of us would love to return to the kind of administration where the worst thing we complain about is what the president or his FLOTUS is wearing.
Malia Obama’s love of partying goes viral
Understandably, most of the Obama family scandals began with Barack and Michelle. Their daughters Malia and Sasha were very young and largely kept out of the public eye for the first few years of Barack’s administration. As the girls got older, though, Malia began generating some major scandals of her own, most of which concerned her love of partying.
For example, back in 2016, Malia was recorded at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, smoking what appeared to be a joint on camera. This came as a real surprise to many, both because Barack and Michelle are so wholesome and because Malia missed out on the Democratic National Convention to attend the festival. One year later, she attended the same festival and was spotted rolling on the ground and pounding it with her hands before her own security escorted her out, prompting rumors of drug use.
Admittedly, the sight of a president’s child possibly on drugs is pretty scandalizing. But in retrospect, all of this controversy came from the fact that a young person enjoys music festivals and possibly getting high. Hardly the end of the world!
RELATED: The Shocking Nasty Habit Sasha and Malia Obama Learned From Barack
Barack Obama and the fancy cheeseburger
Did you think the tan suit was the weirdest Barack Obama controversy? If so, we’ve got two more words for you: “cheeseburger mustard.” Back in May 2009, Obama and Joe Biden dropped into a Virginia diner for a bite to eat. As you can see in this clip on X, Obama wasn’t too fancy, simply ordering “just your basic cheddar cheeseburger, medium-well.” However, his choice of condiments proved shocking when the president asked for “a spicy mustard or a Dijon mustard, something like that.”
The conservative sphere exploded at this, with talk show host Sean Hannity calling Obama “President Poupon” and sneering “I hope you enjoyed that ‘fancy burger.’” Fellow talk show host Laura Ingraham went so far as to “What kind of man eats a cheeseburger without ketchup?” These days, though, most of us can agree that cheeseburger condiments are not that big of a deal, and we can only dream of another presidential administration where the worst thing a sitting president does is order a fancy burger.