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GERARD BAKER

The Obama halo is in danger of slipping

Evidence is growing that his administration bent the rules to undermine Trump’s incoming team over Russian collusion

The Times

Every presidency gets a reappraisal at some point — some for the better, some for the worse. John F Kennedy’s went from Camelot to Sodom and Gomorrah and back again in a few years. Ronald Reagan was supposedly a halfwit B-movie actor bent on blowing up the planet until he won the Cold War and reinvigorated American capitalism.

There is no chance Barack Obama will be removed any time soon from the pedestal the world’s media put him on the first day he ran for office.

For his many admirers, his successor serves only to polish his halo. Donald Trump is everything Barack Obama was not: inarticulate; boorish; unsophisticated. Trump is well-done steak and vanilla ice cream. Obama is sushi and crème brûlée. Above all