Five years ago today, on Aug. 28, 2014, President Barack Obama wore a tan suit.
I know, I know! You’re going to have some feelings about this. It’s okay. Take some time to sit with those feelings.
As The Washington Post points out, over the past two and a half years, pointing to the tan suit to highlight the difference between an Obama-era scandal and Trump-era scandal has come to be something of a cliche. But it earned its cliche status: “In the past week alone, the tan suit comparison has been leveled against President Trump’s assertion that he is “the chosen one,” his demand that U.S. companies leave China, and his desire to hold next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort — just to name a few examples.” Can we add Trump offering pardons to officials who break laws to build his wall more quickly? If no one has done the “but remember when Obama wore a tan suit” line on that one, I volunteer to do so.
Rep. Peter King, who at the time said that Obama “looked like he was on his way to a party at the Hamptons” and “thought the suit was a metaphor for his lack of seriousness” despite Obama’s four predecessors as president having worn tan suits in office, tweeted yesterday that Trump’s “proposal to purchase Greenland from Denmark should be treated seriously”—despite Greenland and Denmark having thoroughly shot down the idea more than a week ago.
It’s outrage after outrage after outrage, and we’re lucky if what would have been an impeachable scandal under Obama gets the level of reaction that damn suit got. So, yeah. It’s probably not going to stop being a cliche for at least the next year and a half.