In the modern era, the rule is that ex-presidents don't get into the business of the current one. You want to get an invite to those Presidents' Club events, after all. Until Friday, Barack Obama has largely observed that rule even as his successor—who launched his political career by suggesting Obama was not born in this country, then went on to claim, among other things, that he "founded ISIS"—romped around the country threatening the American republic itself.

Obama never criticized Trump by name after he won election in 2016—until today.

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Former President Obama on President Trump:



"He is a symptom, not the cause. He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years." pic.twitter.com/UUzo4Sti59 — NBC News (@NBCNews) September 7, 2018

Trump's entire political existence is a negation of the first black presidency. He is the embodiment of White American backlash against the country's changing demographics, which are chipping away at the nation's traditional power center and threatening its status as the center of American life.

But Obama is right to diagnose Trump as the symptom. The Republican Party has been moving in this direction for decades, waging the culture wars while shoveling larger and larger shares of the country's wealth towards big business and the rich with the cooperation of corporate Democrats.

As if eager to drive home Obama's point, the White House sent spokesperson Mercedes Schlapp out to respond to the speech thusly:

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On Fox News, White House spox @mercedesschlapp responds to Obama's speech: "[Dems] want free Medicare, everything free -- that's not what American values stand for... President Trump is about standing up, putting hand on his heart, supporting the anthem, supporting our country" pic.twitter.com/bhySiWaprR — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2018

So Obama says you're ginning up racial resentment and you respond by...bringing up protests by primarily black and brown NFL players during the national anthem, whom the president once referred to as "sons of bitches." Got it.

It's unclear why Obama chose this moment to call out Trump by name. But the ex-president certainly engaged with the issues of the moment, including that Secret Op-Ed Hero who popped up in The New York Times:

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Barack Obama on anonymous op-ed writer: "They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this White House, and then saying, 'Don't worry, we're preventing the other 10%.'" pic.twitter.com/5xbMEBwKNh — Yahoo News (@YahooNews) September 7, 2018

These revelations, combined with Trump's slurred-speech and particularly unhinged performance in Montana Thursday night, speak to a perilous moment for the nation. Perhaps that drove Obama to break the Ex-Presidents' Rule—or maybe it's just that an election coming up.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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