Going into the third and final presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle, Donald Trump‘s strategy appears to be attempting to make his general election rival’s former boss’s next family reunion kind of awkward.
It’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off.
CNN reports that Trump is planning to bring President Barack Obama‘s half-brother, Malik Obama, to the debate as his personal guest. “I look very much forward to meeting and being with Malik,” Trump said. “He gets it far better than his brother.”
Malik Obama—who, unlike his half-brother, was born in Kenya—has been a vocal critic of the president’s policies. In an interview earlier this year, Malik Obama told the New York Post he was deeply disappointed in the Obama administration’s decision to oust Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, whom he called one of his best friends. “I still feel that getting rid of Gaddafi didn’t make things any better in Libya,” he said. “My brother and the secretary of state disappointed me in that regard.”
Malik Obama told the Post he switched from being a Democrat to being a Republican due to the Democratic Party’s embrace of same-sex marriage. “I feel like a Republican now because they don’t stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me,” said Malik Obama, who told the Daily Mail in 2013 that he has 12 wives.
Malik Obama’s stated friendship with Gaddafi may be awkward, because Trump’s other guest for the evening is the mother of one of diplomat Sean Smith, who was killed in a 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
For her part, Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is bringing two billionaires, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, both of whom have been deeply critical of Trump. Cuban, in particular, has repeatedly questioned if Trump is a wealthy as he says he is—a subject on which the former reality TV star has been historically touchy.
In the previous debate, which occurred days after the release of an 11-year old tape in which Trump brags to former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about how his wealth and fame allow him to commit sexual assault with impunity, Trump’s guests were women who have accused Clinton’s husband of sexual impropriety.
It’s really too bad Wednesday’s contest is final debate of the election—there’s another person who would make an excellent Trump guest:
I know who Trump is bringing to the debate pic.twitter.com/sTfSB3sYgY
— Ilya Lozovsky (@ichbinilya) October 19, 2016
