Obama and Trump square off over masculinity

• Obama isn't just campaigning to help Harris. He wants to exorcise Trump from American politics.
• It's a mission he began in 2011, when Trump became the chief "birther" agitator trying to delegitimize the country's first Black president.

Driving the news: At campaign rallies and in interviews the past two weeks, Obama has cast Harris as the presidential candidate with "real strength" while mocking Trump as a "pretend-tough guy" and an insecure whiner.

• "I've noticed this especially with some men who seem to think Trump's behavior is somehow a sign of strength — the fake macho thing," Obama told a crowd Monday in Philadelphia.

Outside Atlanta last week while introducing Harris, Obama said: "I hear folks saying, 'Yeah, I'm thinking about vote for him just because.' And I say, 'What?' And they say, 'Well, I know he seems strong. He seems tough. I saw him at the UFC fight.' "

• "I am here to tell you, that is not what real strength is."
• In Las Vegas, Obama told voters that Trump's behavior amounts to "bullying" and "putting [people] down" — and that "real strength is about helping those who have less or need some help."

Democrats retain a large advantage among Black voters, but Trump has made significant gains in recent years among Black men. Some of Obama's recent messaging has been aimed at them.

• Besides Obama, the Democrats' rally near Atlanta featured several prominent Black men — including actor Samuel L. Jackson, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and filmmakers Spike Lee and Tyler Perry — expressing support for Harris and echoing Obama's sentiments on manhood.

Trump has long cast Obama as "weak" and insufficiently tough for the world stage.

• At a rally in North Carolina last week, Trump mentioned Obama getting back on the trail and made his voice tremble in fake terror before dismissing him.
• Trump said North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "didn't respect Obama."
• "I think the guy's exhausted. I never say a guy's looking old but he's looking a little bit older isn't he?" Trump, 78, said of Obama, 63.

Between the lines: Trump and Obama loathe each other, and the attacks between them veer into race-baiting and schoolyard taunts.

• Trump, who previously ran to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., continues to address the former president as "Barack Hussein Obama" in rallies and on social media.
• Trump recently called Obama a "real jerk" and Michelle Obama "nasty" after they criticized Trump.

During his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama insinuated that Trump focused so much on crowd sizes to make up for being poorly endowed.

• Trump spokesperson Steven Chung told Axios: "It sounds like Barack Obama is self-conscious about his own masculinity and manhood."

Trump has made appealing to men a key part of his campaign strategy while casting himself as strong and Harris as weak. The result: a testosterone-heavy vibe at Trump events.

• At his rally in Madison Square Garden last weekend, just six of the 31 speakers were women.
• The speakers in New York repeatedly presented Trump as "tough" and a "fighter." Some made misogynistic jokes belittling Harris.
• "Fight! Fight! Fight!," has become a rallying cry among Trump supporters — Trump's chant after he almost was assassinated in July.
• Last week in Georgia, the crowd at a Trump rally greeted him with cheers of "Daddy's home!" after Tucker Carlson compared him to a disciplinary father who was going to give his misbehaving daughter a spanking.

Flashback: Trump and Obama's divergent views of masculinity were molded by their upbringings.

• Trump had a domineering, workaholic father who split the world into two groups: killers and losers.
• In his New York speech, Trump said his father, Fred Trump, was "a tough guy" but "legit."
• "I know my mother's in heaven. I'm not 100% sure [about] my father, but it's close," Trump said to laughs.

Obama has talked repeatedly about how his mother and absent father shaped his views on being a man.

• "Some of you know, I grew up, I didn't have a father in the house," he told the crowd in Las Vegas.
• "But I did have a lot of people around me — a stepfather, my grandparents, teachers, coaches, most of all, my mom — who taught me the difference between right and wrong, showed me what it meant to have integrity, to be honest, to be responsible, to work hard, to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated."
• Obama added: "One of the most disturbing things about this election, about Trump's rise in politics, we seem to have set aside the values that so many of us were taught."