The Democratic National Convention has been ongoing this week in Chicago, Illinois, ostensibly in support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's presidential nominee.

Yet, in terms of mere mentions, former President Donald Trump has been the star of the show, as evidenced by the Trump-focused speeches delivered by former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

And, for an event billed as purportedly highlighting the happiness and joy of Democrats, the anti-Trump speeches from the Obamas and others have been decidedly angry and crude, full of spite and vengeance against their deeply despised political opponent, more so than positively uplifting their own candidate.

Obama on the attack against Trump

Per the Times, former President Obama seemingly delivered two speeches in one at the DNC, as he at times echoed his hopeful and "transcendent" remarks from earlier in his career while at others he viciously attacked his Republican successor in the White House with uncharacteristic fury.

"Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them; between the real Americans who support him and the outsiders who don’t," Obama said in his own moment of divisiveness. "And he wants you to think that you’ll be richer and safer if you just give him the power to put those 'other' people back in their place."

In another pointed attack, the former president said of Trump, "Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he is afraid of losing to Kamala."

"There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories -- this weird obsession with crowd sizes," he added mockingly while bringing his hands close together, which triggered uproarious laughter and applause from the supposedly kind and empathetic DNC attendees.

President Obama: It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that Trump is afraid of losing to Kamala. The childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories and weird obsession with crowd sizes 🤏 pic.twitter.com/cstJYrpiCg

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 21, 2024

Trump complimented Obama ahead of scathing DNC speech

Ironically enough, in clear defiance of expectations, former President Obama's mean-spirited anti-Trump speech was prefaced by unexpected compliments from the Republican nominee for his Democratic predecessor, according to Fox News.

While speaking to a CNN reporter earlier in the evening, Trump said of Obama, "I like him. I think he’s a nice gentleman, but he was very, very weak on trade," and mentioned the "disaster" trade-wise of his policies with China and Japan and other nations.

"But I happen to like him. I respect him and I respect his wife," he added -- though that claimed like and respect was not reciprocated later by the Obamas.

Harris leads national polls, Trump leads most swing states

If former President Obama's DNC speech was intended to shake up the election by bolstering VP Harris and diminishing former President Trump, it is far too soon to tell if he succeeded in that goal.

According to the RealClearPolling average of polls, Harris leads Trump nationally by around 1.5 points, which is substantially lower than the 7.6-point lead of President Joe Biden and the 5.5-point lead of former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton at this same point in the 2020 and 2016 cycles, respectively.

Furthermore, winning the national popular vote is meaningless when the election is decided at the state level in the Electoral College, and in that regard Trump is ahead of Harris in five critical battleground states -- Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania -- while Harris leads Trump in just two of those important swing states, Michigan and Wisconsin.