Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Malik Obama, former President Barack Obama’s older half-brother, doesn’t share the same political views as the 44th president.
Malik and Barack have the same father, the original Barack Obama. Barack senior left Nairobi, Kenya for Hawaii when Malik was only a year old.
He attended the University of Hawaii where he met Barack’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham and together they had Barack. The senior Obama eventually returned to his native Kenya.
Malik and Barack had a very close relationship at one time. They were each the best man at the other’s wedding.
Malik lived and worked in the U.S. for 14 years, on and off, allowing the brothers to form a strong bond. Malik brought his younger brother to Kenya in the late 80s to meet his extended family and introduce him to his roots.
Somewhere along the line, there was a riff between the two brothers and it was probably more than their opposite views on politics.
Malik is a strong supporter of former President Trump. He has been quoted as saying, “I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart. Make America Great Again is a great slogan. I would like to meet him.”
Trump obliged by inviting him to attend the final 2016 presidential debate. Before the debate, the Donald said, “I look very much forward to meeting and being with Malik. He gets it far better than his brother.”
Malik went all in this week with his tweet in support of the Republican party.
Malik posted several tweets, “Vote Republican up and down the ticket! Mr. Elon Musk. Put President Trump back on Twitter. We are Republican we vote Republican.”
The new Twitter CEO echoed Malik’s recommendation by replying, “To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.”
He appealed to independent voters saying, “Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who’s in charge!”
Malik Obama has close to 300,000 Twitter followers and he seems to be doubling down on his message.
He added tweets in support of specific Republican candidates like Tudor Dixon who is running for governor of Michigan and Herschel Walker, the GOP senate candidate in Georgia.
Today, on Election Day, he tweeted, “Vote Red Removing Every Democrat.”
Most recent polling from CNN has 48% of independents indicating that they’ll vote for Republicans. 45% say they’ll vote for Democrats.
This is a huge shift towards the Republican party. The last midterm elections in 2018 were quite the opposite with the GOP losing 40 seats in the House.
According to NBC News, Americans cast more than 40 million votes ahead of election day in early voting as heavy hitters like former presidents Trump, Obama, and Clinton made their way around the country drumming up support for their endorsed candidates.
