I feel like entering the discussion about whether Donald Trump is driven by some sort of racial animus against people of color.

Why now? Well, I keep hearing the president leveling gratuitous criticism of Barack H. Obama. He keeps yapping, yammering and yowling about Obama’s record, making untrue statements about whether Obama was “outsmarted” or overmatched when facing down world leaders.

He keeps trying to inflate his own record in comparison to President Obama’s two terms in office.

So I keep wondering, why does he feel the need to single out Barack Obama?

Is it because the black guy is smarter, more erudite, more nuanced, more sophisticated than he is?

Might it have something to do with the skewering Obama leveled at Trump a few years ago during the White House Correspondence Dinner, when Obama poked fun at Trump’s former role as host of “Celebrity Apprentice”? You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the president’s stand-up at the mic at Trump’s expense.

How does one explain Trump’s long-standing obsession with the lie that Obama was born in Kenya and was not constitutionally qualified to run for the office to which he was elected twice?

And how does one justify Trump’s phony assertion that Barack Obama didn’t perform well academically at Harvard Law School, or at Columbia University?

Trump now is president of the United States and he insists on mounting fraudulent attacks on President Obama. Does he beat the drum with the same frequency and intensity with, say, President Clinton, or President Carter, or President Johnson, or President Kennedy? No.

President Barack Obama gets the vast majority of Donald Trump’s barrages.

Is race a factor?

Hmm. Seems like it is to me.