After former first lady Michelle Obama's speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, social media posts across platforms like X, Facebook and TikTok surfaced criticizing her appearance and referring to her as "Big Mike" — a nod to a long-held conspiracy theory that she is secretly a transgender woman.
The claim isn't new. Roughly six years had passed since Barack Obama left the U.S. presidency when, in June 2023, podcaster Jason Whitlock released a 124-minute podcast episode largely dedicated to baseless conspiracy theories surrounding the former president and his family. In particular, Whitlock asked listeners to question whether Michelle Obama was in reality a trans woman attempting to keep her gender identity a secret from the public.
Additionally, Whitlock raised the possibility of Barack Obama being gay, a question that often coincides with conspiratorial thinking about Michelle Obama's gender identity. The podcast episode, part of Whitlock's show produced by the conservative media outlet TheBlaze, had 331,000 views on Whitlock's YouTube account, as of this writing.
"First of all, I don't know if Michelle is packing a sack or not," Royce White, a former NBA player and guest on the episode podcast, said to Whitlock. "I can't be sure. I've never seen her sack. I'd have to get up close to really know. Never been anywhere near the Obamas." (When we reached out to Whitlock to ask about the episode — namely, why these theories were covered on the show when there's...
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