Obama's half-brother is Trump's guest at debate

Malik Obama and Barack Obama at the president's wedding

NEW YORK – How did Malik Obama, the African-born half-brother of Barack Obama, go from being the best man at the president's wedding to appearing at the third debate as a guest of Donald Trump?

For one thing, he believes conditions "have only gotten worse for black people, especially in urban America, under my brother’s presidency."

Joel Gilbert, who has spent filming Malik Obama during visits to the United States, told WND he wasn't surprised when he learned that Malik would be a guest of Trump at the debate.

While Malik was initially enthusiastic his half-brother was elected president, he became disillusioned as he found himself shut out from Obama’s interest and affection.

Gilbert said he began a relationship with Malik nearly two years ago, when he mailed him a copy of his documentary Dreams from My Real Father."

“We spoke many times after that," said Gilbert. "Malik typically reiterated his disappointment that Barack did not fulfill his promises to help his father's foundation, and had completely distanced himself from the Kenyan Obama family after becoming president.”

Gilbert’s discussions with Malik about his relationship with his brother culminated in a video interview that now has more than 300,000 views.

From the ruins of Detroit to the slums of Chicago's South Side, Joel Gilbert pulls back the curtain in the movie "There's No Place Like Utopia," available now at the WND Superstore.

In the video, Gilbert asked Malik about how he felt about Barack’s treatment of him.

“Disappointed, disappointed, used, used and also betrayed,” Malik answered. “In the beginning I didn’t think that he was a schemer. His real character, his real personality, the real him, is coming out now.”

Malik said he was hurt by Barack’s reactions to him after Obama got to the White House.

“I’d like to see Barack be for real, not be so deceptive,” Malik explained. “He should live up to his word and be the leader that we expected him to be. If he truly is my father’s son, then he needs to behave in a way that if my father was back, was alive, he would be proud of him, because although my dad went through what he went through, he would never abandon his family.”

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See Gilbert’s interview with Malik Obama:

Why does Malik Obama support Trump?

Gilbert said that about four months ago, Malik began to express publicly his support for Trump, whom he admired as a businessman.

“Malik believes Trump is an authentic person, and he believes Trump can turn around the economic decline of America under the Democrats,” Gilbert said.

In his video-recorded conversations with Gilbert, Malik expressed his disappointment in how little his half-brother has done to improve the economic condition of African-Americans in U.S. society.

“Things have only gotten worse for black people, especially in urban America, under my brother’s presidency,” Malik said. “Democrats have betrayed African-Americans who vote for them, much as Barack has betrayed my affection.

"Sometimes it’s hard to remember I was best man at Barack’s wedding,” he said.

WND reported in April 2015, in the first of a two-part series, Malik's concerns that after Barack Obama made “a very big deal” of his African roots in his autobiographical book, “Dreams from My Father,” and in his first campaign for the White House, he cynically abandoned members of his African family.

During the 2008 campaign, photos of Malik at Barack's wedding were circulated by media.

“Barack’s not been an honest man, as far as I’m concerned, in who he is and what he says and how he treats people,” Malik told WND at that time, noting their relationship was once “very close.”

In the second part of the series, Malik charged that Barack exploited his impoverished African family for political gain then abandoned them after reaching the White House.

Malik’s troubled life in Africa

The charge that Malik was “one of the chief architects” managing money for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prior to the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi came from Egyptian judicial authorities, as WND reported in 2013.

In addition, WND reported a complaint was filed with the Egyptian High Court requesting Malik be placed on the terrorist watch list both for involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and for his role as the executive secretary of the Islamic Dawa Organization, a group created by the radical Islamic government of Sudan, which is considered by the U.S. State Department to be a terrorist state.

In 2011, WND reported Malik and President Obama’s African step-grandmother, Sara, established the Barack H. Obama Foundation as a non-profit in the U.S. While the applications of conservative organizations for tax-exempt status were languishing, Malik’s group, in an unusual procedure, was retroactively given approval in a letter signed by Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS tax-exempt division.

Gilbert insists Malik’s relationships “with questionable characters have been greatly misinterpreted.”

“All these relationships only have to do with Malik trying to find ways to help his extended family and his impoverished village financially,” he said.

“I can assure you that Malik is no terrorist-mastermind finance guy,” said Gilbert. “Malik has a 16-year-old son who is very ill. He doesn’t have money to keep his sick son in the hospital, and he can barely keep his car running.”