Malia Obama has been mocked by the internet and gently chided by her father after she dropped her famous surname for her first movie credit.
‘It’s still nepotism,’ one internet commenter said after Barack Obama confirmed the former first daughter, 26, will go by Malia Ann on the credits of a short movie called The Heart that she’s made with megastar Donald Glover.
Another commenter said ‘Nepo baby,’ while a third suggested Malia had dropped her surname professionally to avoid being associated with dad Barack’s foreign policy decisions while in office.
Barack himself gently joked about his daughter’s decision to snub the name on the Pivot podcast, branding her ‘stubborn.’
He said Malia and sister Sasha, 23, ‘go out of their way to not try to leverage’ their familial status but indicated he was supportive of their decision to do so.
The former president said: ‘The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,’ he told host Ryan Clark. ‘I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.’
