World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court and this kind of thing." He also claimed that promises to stem mass migration by invigorating the Latin American economy had failed. He supported a renegotiation of NAFTA and the eventual United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. Limbaugh defended the Trump tariffs and the China–United States trade war as a legitimate response to predatory Chinese trade practices and its Communist command economy. Barack Obama conspiracy theories Rush Limbaugh strongly opposed Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election, and spread false claims that Obama was a non-citizen not born in the United States. Limbaugh predicted that Obama would be unable to win the election. On January 16, 2009, Limbaugh commented on the then-upcoming Obama presidency, "I hope he fails." Limbaugh later said that he wanted to see Obama's policies fail, not the man himself. Limbaugh frequently referred to the Obama administration or presidency as regime or as the Obama regime, or even junta. Speaking of Obama, Limbaugh said, "He's my president, he's a human being, and his ideas and policies are what count for me." Limbaugh later discouraged efforts to impeach Barack Obama as politically unrealistic. Limbaugh accused Obama of using his race to prevent criticism of his policies, and said he was successful in his first year in office only because conservative members of the 111th Congress feared accusations of racism. Limbaugh featured a recurring skit in which his colleague James Golden, who described himself as an "African-American-in-good-standing-and-certified-black-enough-to-criticize-Obama guy", appeared in a cameo as the "Official EIB Obama Criticizer". Limbaugh blamed Obama's foreign policy, including the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, for allowing the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Limbaugh also claimed that the 2012 Benghazi attack occurred due to a secret arms trafficking operation to the Syrian opposition authorized by Obama and coordinated by Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, speculating that the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak would reveal evidence of it. Limbaugh also criticized the Russian reset, viewing Vladimir Putin's rule in the Russian Federation as a thinly-veiled continuation of the Soviet Union and Marxism–Leninism. He was also critical of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, including of Obama's decision to ratify it as an executive agreement, and claimed that it was used as a pretext for surveillance against Obama's political opponents. Limbaugh argued that side agreements of the JCPOA limited transparency and would obligate the United