Suavity is a sorely missed ingredient in the American presidency. The effortless charm of a Roosevelt or a Reagan, a Bush or a Clinton, projected a particular brand of power. Suave means a kind of athletic ease and self-command in difficult, spotlighted circumstances, the assurance that solutions are at hand if only we all hold our composure and act right-headedly. Here was the ultra-suave Barack Obama’s message to the basketball player Caitlin Clark in a small but noteworthy exchange over the WNBA All-Star weekend: It never hurts to be winsome. In fact, it can help you win.Can you imagine Donald Trump in the same situation, what he’d have done or said, the race-baiting and appeal to baseness? As if Trump would even deign to meet a WNBA player, that is. He prefers to use the league’s players from afar for his own purposes. His White House has made the WNBA a flash point for attacks on transgender athletes, and he and his hard-right allies have tried to make Clark out to be a victim of racial violence on the court. Congressional conservatives even called for the federal government to investigate the WNBA for civil-rights violations because of players fouling her. Here is how Trump used another young woman he views as an adversary, the CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner yesterday, while Obama was visiting WNBA players in Chicago: After Collins received an award for “excellence under deadline pressure,” Trump barked from the podium that it was a “fake” prize, that she didn’t deserve it, and then he went to some lengths to demean her. Not suave. Not winning.The WNBA has been difficult to watch at times this season, so rife with racial tensions, toxic fan behavior, and carping over officiating that it seems a microcosm of a country in crisis over dirty play in seemingly every societal arena. Much ill will has swirled around Clark, the superstar 24-year-old guard for the Indiana Fever, who can be either mesmerizing to watch or tiresome, depending on how aggrieved she feels on the day. Clark has complained that she is intentionally targeted with hard fouls—and sometimes she is, but not because she’s white. Mauling is the guaranteed, time-honored way to stop an otherwise insuperable player. Clark is the fastest in league history to hit 200 three-pointers, the first to ever score 45 points with 11 assists in a game, and such a head-clutchingly great passer that she can make defenses look like they’re lost. And Clark’s got a plenty hard edge of her own. She can jaw so vociferously at referees that she’s gotten seven technical fouls this season, one away from a suspension.That has done nothing to help calm matters in a league whose product is being torn apart by internal resentments and external malignity. In mid-June, when Alyssa Thomas of the Phoenix Mercury was suspended for a game for hitting Clark in the throat—inadvertently, according to Thomas—she received death threats, was subjected to racial slurs, and inspired those bad-faith congressional demands for an investigation. “Now we’re being painted as thugs,” Thomas told reporters. In mid-July, Chelsea Gray of the Las Vegas Aces, who is almost as superb a player as Clark, received a vile message after her team lost to the Fever. Gray decided to post it on social media so everyone could see what Black players can deal with when they go against the league’s white darling. You s* a** ugly a** read a message that also called her the N-word. Gray wrote on her post, “People act like we just make this s* up.”That was the backstory when Obama surprised the WNBA All-Stars players by walking in on them during practice for tonight’s game. They were milling around an indoor court at the newly opened Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side when the man with his name on the building sauntered across the floor in jeans and a white broadcloth shirt to welcome them—and to gently remind them of certain truths: It has taken 30 years of effort by underpaid and unsung athletes for the league to finally arrive as a popular mass spectacle, and no matter what team the players are on, they’re all in that endeavor together. The WNBA’s growing commercial success is based in its relatability and affordability compared with men’s pro leagues, but also in the audience’s sense that it is watching not just a game but the slow triumph of women gaining power for themselves. “People paying attention to your excellence, I think, has been something, for basketball fans generally, a sight to see,” Obama told them.The former president took pains to make clear that he’s a genuine follower of the league. He made small remarks to various players about their seasons as he posed for photos. Then Obama spotted Clark. “Oh hey!” he said. “Caitlin! You’re great!” He leaned in closer, to deliver a more personal message, picked up by a hot mic. “Don’t let all this nonsense get you down,” he told her. “I always say one of the things that was luckiest for me was that I didn’t get famous ’til I was like 45. So I was an old-ass man. I mean, you’re my daughter’s age. And to have that much burden and, you know, nonsense. So don’t lose that joy. The game’s, like, the game. And you’re a hooper. And you hoop.”“I try—sometimes,” she said shyly.“You’re always hooping,” he said. “And you’re on a nice little run right now.”There was a sweetness in the moment, a subtle teaching. In the nicest way, Obama shored Clark up, but also reminded her that she is a greater player and public figure when she just plays the game, accepts the inevitable bad calls and frustrations, and doesn’t let the web-brewed poisons into her blood. Left unspoken was the fact that no one has been subject to more unfairness than Black women who can’t buy a call from refs, and don’t get their own signature sneaker deals, either. Obama chose not to corner Clark on that point. Instead, he gave her grace. And perhaps because he did so, she will have more grace with her opponents—and they will, with her.Clark is a peerless young player who can be a bit of a brat when she gets batted around. She’s learning. “Sometimes, I think, people don’t always realize, like, I’m 23 or 24 years old and I’m trying to navigate a lot of different things while trying to play basketball at the same time,” she told the press after meeting Obama. “So, it was cool to hear that from him and I think, honestly, it’s probably a good reminder for all of us to treat people with respect, treat people with grace.”It was a quietly interesting and complicated encounter, and a heartening reminder of what “presidential” can look like. Clark already knows how to win. But Obama gave her a lesson in how to be winning.