Ha my imagination went there too. It’s an “Indonesian” design. It would not be incredibly far fetched to imagine it had some arabic inscription that he wanted to remove for political insurance purposes. Probably just getting it re-sized or something though. A Tiger Woods-style sex scandal would provide amusing election season entertainment though so we can always pretend Michelle gnawed it off his hand.
So Michelle has a traditional band, but his doesn’t match hers. His is symbolic of his first commitment being not her, but to the imperially victimized ‘other’, as epitomized by the largest Muslim country in the world, whom he’s going to champion from his position within the Global Imperialists of America.