In private, Obama didn't hold back on how he felt about Trump

The Guardian:

For much of Donald Trump’s presidency, Barack Obama largely abided by the convention that former presidents do not publicly criticize or attack their successors.

Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims
Obama jettisoned any such caution during the 2020 election that put his own vice-president, Joe Biden, in the White House. But behind the scenes, with donors and advisers, Obama was reportedly much more candid.

According to a new book, Obama called Trump a “madman”, a “racist, sexist pig”, “that fucking lunatic” and a “corrupt motherfucker”.


The remarks are reported in Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump by Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at the Atlantic, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Obama was always truthful.

Yeah, I'm sure Obama didn't think much of Trump. He's not a very likable human.  

Maybe folks are surprised he uses this sort of language in private?

Maddog wrote:Yeah, I'm sure Obama didn't think much of Trump. He's not a very likable human.  

Maybe folks are surprised he uses this sort of language in private?

Not at all.  Harvard graduates occasionally use words like "fuckin" and "lunatic", when it appropriately describes the personality.  When the topic is someone like Trump, a low-rent intellect whose father's money bought him a certificate to hang on the wall, the adjectives are simply addressing the content in the pejorative--ie, words Trump, himself, would understand.

Call it poetic portraiture, if you like.

Obama only seems to have used words about Trump that every other sane person has used (or thought) at one time or another.

Syl wrote:Obama only seems to have used words about Trump that every other sane person has used (or thought) at one time or another.

Hear, hear... My point exactly.

I'm more interested in what Obama called others, to be frank.

Trump is kind of a no brainer.

So someone is tittle-tattling on Obama? Using things he supposedly said in private?

It could be read completely cynically -- that Obama's blunt statements to people donating to his foundation were calculated to assure these rich donors that Obama agreed with them -- but it seems more likely to me that Obama knew all along that he was saying these things in front of enough people that he knew they'd be published one day and didn't care.

Ben Reilly wrote:It could be read completely cynically -- that Obama's blunt statements to people donating to his foundation were calculated to assure these rich donors that Obama agreed with them -- but it seems more likely to me that Obama knew all along that he was saying these things in front of enough people that he knew they'd be published one day and didn't care.

Or so we assume...

In any case, it’s hardly news. He spouted off about someone he didn’t like, in private.

eddie wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:It could be read completely cynically -- that Obama's blunt statements to people donating to his foundation were calculated to assure these rich donors that Obama agreed with them -- but it seems more likely to me that Obama knew all along that he was saying these things in front of enough people that he knew they'd be published one day and didn't care.

Or so we assume...

In any case, it’s hardly news. He spouted off about someone he didn’t like, in private.

I think it's news. Obama had a very respectful, hopeful chat with Trump in the White House before Trump assumed the presidency, and Obama was normally very reserved about anybody he didn't like. The fact that he used such salty language in front of people who could easily blab to the media and apparently didn't care is a bit shocking from Obama -- and his eight years as president add newsworthiness to his words.

He simply sounds like an average person to me - polite in public and someone different in private - and perhaps because he was like that, he actually doesn’t appreciate trusted people blabbing his private thoughts?
It’s really not a massive deal in my opinion. Sounds like any and all politicians with two very different faces.

eddie wrote:He simply sounds like an average person to me - polite in public and someone different in private - and perhaps because he was like that, he actually doesn’t appreciate trusted people blabbing his private thoughts?

It’s really not a massive deal in my opinion. Sounds like any and all politicians with two very different faces.

Or...more like "an average person", whether politician or not.

I agree.  He's an ordinary person. Nevertheless, I'd like to hear his private moments on Kim Jong-un, or Putin, whom we know he hated.

Well...he’d probably say he hated them?

I’m not entirely convinced he’s happy about his thoughts being “outed”, otherwise why didn’t he speak out publicly?

That’s my problem with people in general. Be honest. Don’t have two faces.

eddie wrote:Well...he’d probably say he hated them?

I’m not entirely convinced he’s happy about his thoughts being “outed”, otherwise why didn’t he speak out publicly?

That’s my problem with people in general. Be honest. Don’t have two faces.

I'm assuming he said them in front of the journalist who is doing the story.

So he probably can't be surprised if it gets reported.

Obama is smart. If he really wanted something to stay private, he would never say it front of a journalist.

"Extracts of Dovere’s candid reporting have been published elsewhere – including a passage in which the now first lady, Jill Biden, is quoted as saying now Vice-President Kamala Harris should “go fuck herself” after a memorable debate-stage attack on Joe Biden early in the primary."


Also from this journalist and his book.

eddie wrote:Well...he’d probably say he hated them?

I’m not entirely convinced he’s happy about his thoughts being “outed”, otherwise why didn’t he speak out publicly?

That’s my problem with people in general. Be honest. Don’t have two faces.

Meh. I think he would agree with you. He was a powerful public speaker, which means he chose his words well, but I don't think he was reluctant to speak his mind. Nor would he mind being "outed", as you say. He's a private citizen, and not running for any office where it could be a detriment.

I think he's aching to let his opinions flow, but there is an unwritten rule that former presidents don't criticize their successors. It has to do with not having two (or more) different leaders, giving conflicting directives. But Trump has violated that rule, so why not answer him in kind?