Thursday, May 20, 2021
Revelations in new book
What is Obama supposed to have said about Trump?
During Trump’s time as US President, Obama was reluctant to publicly criticize his predecessor. However, behind the scenes, Democrats are said to have complained about the real estate mogul in an unpleasant way.
It is well known that former US President Barack Obama and Donald Trump are not best friends. During Trump’s term, however, Obama largely avoided public criticism of his successor – at least until the final collapse of the hot phase of the election campaign. A new book by journalist Edward-Issac Dover is set to reveal how Obama talked about Republicans behind the scenes. Several media outlets, including the British Guardian, have already published excerpts from “Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrat’s Campaigns to Defend Donald Trump”, which will be released next week.
Accordingly, Obama described Trump as “crazy”, “racist pig” and “crazy” for confidants. Democrats initially preferred Trump as the presidential candidate, writes Dover. Reason: He thought that the real estate mogul was less intelligent than his party rival Ted Cruz from Texas. But Trump eventually won unequivocally against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Shortly after Trump’s election victory, Obama is said to have said, “I didn’t think it would be so bad.” “He is a madman.” And: “Big donors try to squeeze him in exchange for the huge checks he receives.” Obama’s most violent derailment: When Democrats learned that Trump had called foreign leaders – including Vladimir Putin – without his advisers, he said, according to Dowre: “this corrupt bastard”. On another occasion he is said to have called Trump a “racist, sexist pig”.
As a longtime political correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, Dover also investigates the relationship between Obama and his then Vice President Joe Biden. Despite being together for eight years in the White House, the relationship between the two should not have been as harmonious as public appearances suggest. Obama has often expressed concern in an intimate group that Biden is too old and his chief is behind him.
In a preliminary meeting at the White House after Trump’s election victory, Obama Friendly words found for his successor – However the latter had repeatedly attacked the earlier Democrats and in various cases dismissed their policy as a “disaster”. For years, he had also raised doubts about the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency. He had helped to spread the “birther” conspiracy theory, according to which the incumbent was not even born in the United States, a prerequisite for becoming head of state. But this was not true – Obama was born in Hawaii.
