Former President Obama Speaks Out About Trump’s ‘Obsession’ With Him

Although he has been out of office for nearly a decade, former President Obama remains fully aware of the impact he has on President Trump.

While recently appearing on the podcast All The Smoke, the ex-world leader spoke to former NBA player Matt Barnes about Trump’s fascination with him and his family. (Trump’s recent insults towards Obama were even so expected that some Polymarket bettors even cashed in via a prediction market.)

“The thing about it is –– look, you’ve got to ask him what it is,” Obama said, with Barnes replying, “The obsession.”

“The obsession,” Obama noted. “I obviously have a room in his head, a suite in his head.”

He then reflected on his time in the Oval Office, noting his predecessor, George W. Bush, was the “last thing” he had time to worry about.

“They’re gone,” he said about Bush and his other predecessors. “I’ve got work to do. The idea that I’d be worrying about somebody who came before and me trying to measure like, ‘what’s he done today?’ Constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who is not focused on the American people and the job they’re supposed to do.”

Later in the interview, Obama claimed that Trump is a different person when they are alone together.

“The other thing I believe in, and part of what we try to teach in our leadership training, is I believe in face-to-face,” he continued. “I believe in conversation. So if this — whoever you were talking about — was in front of me, which has happened a couple times, he don’t talk like that because he knows better. And I think there is a — that filter of the phone creates a situation both where people just say kind of crazy stuff that they would never say to your face with no consequences.”

The former president is often spoken about, and even blamed, by Trump and his administration officials — such as those recent remarks that trigged a resolution on Polymarket’s “Who will Trump publicly insult by June 30?” market. Trump previously blamed Obama for issues with Washington, D.C.’s Reflecting Pool before the latest multimillion-dollar renovation. Years before his first term, Trump was vocal about conspiracy theories regarding Obama’s US citizenship.