Former President Barack Obama says there is marital frustration in his home, and one Republican in particular is at the center.
After spending most of his two-term presidency pointing the finger at former President George W. Bush, Obama is returning to that tactic to blame President Donald Trump for his issues at home. Specifically, the “tension” between him and his wife, Michelle Obama.
See, the former first lady wants her husband to step back from the public eye so the pair can enjoy their lives in relative privacy as they grow older, but now that Trump is back in the White House, Obama is being called on by leftists to maintain a public profile. This includes demands on his time that Michelle Obama is not pleased with.
“It does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her. I’m more forgiving of it, in the sense that I understand why people feel that way, because people aren’t looking at me in historical comparison to other Presidents. They don’t care about the fact that no other ex-President was the main surrogate for the Party for four election cycles after they left office,” the former president told The New Yorker.
But Obama is also heartened by the fact that people are still reaching out to him.
“The fact that people want me to be ‘doing more’ is a good sign,” he said, arguing that it means “there has not been as decided a shift in American attitudes as we are making out. And that’s part of the reason people are frustrated. Sometimes it’s directed toward me, which is fine because they kind of sense, Wait, how can we be doing this when I know that’s not who we were? And I don’t think it’s really who we are now.”
“When George Bush was elected, it was very close. I think there was a Zeitgeist of, like, You know what? We’re kind of in a conservative mood. We went through the Clinton years, and now we kind of want this change. And then, when I was elected, I think there was a genuine shift in attitudes. You look at surveys—people had become more progressive around a whole host of issues that had been divisive. I think it’s fair to say there’s some shift that took place between when I left office, in 2016, and today,” he added. “There was maybe some marginal overreach—or, at least, people weren’t ready to go as far as the Twitter left wanted to go on certain issues. But you look at surveys, it’s not like suddenly people said, you know, ‘We don’t believe in gay marriage.’ They didn’t suddenly say, ‘Yeah, we think it’s O.K. to discriminate on race.’”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.