Obama says – Barack Obama, speaking on the All the Smoke podcast on Wednesday, said President Donald Trump’s focus on him and his family feels like an “obsession” and a “strange” use of political attention. Obama said that when he was president, he had too much work to spe
For Barack Obama, the most uncomfortable part of President Donald Trump’s latest attacks is how long they’ve gone on.
In an interview on the All the Smoke podcast on Wednesday. Obama was asked to respond to what co-host Matt Barnes described as Trump’s fixation on the former president and his family. Barnes. without mentioning Trump by name. referred to him as “the leader of the current administration” and asked how Obama keeps his composure while dealing with what Barnes called “racism” and criticism.
“ The leader of this current administration is still very fascinated with you and your family, constantly bringing you guys up. And you’ve been out of office nearly 10 years now — how do you continue to keep your cool and take the high road, so to speak,” Barnes began.
Barnes then pressed the point. “You constantly seem to meet the negativity and racism with class, and it makes you stand out so high. But you don’t just want to cuss his ass out sometimes?”
Obama answered slowly, telling Barnes that the key question was what Trump was actually focused on. “the thing about it is, look, you’ve gotta ask him what it is —” Obama said, before Barnes cut in with a blunt word.
“The obsession,” Barnes said.
“The obsession,” Obama agreed. “I obviously have a room in his head. A suite in his head.”
Barnes responded, “Rent free!”
Obama pushed back on the idea that his former role should remain a running target. “First of all, when I was president, the last thing I had time to do was worry about what somebody said or my predecessor did,” he said. “They’re gone. I’ve got work to do.”
He added that the notion of constantly tracking what an ex-president is doing doesn’t match what government is supposed to be about. “The idea that I’d be worrying about somebody who came before and me trying to measure like. ‘what’s he done today?’ [and] 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.”.
Barnes and Stephen Jackson did not cite specific instances during the conversation. But the interview landed against a backdrop of repeated Trump comments about Obama.
Trump has bashed Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and he has branded Obama a “traitor” who bowed to Iran’s theocratic leaders in a May social media post.
Trump also posted a clip on Truth Social depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The White House blamed the post on a staffer, and Trump later said the post overall was a “very strong piece” on voter fraud.
More recently, Trump shared AI-generated images of Obama’s new presidential library looking like a giant dumpster, surrounded by homeless people and tents.
Obama, for his part, has hit back with his own criticisms of Trump. He ripped Trump for sending the National Guard to Chicago last year, a move Obama said “damaged” democracy. He also took a thinly veiled swipe at Trump during an interview with Stephen Colbert in May. saying America “can’t overcome” the “politicization of the criminal justice system.”.
None of that was spelled out in the podcast segment itself. Instead, Obama framed the dispute as a question of attention—what it means when a president keeps returning to a predecessor nearly a decade after leaving office.
Jason Cohen contributed to this report. Watch above.
Barack Obama Donald Trump All the Smoke podcast Matt Barnes Stephen Jackson nuclear deal with Iran National Guard Chicago presidential library Truth Social voter fraud racism criticism U.S. politics