The relationship between President Trump and former President Obama appears to be over, at least for now. The Hill is reporting, based on inside sources, that the two men, who appeared to be cordial during the transition period, have not spoken since Trump was sworn into office.
The relationship between President Trump and former President Obama appears to be over, at least for now.
The Hill is reporting, based on inside sources, that the two men, who appeared to be cordial during the transition period, have not spoken since Trump was sworn into office.
Obama ally Jen Psaki told the media outlet that her former boss “conducted a smooth transition, and that’s what his focus was on. But that doesn’t mean they were going to become golf buddies.”
Earlier this month, the Washington Post chronicled Trump and Obama's ups and downs with each other over the past decade; in 2007 and 2008, the businessman called Obama “a star” and “a very capable guy,” and, in January 2009, Trump said, “I really believe that Obama will be a great president, and I hope he is.”
At some point, his views began to sour; in March 2011, Trump asked for Obama’s birth certificate to be released and, in August 2016, he called Obama “the worst president maybe in the history of our country.”
But after the pair had their first post-election meeting at the White House, Trump reportedly told journalists multiple times that Obama was, in his words, “a good man” and was later said to have been “effusive in his praise of Obama.”
While Obama had expressed an intention to remain on good terms with Trump and help him through the transition, the former president was, according to the Wall Street Journal, “livid over the accusation that he bugged the Republican campaign offices, believing that Mr. Trump was questioning both the integrity of the office of the president and Mr. Obama himself, people familiar with his thinking said.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s friend Christopher Ruddy told the Journal that the Trump administration thinks Obama loyalists are behind the challenges they have faced since Trump took office.
