For his first post-presidency interview, Barack Obama gave Trump a subtle but impactful diss by not once mentioning the failed steak salesman's embarrassingly pedestrian name.
Obama joined Prince Harry on BBC Radio 4's Today for an extensive chat detailing his thoughts on Trumpism, the negative aspects of our collective social media "cocoon," and much more.
"You've sat in Marine One, the presidential helicopter, flying over Washington," Harry said to Obama, recalling that abysmal Jan. 20 that I and many others spent blackout drunk instead of actually acknowledging it as reality. "You've sat through the inauguration with your game face on, not giving much emotion away, as we all saw." For Obama, the first thought he had during the alleged inauguration was gratitude for Michelle.
"She had been my partner through that whole process," Obama said. "You know, you've gotten to know Michelle quite well and she is a spectacular, funny, warm person. She is not someone who was naturally inclined to politics. So in some ways, despite the fact that she was, I think, as good of a First Lady as there's ever been, she did this largely in support of my decision to run. And for us to be able to come out of that intact, that our marriage was strong, we're still each other's best friends, our daughters [are] turning into amazing girls, amazing young women. You know, the sense that there was a completion and that we had done the work in a way that preserved our integrity and left us whole and that we hadn't fundamentally changed, I think was a satisfying feeling."
That feeling, Obama added, was mixed with the realization of "all the work that was still undone" and his concerns about how the nation will move forward. "But you know, overall there was a serenity there," he said. "More than I would have expected."
In arguably his most obvious (but still delightfully name-free) jab at the Trump cult, Obama urged listeners to consider the possibility that certain social media communities were fostering false realities among followers. "One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities," he said. "They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn't lead to a Balkanization of society and allows ways of finding common ground."
Catch Obama's full chat with Harry, which was taped in Toronto back in September, right here.
