Obama calls Trump obsession with him ‘strange’: ‘I obviously have a room in his head’

Obama calls Trump obsession with him ‘strange’: ‘I obviously have a room in his head’ Former president Barack Obama questions whether fixating on his record is the best way for Donald Trump to serve the country in latest dig at his Republican successor - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Former president Barack Obama has said he finds Donald Trump’s “obsession” with him and his achievements in office “strange,” claiming: “I obviously have a room in his head.” Obama was interviewed by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the All the Smoke podcast Wednesday, where it was put to him that Trump’s enduring fixation shows no sign of letting up. “The leader of this current administration is still very fascinated with you and your family, constantly bringing you guys up,” Barnes said. “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? 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 a** out sometimes?” Obama answered: “The thing about it is, look, you’ve gotta ask him what it is… The obsession. I obviously have a room in his head. A suite in his head.” “Rent free!” Barnes offered. The Democrat continued: “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. They’re gone. 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.” Obama made a number of thinly-veiled digs at Trump over the weekend in his speech to mark the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center and Library in Chicago. Without invoking the Republican by name, he pointedly reminded his audience that the United States was founded 250 years ago on the promise that “there will be no kings or lords, no serfs or subjects, but only citizens” and that: “No one is above the law or beneath its protections.” Trump responded to the library’s opening with an AI-generated meme on Truth Social comparing it to an overflowing garbage can. The 44th president has also attacked his successor over the last year over the contentious deployment of ICE agents to Chicago last fall and over his successor’s alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice against his political enemies. In turn, Trump’s former director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accused Obama and his top intelligence officials last summer of “manufacturing” evidence at the tail-end of his presidency to suggest the Republican had ties to Russia, which she called an “Obama coup” that had been “yearslong” in the making. Those allegations have yet to be substantiated. Then, in February, Trump caused outrage by posting a video depicting Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes on Truth Social, which he claimed not to have noticed and so had nothing to apologize for. The post was subsequently blamed on a White House staffer and taken down. Michelle Obama was also insulted at Trump’s recent UFC fight on the White House lawn, when combatant Josh Hokit claimed in a post-bout interview that she was really a man. Trump has accused Obama of leaking classified information when he told a podcaster in February that extraterrestrials were real, a claim that inspired a furore among ufologists online. One of the current president’s most common attacks on his predecessor has been to claim that the nuclear accord he struck with Iran in 2015 represented a bad deal for the U.S. Trump duly withdrew from the agreement and called Obama a “traitor” in May and a “stupid son of a b****” at the G7 this month for having forged it, only to then come to terms with Tehran along similar lines himself in the memorandum of understanding signed to end the near-four-month war. Obama finally hit back on that subject last week, telling NBC’s Today Show that Trump’s deal will leave the U.S. “worse off” than it had been before Operation Epic Fury was launched on February 28. For all that, the pair appeared perfectly friendly when they last met in person at Jimmy Carter’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral in January last year, even sharing a joke as they sat side by side. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments