Barack Obama thought he would be a resource for President Trump when he took over the Oval Office.
The former president hoped that he would be able to guide Trump after his first meeting with him following the 2016 election. According to a report on the encounter from Politico, Obama thought Trump knew very little about how to run the country.
He told a White House visitor after his first meeting with Trump, “He knows absolutely nothing.”
Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder explained that the ex-commander in chief wanted to ride off into an apolitical retirement, similar to his predecessor, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Obama has commented on his feelings about both Trump and Joe Biden as the two draw closer to a potential presidential showdown in 2020.
“In a perfect world, he would have retreated to a greater degree from public life than he has, much in the same way that I think George W. Bush did in his post-presidency,” Holder said. “He would have liked to have been, though he’s too young, an elder statesman.”
Those close to Obama claimed he “held out hope” that Trump would call on him for advice while navigating the presidency. His first post-presidential press secretary claimed Obama “didn’t expect” Trump to continue to attack him after he left office.
“He wanted to be a resource,” Kevin Lewis explained. “What we didn’t expect at the level that it was done were the attacks.”
Beyond a phone call to thank Obama for the letter he left Trump in the Oval Office following his inauguration, the two have not spoken to each other.
Obama, 58, has tried to stay out of the 2020 Democratic primary race even though his vice president, Joe Biden, is running. Biden, 77, claimed he asked Obama not to endorse him because he wanted to earn the nomination. Fox News host Tucker Carlson, however, has speculated that Obama’s refraining from endorsing Biden could be a sign that former first lady Michelle Obama may jump into the race.
[Read more: Obama to 2020 Democrat: Biden “really doesn’t have it”]
