President Obama on Thursday confirmed earlier hints that his family would stick around the D.C. area after he leaves office in 2017, and that youngest daughter Sasha is the determining factor.
Obama remarked in Wisconsin on Thursday that it “always feels good being closer to home,” a comment that sparked a question about where the Obamas would live after his presidency ends early next year.
“We haven’t figured that out yet,” the president said. “We’re going to have to stay a couple of years so Sasha can finish [school]. Transferring someone in the middle of high school — tough.”
Obama has periodically signaled that the first family could remain inside the beltway after his second term is up, but Thursday’s comment was his most clear statement about it to date. If the Obamas decide to stay, he would be the first president in history since Woodrow Wilson to remain in D.C.
Sasha and her older sister, Malia, attend Sidwell Friends School in Northwest D.C. By next year, Malia will be in college but Sasha will still be in high school.
Obama first discussed the possibility of remaining in town during a 2013 interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters.
“So we’ve gotta, we gotta make sure that she’s doin’ well … until she goes off to college,” he said at the time. “Sasha will have a big say in where we are.”
