What On Earth Were Donald Trump And Barack Obama Talking About?
The Oasis Reporters
January 12, 2025
By CNN
An apparently long and friendly chat between the bitter enemies encapsulated the compelling theater of the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter on Thursday — 11 days before the 45th president is inaugurated as the 47th.
The service, in Washington’s National Cathedral, was a paean for a humble man from a tiny Georgia town who rose to great power — a peanut farmer, nuclear physicist, submariner, husband, father, civil rights pioneer, president and Nobel laureate who died last month at age 100. But it was also a multi-layered melodrama of the nation’s fraught political moment, with vicious rivalries leavened for an hour or so by the dignity of mourning.
In a rare spectacle, the fraternity of former presidents was all together. The cathedral’s front two rows contained the tumultuous stories, feuds and frictions of the last 30 years when American politics tore the nation apart.
Last to arrive was President Joe Biden, holding hands with first lady Jill Biden, in one of the last official acts of his presidency. The first couple sat with Vice President Kamala Harris, who failed in her bid to succeed him, and her stone-faced husband Douglas Emhoff. Behind Biden, and just to the left, was Trump, who effectively ended his career in their sole debate, which exposed the president’s diminished capacity. Trump then ended Harris’ 2024 White House dreams.
Behind Harris sat Hillary Clinton, whom Trump also kept from becoming the first woman president and breaking the hardest, highest ceiling in American politics. The former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady was with her husband, Bill Clinton, now the last living president of the 20th century.
Behind Harris sat Hillary Clinton, whom Trump also kept from becoming the first woman president and breaking the hardest, highest ceiling in American politics. The former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady was with her husband, Bill Clinton, now the last living president of the 20th century.
Clinton sat next to former President George W. Bush on a rare visit to Washington for the Republican. Bush offered another example of the passage of time. Now 78, he lacks the fiddly, towel-snapping energy of his 2000 campaign.
Obama got what his fellow presidents might consider the short straw — the spot next to Trump. But he didn’t take refuge in conversation with former first lady Laura Bush to his right. He was soon smiling broadly as he chatted with the incoming president, against whom he campaigned vigorously last fall.
Obama is a gracious man, and people who have spent time with Trump say that despite his public spite, he’s entertaining and funny in private. So maybe they were just yukking it up. But their history and mutual disdain made their interaction one of the most extraordinary moments in a vicious political age.
After all, Trump rose to power with a racist and false conspiracy theory about Obama’s birthplace, and he still casts aspersions on the 44th president’s nationality and faith by pointing out his middle name is Hussein at rallies. Obama sees Trump as the antithesis of everything for which America stands.
Only a few months ago, at the Democratic National Convention, he lampooned Trump as a “78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.” He lambasted “the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes” and compared Trump to a neighbor who runs his leaf blower outside your window. “From a neighbor, that’s exhausting. From a president, it’s just dangerous.”
There’s still no love lost. But since the last 15 years have been a duel between Obamaism and Trumpism, perhaps the country can take solace that they can still at least talk to one another. As to the subject of their conversation — who knows? Perhaps it was golf, which may be the only obsession they share.
There was one notable absence from the ranks of the first families: Michelle Obama, who may find public magnanimity more difficult than her husband and branded Trump a misogynistic racist in her own Democratic convention speech.
CNN’s Meanwhile On America
