Former President Barack Obama described President Donald Trump as a “cartoon” after the billionaire candidate smashed his way to victory over failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe this is what people want,” Obama said after the 2016 election, according to a new book by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. “I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”
The details of the book were first reported by the New York Times.
Obama mused that perhaps the United States was not ready for his modern presidency,
“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” he said to his aides, who reassured him that he could have won a third term as president.
Obama wondered if his presidency “pushed too far” and that Americans would rather “fall back into their tribe,” as demonstrated by the presidential election.
He also darkly quoted the Godfather to describe the presidential transition to President Trump. “I feel like Michael Corleone. I almost got out,” he said.
Rhodes also recalled a message he got from the president to cheer him up, after Trump’s election.
“There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth,” the president wrote to his trusted aide.
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