Donald Trump Says He Gets Along With Barack Obama And Calls It ‘Very Strange’
President Donald Trump recently said that despite the mudslinging that took place during the campaign period, he likes Barack Obama and he believes the former POTUS likes him too.
Trump previously questioned the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency because he was born outside the U.S. He similarly branded the former president’s healthcare legislation a “disaster.”
However, in an interview with Fox News (via the Standard), when asked about the current state of their relationship, Trump said, “It’s a very strange phenomenon; we get along. I don’t know if he’ll admit this but he likes me. I like him.”
When further asked by presenter Bill O’Reilly how he knew, Trump responded, “I can feel it.”
He admitted that they were vicious to each other during the campaign, but when they got the chance to reunite, they never talked about it.
“He was vicious during the campaign toward me, and I was vicious toward him. We said horrible things about each other, and then we hop into the car and we drive down Pennsylvania Avenue together, we don’t even talk about it. Politics is amazing.”
He went on to say that he asked Obama about the biggest problem of the country and the exiting president shared insights. In the same interview, he commented that Obama campaigned more for Hillary Clinton, Trump’s election rival, than she did herself.
O’Reilly tried to ask Trump about what the country’s biggest problem was. While he thinks Obama won’t mind if he’ll share his answer, Trump does not want that country to find out that it’s being perceived by the U.S. as a major concern.
“I can’t tell you. But it’s a problem, it’s a military problem with a certain place. No, it’s not China. But it is – he did mention, cause I did ask him what would you say our number one, two, three problems are and the number one problem that he felt – I was a little bit surprised, but I fully understand.”
After leaving the White House, the former president has been enjoying his free time. Following their Palm Springs stint, Obama brought his wife Michelle to billionaire Richard Branson’s island. Several photos of Obama enjoying the island lifestyle have surfaced. One image that went viral was him taking pride in his newly acquired kiteboarding skills.
Branson shared a YouTube video and told an interesting backstory via Yahoo Tech.
“One of the first stories Barack told me when he and Michelle arrived on Moskito Island was how, just before he became President, he had been surfing on a dangerous break in Hawaii. When he came in from an exhilarating session, the new head of his security team turned to him and said: ‘This will be the last time you surf for eight years.’ For the next eight years he didn’t have the chance to surf, enjoy watersports or do many of the things he loved.”
As per Branson, recalling Obama’s story made him eager to teach him how to kitesurf.
“So it was tremendous to offer him the chance to learn to kitesurf. The sport has really taken off in the past decade and we have the perfect conditions and team to help anyone learn. I have also wanted to learn foilboard surfing. So we decided to set up a friendly challenge: could Barack learn to kitesurf before I learned to foilboard? We agreed to have a final day battle to see who could stay up the longest.”
As one of history’s youngest ex-presidents, many are looking forward to how Obama will spend his days outside White House. Reports have emerged that he could write a book or engage in speaking gigs.
[Featured Image by Scott Applewhite/Pool/Getty Images]
