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Barack Obama Slams Donald Trump, Says Obamacare Is ‘More Popular Than The Current President’

By Christian Savoy
Published on: 13:17 PST, Apr 30, 2017

Discretion has been the main feature of Barack Obama’s first 100 days as the former president of the United States, despite his promise to raise his voice if the actions of his successor, Donald Trump, threatened the country’s core values. Obama, who has been busy vacationing to paradisiacal destinations, has maintained a low profile, avoiding public pronouncement on the controversial decisions of his successor, Donald Trump.

After leaving the White House, Obama and his family moved to a mansion in a luxurious neighborhood of the American capital, ironically next to the residence of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and they soon went on vacation. At the end of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, Barack and Michelle Obama flew to the west coast of the country to spend a few days in Palm Springs, in the Sonoran desert, located in California. From there, the couple headed to the British Virgin Islands to continue their vacation and participate in water sports with their billionaire friend, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group.

As reported by CNN, the former president recently slammed Donald Trump by saying that The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, is more popular than Trump himself.

Obama also predicted that it will be a challenge for Trump and fellow Republicans to make radical changes to a law that now provides health insurance for so many people because of the difficulties it faced in enacting it in 2009.

While many Republicans have openly admitted their disdain for Obamacare, Obama said they are now facing the fact that many of their most vulnerable voters have benefited from it.

“The Affordable Care Act has never been more popular,” Obama was quoted as saying, “and it’s more popular than the current president.”

According to a CNN survey, Obama’s statement is pretty accurate, with the polls showing an approval rating of 44 percent for Donald Trump while Obamacare had a 47 percent favorable rating.

A report from Business Insider said that recent polling has shown that Obamacare has hit its highest popularity ever, drawing the support of 55 percent of Americans in a Gallup survey on April 4. In comparison, the most recent reading on Trump’s approval rating from Gallup on Thursday sat at 43 percent, with 52 percent disapproving of the president’s handling of his job. Trump is on track to be the most unpopular president through his first 100 days in modern history, the report states.

In the public, Obama has maintained great discretion, only broken in few occasions, like on January 30 he defended “the American values” after Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban.

“Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake,” he said.

He also criticized the veto against certain immigrants and Muslims, which was later suspended by the courts, and listed a number of issues that might prompt him to return to the political fray.

“There’s a difference between [the] normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” Obama was quoted as saying. “I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise.

“I put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them somewhere else, when they love this country.”

More recently, on April 20, he called the French presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, to express his support. However, his most anticipated comeback came on April 24 at the conference in his favorite city, Chicago, Illinois, the first in a series of public events that will continue in the coming months.

“What has happened since I left?” Obama jokingly said at the start of the event, avoiding any comment on the news. “I’m spending a lot of time thinking about what is the most important thing I can do for my next job?” he continued. “The single most important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership, to take up the baton, and to take their own crack at changing the word.”

Obama, on the other hand, promised to focus on encouraging and preparing young people to engage in politics, and advocated looking at immigrants as “people” rather than as something that could harm Americans.

Two days before leaving power, Obama promised to raise his voice if he considered Trump’s actions threatened the country’s “core values,” but said he does not plan to fuel political tensions.

[Featured Image by Scott Olson/Getty Images]

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