What to Know
During a recent interview with The New Yorker’s Peter Slevin, Former President Barack Obama opened up about an unexpected source of “tension” in his marriage: President Donald Trump. Yes, really.
It’s not that Trump himself is interfering with Barack’s relationship with his wife, Michelle Obama. But he is a source of tension for them because of the expectations that people have.
Obama has not been able to step back in the way he had initially hoped.
Typically, after leaving office, former presidents have the ability to focus on other pursuits. But after Trump was elected, a lot of Americans found themselves (and continue to find themselves) missing Obama. (His Instagram posts tend to receive a lot of sad “I miss you” comments). Which means they’re often hoping to hear him speak up about political issues or see him get involved in some capacity.
After eight years in office, this is not necessarily what Barack and Michelle had in mind. He told The New Yorker that due to Trump’s chaos and unhinged behavior, he has continued to work in politics “more than I would have preferred.”
He doesn’t exactly see it as a bad thing, though. “The fact that people want me to be ‘doing more’ is a good sign,” he told the publication.
However, it has impacted his marriage.
Michelle has seemed adamant about staying out of politics and focusing on herself—so much so that some people were convinced she and Barack might be headed for divorce. During a previous podcast appearance, Michelle said, “People couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself. That they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
That’s not to say that there were never challenges in their marriage. Michelle has been pretty open about that. And on Marc Maron’s podcast, Barack previously said, “I had a big deficit with my wife and had to kind of work my way out (after leaving the White House).”
At first, Barack tried to prioritize spending time with his wife and daughters, but it seems like this continues to be a source of tension in their family because of Trump.
He admitted that Michelle is frustrated by his continued involvement in politics at times.
“She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives,” Barack told The New Yorker. “It does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her.”
He added, “I’m more forgiving of it, in the sense that I understand why people feel that way, because people aren’t looking at me in historical comparison to other Presidents. They don’t care about the fact that no other ex-President was the main surrogate for the Party for four election cycles after they left office.”
Of course, Trump himself continues to blame Obama and Former President Joe Biden for issues on a pretty regular basis even though neither one of them is currently in office, so it seems pretty hard to lie low.
And, of course, people truly are pushing for Barack and Michelle to get more involved.
Michelle has made it pretty clear that she’s not interested in running for president, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to push her to run. In 2018, Michelle said, “I’ve never had the passion for politics. I just happened to be married to somebody who has the passion for politics.”
And when Trump started acting like he would try to run for a third term, some people started suggesting that Barack could do the same. Michelle does not approve of this. Asked about whether her husband would ever consider this on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Michelle said, “I hope not. I would actively work against that.”
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