Decryption | Here is Obama | The press

(New York) “Where’s Barack Obama? »In early June, this question hated an article in the magazine The Atlantic Signed by Mark Leibovich, end observer of American politics.

“It would be one thing if Obama had disappeared after leaving the White House, perhaps to get into painting like George W. Bush. The problem is that Obama remains very present in public space, displaying comfort and nonchalance that contrasts with the terror that seizes so many other Americans, “wrote the journalist.

Barack Obama probably did not turn his back on the material comfort that his personal fortune gives him, but he can no longer be accused of nonchalance.

Whether or not he was stung by the article by Mark Leibovich, the 44^e President has become in recent months more and more present in the political debate, more and more sharp in his criticisms of Donald Trump and more and more active within the Democratic Party.

Barely a few days after the publication of Mark Leibovich’s article Barack Obama called on his fellow citizens on a large -scale resistance against Donald Trump and his administration.

“There must be a reaction and an opposition from civil society, various institutions and people outside the government, but there must also be members of the government, in both parties, who say:” No, you cannot do this, “he said during a” conversation “with the historian Heather Cox Richardson before a height of Hartford, in Connecticut.

His subsequent interventions suggest that Barack Obama believes himself to participate in this resistance. It remains to be seen what the effect of its decision will be abandoned to abandon the reserve to which the former presidents are normally stricked.

Active on social networks

One thing is certain: Barack Obama remains the most popular among living presidents. Last February, he collected 59 % of favorable opinions, against 52 % for George W. Bush, 48 % for Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and 39 % for Joe Biden, according to a Gallup poll.

Almost eight months later, the 44^e President deploys his interventions in several ways. At the end of August, for example, he expressed his spirit of resistance to X by attracting the attention of his some 130 million subscribers to a broadcast of Ezra Klein’s Broad. The journalist of New York Times worried about the efforts of Donald Trump to establish “an authoritarian state, an army or a paramilitary force which only responds to him – which gives him total control”.

And Barack Obama to comment: “The erosion of fundamental principles (…) and the growing appeal to the army on American soil jeopardize the freedoms of all Americans and should worry both Democrats and Republicans. »»

A few weeks later, the former president used the same platform to denounce the suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel program and the pressures exerted by the government.

“After years complaining about the cultivation of cancellation, the current administration has reached a new and dangerous level by regularly threatening to impose regulatory measures on media companies unless they do not make or dismiss journalists and commentators who do not like it,” he wrote.

Barack Obama also used social networks to highlight the good blows of the Democrats, including this surprise victory during a special election for a siege in the Iowa Senate in a red riding, a month ago. “When we are organized and support solid candidates who focus on important issues, we can win. Let’s continue on this momentum, “he wrote.

“A political crisis”

Some of his interventions are more discreet. The ex-president notably provided privately his advice and encouragement to at least two promising young politicians, in this case Zohran Mamdani, candidate for the election for the town hall of New York, and James Talarico, candidate in the Senatorial Election of Texas.

Barack Obama did not officially support Zohran Mamdani, described as “100 % communist madman” by Donald Trump, but “he gave him advice on how to govern and discussed (with him) the importance of giving people in a dark period”, according to the New York Times.

He also made his voice heard during the fundraising evenings in which he participated to bail out a Democratic Party in financial difficulties. During one of these activities, organized at the home of the Democratic Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, he denounced the silence of his party’s elites, in particular attacking lawyers of large legal firms who folded the spine in front of Donald Trump “because they were afraid of losing some customers and not being able to end the renovation of their cuisine in their house in the Hamptons”.

“I am not impressed,” he added according to a transcription of his words relayed to the media by his office.

These “conversations” in which Barack Obama takes part in many crowds also gave him the opportunity to pass his messages. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, he said in front of a packed room of 8000 people in Erie, Pennsylvania, that the United States knew “a political crisis of a genre that we have never known before”. He attributed this crisis in part to the inability of Donald Trump to play the role of unifier who is that of the president in such circumstances.

Whether Barack Obama’s interventions are effective or not, the White House does not appreciate them. Stephen Miller, one of the main lieutenants of Donald Trump, put the former president of the former president of former officials who, he said, tried to “sabotage the democratic institutions of this country”.

“I can’t find any words hard enough to condemn the conduct of these conspirators,” he said on Fox News on Saturday evening by referring to the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Where is Barack Obama? Here it is again.