Don’t expect to see Sasha or Malia Obama launching a career in politics, former US President Barack Obama said over the weekend.
He addressed the possibility at a Los Angeles fundraiser on Saturday for President Joe Biden, saying that former first lady Michelle Obama has made sure the couple’s daughters stay clear of that career.
“That is a question I do not need to answer, because Michelle drilled into them so early that you would be crazy to go into politics. It will never happen,” he said, throwing cold water on the thought of an Obama political dynasty like that of the Bushes or Kennedys.
Malia Obama, 25, has been working in the film industry since graduating from Harvard in 2021 and recently premiered her film, The Heart, at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Professionally, she’s been going by Malia Ann.
“The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in those things,” she said of the project she wrote and directed.
Sasha Obama, 23, graduated from the University of Southern California last year, reportedly with a degree in sociology.
Michelle Obama has also firmly said she’ll never go into politics, despite being something of a fantasy candidate among Democrats.
“I’ve never expressed any interest in politics. Ever,” she told Oprah Winfrey in an interview last year. “I mean, I agreed to support my husband. He wanted to do it, and he was great at it. But at no point have I ever said, ‘I think I want to run.’ Ever.”
The former first lady’s communications director reiterated this in March, saying she’s not seeking the presidency and supports Biden’s reelection efforts. At the end of her husband’s presidency, Obama said she wouldn’t want to put her children through the experience of having a parent in higher office again.