Former US President Barack Obama said fellow former President Donald Trump is “not considered a serious guy” in his hometown of New York.
Obama’s analysis of his four-times-indicted successor in the White House came during the latest episode of the Smartless podcast that is hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes and was released on Monday. Obama appeared alongside President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton. They recorded the show in March.
Bateman asked Obama if he’d been surprised with how fast the “protection and passion for democracy was diluted” during Trump’s administration.
Obama admitted he was surprised at the lack of guardrails within the Republican Party that allowed Trump to take over the party.
But “Trump didn’t surprise me,” he said. “You watch Trump’s campaign, you watch his career, he’s never changed.”
“I mean, he comes from New York. There’s nobody in New York who does business with him or lend him money. He is not considered a serious guy here,” Obama added.
“So, I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior,” said Obama. “I did expect […] there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, ‘No you can’t go that far, you can’t start praising [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies.’”
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million (£283 million) in penalties after he was found guilty in a civil fraud trial in New York of overvaluing his company’s assets for years to secure loans and cut deals. Trump is currently attending his hush money trial in the city too.
Listen to the full episode here: