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You are here: Home / Obama legacy / Obama Says Trump Was a Reaction to His Presidency

Obama Says Trump Was a Reaction to His Presidency

June 15, 2023 at 9:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former president Barack Obama told David Axelrod that the rise of Donald Trump was related to the fears of having the first African-American president.

Said Obama: “I think it’s fair to say that something like the Tea Party does not get the traction, generate the heat that it does had it not been for the fact that I represented something that looked like something very foreign to some people and scary.”

He added: “I think if you tracked Fox News coverage all the way up through Tucker Carlson talking about, white people are all being replaced and that Democrats are deliberately trying to bring in illegal immigrants and then give them voting rights and welfare checks to buy them off and build a Democratic majority. I think that argument probably gets less traction if it wasn’t me who was president at the time.”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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