While President Obama did address political issues of great importance from time to time while Trump was in office, the former president understandably avoided making any direct critiques of Trump himself. Doing so would have distracted from opposition to Trump and centered the conversation around President Obama. That wouldn't have helped.
With that said, that doesn't mean Obama did not voice his completely normal opinions in private.
The Guardian obtained excerpts from an upcoming book by Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere that includes a few choice quotes from the former president.
“He’s a madman,” Dovere reports Obama telling “big donors looking to squeeze a reaction out of him in exchange for the big checks they were writing to his foundation”.
“More often: ‘I didn’t think it would be this bad.’ Sometimes: ‘I didn’t think we’d have a racist, sexist pig.’ Depending on the outrage of the day … a passing ‘that fucking lunatic’ with a shake of his head.”
Obama’s strongest remark, Dovere reports, was prompted by reports that Trump was speaking to foreign leaders – including Vladimir Putin, amid the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow – without any aides on the call.
“‘That corrupt motherfucker,’ he remarked.”
It turns out President Obama uses the exact same words as we do!
Dovere reports that President Obama originally thought Senator Ted Cruz would be a worse president than Trump, but it become apparent to him that he was wrong in 2017 once Trump actually started doing things. But I think that was a pretty common sentiment at the time.
I think any future Republican president would be just as bad or worse than Trump was. The GOP as it exists today will not nominate someone who isn't insane. To say one candidate might be better than another -- or at least less terrible -- does not apply if they're all batshit. Any future Republican president will appoint cabinet members and officials who are as bad or worse than anyone Trump placed in charge of federal agencies. We know this because Republicans do not actually believe in the mission of any federal agency. They believe most of them should be abolished.