Then-President Barack Obama in early 2017 advised reporters in a prolonged off-the-record dialog that he believed the US may survive one time period of Donald Trump as commander-in-chief however feared two Trump phrases “can be an issue.”
“I feel that 4 years is okay,” Obama advised journalists simply three days earlier than Trump’s inauguration, in line with beforehand unreleased Justice Division paperwork that Bloomberg obtained and revealed this week.
The U.S. may, with one Trump time period, “tackle some water, however we are able to sort of bail quick sufficient to be okay,” mentioned Obama, who didn’t envision the rolling again of his total legacy.
However “eight years can be an issue,” he continued, including: “I’d be involved a couple of sustained interval through which a few of these norms have damaged down and began to corrode.”
In the identical dialogue, Obama inspired reporters to scrutinize any try from Trump to politicize legislation enforcement (which Trump later repeatedly did) — and slammed the GOP for being “ideologically utterly incoherent.”
“You don’t know what they stand for,” Obama added.
Trump was ultimately voted out of workplace following only one time period — however he has continued to disclaim his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden and has repeatedly teased one other presidential run in 2024.