"Overall there was serenity there. More than I would have expected."@BarackObama on his feelings after @realDonaldTrump was inaugurated as US President #r4today pic.twitter.com/lNilKhml6D
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) December 27, 2017
Barack Obama is opening up about Donald Trump but he’s not naming him outright. The former President spoke indirectly about his successor to Prince Harry warning about the dangers of social media.
The now-private citizen believes it’s important to use the likes of Twitter and Facebook in a way that allows for diverse opinions without moving toward “a ‘Balkanization’ of our society but rather continues to promote ways of finding common ground.”
In the wake of Trump’s election and the presidency, there has been a surge in the social media divide among liberals and conservatives. The latter are fierce supporters of the president, while the former is part of the extreme opposition.
Obama wasn’t sure if there was a way for the government to manage that online, but expressed there used to be an agreeance about the “baseline of reality.”
“One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities,” he added on Wednesday, Dec. 27 on “BBC Radio 4 Today,” alluding to the fake news concoction. “They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.”
On his thoughts during the inauguration, Obama initially gushed about his wife and former first lady Michelle Obama.
“The first thing that went through my mind was sitting across from Michelle,” he said. “How thankful I was that she had been my partner through that whole process.”
Then, he said there was “a serenity there, more than I would have expected.”
He also noted that while he felt satisfied with what he had done, it was “mixed with all the work that was still undone and concerns about how the country moves forward.”
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In response, many zeroed in on Obama’s post-presidency “serenity.”
Serenity because he finally hit the acceptance stage and besides there was too much egg on his face for him to feel anything else.
— President Trump 🇺🇸 (@TheFallenTitan) December 27, 2017
Obama didnt sound in the least bit serene today. He seems very testy.
— Jane kelly (@Janekelly25) December 27, 2017
A couple of people remarked on the way Obama addressed Trump without really addressing the former reality TV show host.
Impressive that @BarackObama speaks so eloquently about the Inauguration without mentioning his successor once in this clip.
— Jane Appleton (@JaneEAppleton) December 27, 2017
Who could he be talking about?
— Justyn Barnes (@justynbarnes) December 27, 2017
And others bashed him for his splintering of America.
Well Obama was the King of divisiveness….. he divided America on every level, race, economics, politically… divide and conquer
— Patrick D. Kiser (@pdk73) December 27, 2017
The most divisive president ever…wow
— QanonRelay (@QanonRelay69lol) December 27, 2017
Pot… meet kettle… GO AWAY FORMER DIVIDER in Chief!!!
— Joe Massa (@jmassa17) December 27, 2017
