Former President Barack Obama was candid about critical opinion of former President Donald Trump in conversations with donors and advisers, according to details from an upcoming book.
The book, “Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump” was written by The Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere, and will be published next week.
According to The Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book, Obama’s laid bare his disdain for his successor in profanity-laden terms, calling the 45th president a “madman,” a “racist, sexist pig,” “that f-cking lunatic” and a “corrupt motherf-cker.”
After leaving office, Obama initially refrained from speaking out against Trump, but later sharply rebuked him while on the campaign trail with presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe,” Obama said at a campaign event in Flint, Michigan, in October.
“He’s still worried about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that. Does he have nothing better to worry about?” Obama said. “Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid? Was he traumatized?”
According to Dovere, Obama preferred Trump over 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz because he felt Trump wasn’t nearly as clever as the Texas senator. Dovere said Obama’s critical remarks about Trump often came as he was speaking to big donors writing checks for his foundation.
He wrote, “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.”
When asked to comment on reports that Trump was speaking to Vladimir Putin as the probe in potential collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign was ongoing, Obama reportedly replied, “That corrupt motherf-cker.”
Trump has been openly critical of Obama for years. He began perpetuating the “birther” theory in 2011 and claimed Obama had been born in Kenya rather than Hawaii.
“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate? There’s something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like,” he said in 2011.
On social media, users responded to the allegations.
Dovere also reported on other unkind words exchanged by politicians about each other behind closed doors. He quoted now first lady Jill Biden in the forthcoming books saying then-candidate Kamala Harris could “go f-ck herself” following an on-stage spat during a presidential debate.
“Battle for the Soul” will be published on May 25.
