Former President Barack Obama took a jab at his successor in a new podcast, saying that in New York City, Donald Trump is not considered a “serious guy.”
Obama shared his thoughts while speaking on the “SmartLess” podcast, co-hosted by actor Jason Bateman.
He also shared that he is surprised at how quickly “protection and passion for democracy was diluted” in recent years.
However, he acknowledged that the trend isn’t new, saying it started during former President Clitnon’s tenure and accelerated when he was in office.
“I have been surprised that there haven’t been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn’t surprise me,” Obama said.
The former president then turned his sights on Trump, who has never shied away from boasting about his success as a businessman in New York.
“I mean, he comes from New York. There’s nobody in New York who does business with him or lends him money. He’s not considered a serious guy here,” Obama added.
Obama said that when it comes to how Trump acts, he thought that Republicans would be more willing to call him out and challenge him if he went too far.
“But, so I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you’d agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can’t go that far. You can’t start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies,” he said.
Trump has not yet responded to the remarks from the former president.
Obama appeared on the episode with Clinton and President Biden. It was recorded on March 28 in New York City.