Barack Obama is despondent at how his legacy is being trampled by President Donald Trump—according to reports from insiders.
Politico reports that, according to people who have spoken with Obama, that his response to any conversation about Trump is filled with “sad frustration” and “stoicism.”
Politico added that Obama feels like he’s “watching a business he’d built for eight years being slowly ripped down.”
Obama isn’t wrong: because of his inability to work with a Republican-controlled Congress for most of his presidency, most of Obama’s legacy was pushed through via executive orders—and since those can be repealed unilaterally by Trump, many of them already have.
Obama’s legislative achievements were largely limited to a handful of laws passed in 2009 and 2010, like ObamaCare. But even ObamaCare has been repealed by the House of Representatives, and currently awaits Senate confirmation.
The former President is also “enraged” at having been dragged into the political fray by Trump—like when Trump tweeted that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower, and subsequently went after members of Obama’s staff, like former National Security Director Susan Rice who was accused of unmasking names on intelligence reports.
Despite seeing his legacy dismantled piece continues to “[insist] that the rejection of his approach to politics which Trump represents can’t and won’t last.”
Time will tell.