It doesn’t appear, at least in the short term, that President Obama has any plans to stay quiet during the Trump administration. Reports are currently circulating that Obama, with the help of his former key White House adviser, is setting up a “nerve center” to coordinate and help push the Trump resistance agenda.
The UK Daily Mail offers this report:
Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation’s capital – just two miles away from the White House – into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump.
Obama’s goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment.
And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends.
Jarrett played a vital – if at times low-key – role in the Obama presidency. She lived in the White House, dined with the Obamas, and help shape his domestic and foreign policies.
Some are calling the veracity of this report into question, especially parts about whether Valerie Jarrett is actually moving into the home, or merely maintaining an office in one of the many, many rooms.
The fact-finding website Snopes took a shot at explaining the story:
Kevin Lewis, Barack Obama’s post-presidency spokesman, called the story “absurd” and devoid of facts, stating to us that Jarrett was neither moving in with the Obamas nor launching a political movement intended to oust President Trump from office.
It’s unclear what the former president’s post-White House level of political involvement might be, but he has made comments suggesting he will be involved with the nation’s political scene in some way. His former Attorney General, Eric Holder, told reporters that Barack Obama is “ready to roll” with the newly-formed National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization Holder chairs, to address what they term a “massive structural disadvantage” Democrats currently experience in Congress due to electoral district gerrymandering.
I would suspect that the report is at least partially true, that President Obama is likely working behind the scenes to protect some of his legacy and his agenda from being re-written by the Trump administration. We already know that Obama staffers in the White House were working hard to push the narrative that Russia “hacked” the election.
It’s entirely plausible that this type of work will continue, being somewhat directed by President Obama, with the hopes of snarling the new administration in scandal and slowing down Trump’s aggressive dismantling of the last eight years.
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