When Barack Obama teased Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, the man who helped write the withering speech enjoyed “seeing how angry” Trump got, but did not imagine the businessman would one day become president, said The Telegraph.

The disclosure is part of a new oral history of the Obama years that shows that although the Democrat “took on recession, healthcare and Iraq”, what “he didn’t see coming was Trump”, said The New York Times.

Chuckles and anger

For eight years, Obama’s aides “marvelled” that “no amount of mockery, dismissal or scandal could make Donald Trump go away”, said The Associated Press. Their “bewilderment” is “threaded through hundreds of interviews” with officials released in the “far-reaching history of the Obama presidency”, which is the most extensive set of interviews to emerge so far from those years.

The testimonies, released for “the perusal of historians, researchers and the merely curious”, said The New York Times, don’t include interviews with the Obamas or Joe Biden, but do include significant figures like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Oprah Winfrey.

At the fateful 2011 dinner, speechwriter Jon Favreau was “revelling in the effect of his words”, said The Telegraph. The decision to mock Trump “stemmed from aggravation” over the “continuing lies” about Obama’s birthplace, said The New York Times. “I thought what he was doing was racist,” recalled Favreau, but “not even a brief moment” did he believe Trump would become a political force.

However, David Axelrod, another member of Obama’s team, walked by Trump’s table that evening and overheard the businessman saying he was toying with running for president. Axelrod, in his own words, “chuckled at it and went to my seat”.

‘Demagogic bloviating’

The Obama administration “failed to spot the threat of Trump”, said The New York Times, because they thought him “a thorn in the side with his birther lies and demagogic bloviating”. To them, he was just a “con man”, a “clown” and a “laughing stock”.

But they “missed the shifting mood of the country”. It’s “striking” how “inconceivable” it seemed to Obama and his team that “populist disenchantment with the establishment, globalisation and demographic changes would elevate a figure they scorned”.

The “picture that emerges from the interviews” is a “collapsing popular belief in a system that simply could not, seemingly for its own psychological reasons, grasp what was truly going on”, said The Telegraph. There was a “failure to come to terms with the realities of the moment”.

“It was hard” not to take Trump’s 2016 election victory “personally”, said former White House press secretary Josh Earnest, because the “essence” of Trump’s being, and “everything that he stood for” were “anathema to everything” that the “Obama era” had “been about”.

Obama “started out, like so many”, viewing Trump as “little more than a comical, if malevolent, real-estate hawker”, said The New Yorker. But as well as failing to “anticipate Trump’s victory”, he “failed to comprehend the degree” to which the Republican would, “particularly in his second term, set out to demolish the principles and the institutions” that Obama held dear.

“We have entered the era of the Donroe Doctrine,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper in the aftermath of the US abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. The term, referencing Donald Trump’s upgrade of a foreign policy doctrine of old, signals this US president’s clear intent to enforce US interests in the Western Hemisphere – a strategy that could have significant implications around the world.

What is the Donroe Doctrine?

It’s a Trumpian twist on the Monroe Doctrine, a US foreign policy principle established in 1823 during the presidency of James Monroe. It warned that “the American continents” must not be “considered as subjects for colonisation” and European powers must not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere that America now designated as a US sphere of interest.

The Monroe Doctrine was broadened in 1904 by Theodore Roosevelt to sanction US interference in any Latin American country “plagued by wrongdoing or impotence”. Frequently criticised as a form of imperialism, the doctrine was nonetheless invoked by a number of subsequent US presidents to justify intervention in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua. It lay behind Washington’s efforts to oust Fidel Castro in Cuba, and its role in the coups that overthrew Guatemala’s Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 and Chilean leader Salvador Allende in 1973. It was also invoked during the Second World War to make Greenland a de facto US protectorate after Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany.

In 2013, Barack Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, declared that “the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over”, signalling a more collaborative relationship with other nations in the Western Hemisphere.

What’s new about the Donroe Doctrine?

In its new national security strategy, published in November 2025, the Trump administration plainly declared an intention “to reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine and restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere”. But it also added a "Trump Corollary” to the doctrine, describing US aims to “expand our network in the region” and roll back “foreign influence”.

Recent months have seen US strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, tighter control of migration flows, and the seizure of strategic assets. “The parameters of US national security” now appear “effectively inseparable from advancing US economic interests globally”, said Pablo Uchoa, an international politics expert at the UCL Institute of the Americas, on The Conversation. This “vision of geopolitics” justifies the aggressive pursuit of any resources the US thinks are “beneficial to its interests, from Greenland’s minerals and strategic position to the Panama canal and Venezuelan oil”.

“Donroe Doctrine” is not an official White House term (it seems to have been coined by the New York Post) but Trump “appears to have taken a liking” to it, “as with most things that bear his name”. There is no proper detail behind the idea, John Bolton, Trump’s first-term security adviser and now a harsh foreign policy critic, told The Atlantic. “No matter what he does, there is no grand conceptual framework; it’s whatever suits him at the moment.”

What does it mean for world politics?

With the US “dominating the Western Hemisphere” and China “asserting primacy across the Asia-Pacific”, a world “carved into spheres of influence” could “benefit Beijing”, said The New York Times. It could keep US military forces away from Asia and would certainly “undercut Washington’s criticism of Beijing” when China elbows its way across the South China Sea to menace Taiwan.

“The absence of conspicuous military support for Maduro” from either Moscow or Beijing suggests that neither object to a doctrine “that appears to entitle powerful countries with the right of having spheres of influence”, said Uchoa on The Conversation.

What does that means for the non-superpowers in the Western Hemisphere? Six key areas have already been identified as potential targets for “further American expansion, intervention or annexation”, said CBS News: Greenland, Iran, Cuba, Colombia, Canada and the Panama Canal.

‘Halloween’s getting scarier. Is our view of death to blame?’

Stephen Mihm at Bloomberg

If “you venture out this Halloween, you’re more than likely to encounter a spectacularly macabre set of displays,” and it’s “easy to view these spectacles” as a “sign that we’ve become desensitized,” says Stephen Mihm. But “one reason for our Halloween fixation on death might come from how little we engage with it in real life.” It’s the “one night of the year when we seem to collectively invite the specter of death back to life before it disappears.”

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‘If Donald Trump can run for a third term, so can Barack Obama’

Laura Washington at the Chicago Tribune

If Donald Trump “does go down the third term road, a bevy of court challenges will take it to the U.S. Supreme Court,” says Laura Washington. But “if Trump can run for a third term, so can his ultimate nemesis,” as “former President Obama could mount a comeback to take Trump out and save our democracy.” That’s “why Trump has been attacking, demeaning and undermining Obama.” If “Trump wants to open the third-term door, bring on Obama.”

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‘Elon Musk should buy some small town centers’

Sumantra Maitra at The American Conservative

For a “generation that worships Gilded-Age American aesthetics, it appears that a simple lesson from those times is all but forgotten: start new businesses and create new opportunities by moving within the country,” says Sumantra Maitra. The “amount of growth” that billionaires “could fuel in a dozen smaller towns with already-established infrastructure and businesses spread out across the country is mathematically astonishing.” It’s “time to bring such work mobility back, and not let smaller American towns die.”

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‘It’s time to make the emerging local news ecosystem work for everyone’

Tracie Powell at the Poynter Institute

If “you’re running a small local news outlet right now, it can feel like help is everywhere — and nowhere at once,” says Tracie Powell. Over the “past decade, the network of organizations designed to support local journalism has exploded.” But “for many small and startup outlets — especially those serving communities of color, immigrants and rural regions — this new ecosystem can feel less like a support system and more like a maze.”

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The Jeffrey Epstein scandal is not going away, but President Donald Trump would like to change the subject. That might be why he accused former President Barack Obama of treason this week. The question now is whether Trump's administration will bring charges against Obama.

Trump on Tuesday "escalated his distract-and-deflect strategy" to pivot from reporters' questions about Epstein by accusing Obama of wrongdoing, said The New York Times. Obama tried to "lead a coup" with intelligence assessments that said Russia "favored" Trump's 2016 election, Trump said during a question session at the White House. That accusation is a "weak attempt at distraction," said a spokesman for Obama. Trump suggested he was ready for prosecutions. "It's time to go after people," he said.

The Justice Department on Wednesday formed a "Strike Force" to investigate Trump's allegations against Obama, said The Hill. Investigators will "leave no stone unturned to deliver justice," said Attorney General Pam Bondi. One challenge: The Senate Intelligence Committee (including then-Sen. Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state) in 2017 released a report agreeing that Russia supported Trump's election, though those activities did not include changing or stealing votes. The accusations against Obama are "patently false and unfounded," said James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence.

What did the commentators say?

Trump has "mused about locking up political opponents" since his first run for president, said Garry Kasparov at his Substack newsletter. What happens next depends on "how voters and politicians respond," but there is a good chance that the "public is desensitized" to Trump's breaking of norms after 10 years in politics. Obama will "not find himself behind bars tomorrow, or next month, or even next year." Trump has declared his intent, however. "Public passivity is permission."

The president has "all but ordered his law-enforcement minions to arrest, prosecute and imprison" Obama, said Jackie Calmes at the Los Angeles Times. Trump has seemingly forgotten that last year he "persuaded a deferential Supreme Court to give presidents virtual immunity from criminal prosecution." Or he may believe that notable ruling applies only to himself.

The public "should avoid taking the bait" of Trump's attempts to distract from the Epstein scandal, but false allegations of treason "must command Americans' attention," said Calmes. The irony is that Trump is building a "false case" against Obama to divert attention from the "very real case" involving Epstein.

What next?

"MAGA's expectations are stratospheric," said Axios. Obama has long been one of the right's "biggest bogeymen." Failure by the Justice Department to prosecute the former president "could be seen as a betrayal" by a GOP base already disappointed by Trump's handling of the Epstein matter.

The "biggest problem" for the case against Obama is the "sheer lack of evidence of any wrongdoing," said Aaron Blake at CNN. Even if that were not the case, Obama could "well be immune from any such prosecution" because of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling Trump obtained in his defense against criminal charges stemming from Jan. 6. Trump's overall attitude seems to be "immunity for me, not for thee."

'The problem with rewards credit cards'

Ellen Cushing at The Atlantic

Today's "credit card issuers have essentially invented their own fiat currency — 'points,' usually — that can be redeemed only within their apparatus, for rewards the company has designated," says Ellen Cushing. As the "cards get more popular, though, reaping their benefits is becoming harder and more like homework." They "make the consumer feel in control and empowered, as if they're making money even while they spend it." The "product is a subscription to do more work."

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'Trump's obsession with Obama took an ominous turn this week'

Michael Steele at MSNBC

President Donald Trump "posted on social media an AI-generated video" of Barack Obama being arrested, and has "once again shown his lack of class and decorum," says Michael Steele. The "video was a projection of everything Trump fears and envies about his predecessor: Obama's grace, intellect, global stature and, most of all, the fact that Obama's very presence in the White House redefined what power could look like in America." Obama has been "living in Trump's head rent-free."

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'Investing in Spanish-speaking therapists is critical for US mental health'

Vanesa Mora Ringle at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Spanish-speaking Americans "who need mental health care find themselves facing long wait lists, limited options, and the frustration of not being able to communicate with a therapist who truly understands their language and culture," says Vanessa Mora Ringle. This is a "crisis that leaves people without the help they need at the very moment they are most vulnerable." We "must build real pathways for Spanish-speaking professionals to acquire the skills and credentials they need to serve their communities."

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'From Tesla to Microsoft, companies are going vertical again'

Adrian Wooldridge at Bloomberg

Corporations were historically "shaped by vertical integration — the desire to bring as much of the production process as possible under the same umbrella," and the "pendulum is swinging back to vertical integration once again," says Adrian Wooldridge. The "obvious reason for this is political turmoil." Contracting out "flourished in the era of globalization, when tariffs were being lowered and predictable rules being put in place." It "now makes sense to reshore activities and also to take them in-house."

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What happened

Former President Barack Obama's office issued a rare rebuke to President Donald Trump Tuesday, refuting the latter's claim that Obama tried to "lead a coup" after the 2016 election. Trump's accusation follows papers released by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard alleging Obama officials "manipulated and politicized intelligence" to bolster Russian election interference narratives and undermine Trump's 2016 win.

The president made the comments after being asked about the growing public clamor for him to release more files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Who said what

"This was treason," Trump said of the Obama administration's actions. He urged the Department of Justice to "go after people." These allegations are "bizarre" and "outrageous," Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. The documents Gabbard released do not undercut the "widely accepted conclusion" that Russia tried to influence the 2016 presidential election but didn't manage to manipulate votes. Trump is simply making a "weak attempt at distraction." Democratic Senator Mark Warner (D-Va), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that "if there had been some Obama conspiracy, we would have found it."

Trump has historically been good at "constantly changing narratives," but the Epstein drama is "different" because he's "in a fight with his base," Republican strategist Alex Conant told The Washington Post. Trump's latest comments represent a "growing willingness to sic law enforcement agencies" on "his political enemies," said Politico.

What next?

Trump indicated the decision over whether to investigate Obama was in the hands of Attorney General Pam Bondi. The House begins a five-week summer recess today, one day early, to "avoid a political fight" over the Epstein files, Reuters said.

'Barack Obama is not your emotional support president'

Karen Attiah at The Washington Post

"America, no one is coming to save you. Especially not Barack Obama," says Karen Attiah. Humans are "hardwired to yearn for authority figures to tell them everything will be OK. And, for many, the emotional support figure par excellence will always be the 44th president." But "after a white majority elected Trump for the second time, it's Barack Obama, the first Black president, who has an obligation to comfort the nation?" Obama "already told Americans the truth."

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'So many what-ifs haunt Guadalupe River flood'

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

In Texas, questions "must be answered about how much warning people in harm's way received and how quickly local officials reacted to those warnings," says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. Texas "river flooding is unlike most natural disasters not only in its speed and ferocity but in its unpredictability." Texans "need to understand whether improved staffing or technology at either the National Weather Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could give more accurate advance warning."

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'State-sponsored Islamophobia in France encourages violence'

Farid Hafez at Al Jazeera

"Islamophobia in France has not stopped at vandalism," says Farid Hafez. There has been a "significant spike in Islamophobic acts in France — something the French authorities remain reluctant to publicly comment on." There are "various factors that have contributed to this, but central among them is the French state's own Islamophobic rhetoric." It's "hard to believe that the obsession of the French state and government with what they call 'Islamist separatism' is not, in fact, inciting violence."

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'"Love Island USA" exposes Gen Z's messiest dating traits — and it's hard to look away

Erin Gloria Ryan at MSNBC

"Love Island USA" is an "appealing escapist counterweight to historically bad national vibes," says Erin Gloria Ryan. There are "hours of new content from the island per week, almost enough to drown out the sound of the world ending." This is a "coalescence of two large-scale human experiments: Does social media harm human development? How about forced Covid isolation during a formative emotional time?" It's "no wonder 'Love Island USA' is such a fascinating — and revealing — watch."

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What happened

U.S. Agency for International Development employees gathered Monday to mark the humanitarian and development organization's final day as an independent agency. Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were among the officials who thanked the outgoing staffers via videoconference, while U2's Bono read a poem he had written about the agency and its gutting by the Trump administration.

Who said what

President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 as a "peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad," The Associated Press said, and it was "one of the first and most fiercely targeted" agencies uprooted by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE operation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in March that the administration had slashed 83% of USAID programs, with the remaining ones to be absorbed into the State Department today.

Monday's farewell event was "billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks," said the AP, which viewed parts of the video. Obama told the staffers that dismantling USAID would "go down as a colossal mistake" that "hurts the most vulnerable" in the world and ultimately "hurts the United States."

"Is it in our interest that 25 million people who would have died now live?" said Bush, citing the estimated number of lives saved through his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program. "I think it is." Bush's initiative retained "significant funding" after "bipartisan blowback from Congress" to steeper cuts, the AP said. But its "future, like much of U.S. foreign aid, is unclear," The New York Times said. "It's not left-wing rhetoric to feed the hungry, heal the sick," Bono said. "If this isn't murder, I don't know what is."

What next?

A study published in the journal The Lancet Monday estimated that USAID prevented 91 million deaths in 133 countries between 2001 and 2021 and that its dismantling could lead to more than 14 million preventable deaths by 2030, including over 4.5 million young children. The State Department told the AP it would be introducing USAID's successor agency, called America First, this week, ensuring "proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests."

President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" spending bill has gotten attention for its potential slashes to Medicaid, but analysts say another aspect of the American health care system could also be in jeopardy: Obamacare. If Trump's bill becomes law, it could put former President Barack Obama's signature health care statute, the Affordable Care Act, at risk. This could slash the number of Americans who can rely on the ACA — something Republicans have long pined for.

Millions could lose insurance

Trump's bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, would create several obstacles for people trying to sign up for Obamacare, health industry analysts say. This would "result in millions of people losing insurance coverage to help pay for Trump's tax cut extension," said The Hill. Many of the conversations "echo some of the debate surrounding the 2017 effort to repeal" Obamacare during Trump's first term.

Some of the changes to Obamacare could include "reductions to enrollment periods, adjustments to formulas, and additional paperwork requirements," said The New York Times. Premium subsidies for the program could also be at risk, as "additional Obamacare funding is set to expire at the end of the year, and Republicans do not plan to extend it." If all of this comes to fruition, about 4.2 million Americans would lose their health care, according to the Congressional Budget Office. When also factoring in Medicaid, the CBO estimates that 11 million people total could lose their insurance due to the bill.

Trying to get a plan through Obamacare could also become more difficult, as the bill could "lead to higher premiums for people who shop for plans on the Obamacare exchanges and cause massive turmoil for actuaries," said Politico. This could leave "officials with little time between when the law is enacted and the start of open enrollment in the fall" to understand how the bill fully affects Obamacare. The expiration of premium subsidies could also "lead to insurance premiums increasing so steeply they could jeopardize the Obamacare market."

Republicans changing course

The Republicans' health care agenda as outlined in Trump's bill is a "notable departure from the Obamacare repeal and replace Republicans pursued for years," said The Washington Post, as the GOP is "not branding it a repeal." But their approach "still undermines the law's broad goal of getting most Americans covered."

It is "very much like a backdoor repeal and replace," said Matt Salo, the former executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, to the Post. Republicans have "been too cute by half by doing it but not calling it that." Even though it is not a repeal and replace plan per se, the "coverage losses would be among many of the same people who would have lost their insurance under ACA repeal," said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the health nonprofit KFF, to the Post.

Republicans are angling around this by saying the bill would "merely reduce 'waste, fraud, and abuse' in Medicaid and other government health programs," including Obamacare, said CBS News. But others seem unconvinced. The bill is "their ACA repeal wish list without advertising it as Obamacare repeal," said Philip Rocco, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, to CBS. This is because Republicans learned that the "headline of Obamacare repeal is really bad politics." This all comes as 64% of Americans have a favorable view of Obamacare, according to a January 2025 KFF poll.

President Trump is "well positioned to secure a lasting deal" with Iran on its nuclear program, said Ivo Daalder in Politico. Unfortunately, it may be "on Iran's terms." Since 2018, when Trump scrapped President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal, Tehran has been enriching uranium and now has a stockpile at 60 percent purity. At this point, it could jump to the 90 percent purity required for a bomb whenever it chooses, and that has alarmed Israel, which considers a nuclear Iran an existential threat. Israel was reportedly planning to bomb Iran's facilities, but Trump insisted on talks first, bombs second. The "carrots and sticks" approach has brought Iran to the negotiating table, and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff has met twice with Iranian diplomats in the past two weeks. But whatever deal emerges is likely to be a near clone of Obama's pact, which Trump derided as "the worst deal in history." Critics of the original deal may again be left wanting "something more stringent."

A tougher agreement is still within reach, said Arash Azizi in The Atlantic. Iran is in a "weak, even humiliating position," with Israel having humbled Iranian proxy militias in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon. Internal discontent over the ayatollahs' "political repression and economic mismanagement" has swelled, and voices favoring engagement with the U.S. are gaining strength. There's hope Iran could accept "real concessions" that create a "more enduring" check on its nuclear ambitions.

Don't count on it, said Bret Stephens in The New York Times. Iran "has been playing Western diplomats for fools for decades." The heart of the problem isn't the level of nuclear enrichment, but the Iranian regime, with its "raging anti-Americanism and antisemitism" and its "long record of supporting terrorism." Rather than the same old deal, Trump should offer "normalization for normalization." The U.S. would lift sanctions and allow unfettered trade to bring prosperity to Iranians, if in exchange Iran renounced nuclear weapons, terrorism, and repression and became "a normal country." To add to the pressure, the U.S. could give Israel the bombers it needs to wipe out Iran's facilities in case of a no. But outsourcing our military muscle to Israel would be "a profound strategic error," said Dan Perry in The Hill. It sends the message that Trump's White House, like Obama's, "lacks the will to enforce its own red lines." The ayatollahs must understand that if they try to stall, their "cataclysmic rule" will be ended. "That message must come from Washington, not Tel Aviv."

Former President Barack Obama was just 55 years old when he left office after two terms in 2017, making him one of the youngest ex-presidents. While he still has decades to go before reaching Jimmy Carter's record of 43 years of post-presidential retirement, Obama's relatively young age means that barring illness or catastrophe he is likely to remain a figure in American politics and society for some time. He'll also have more time than most chief executives to build his fortune, something that many former presidents either chose to forego or failed at. Ulysses S. Grant, for example, was just 54 when he left office in 1877, and after a failed Mexican railroad gambit and a massive investment in his son Buck's doomed Wall Street brokerage firm, he died virtually penniless.

That is a fate unlikely to befall Obama. Today he is a relatively youthful 64, and has packed a number of ventures into his early retirement years while still emerging periodically to stump for Democratic congressional and presidential candidates, which the party considers an asset given his status as the most popular living former president. He has also launched a film production company with former First Lady Michelle Obama and helmed the non-profit Obama Foundation, which manages the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Finally, he and Michelle have published multiple best-selling volumes of their memoirs and appeared as well-compensated speakers at various events around the world, adding considerably to their net worth.

Like all presidents, Obama drew a salary during his time in office that made him a higher earner than 97% of all Americans. His family wealth today, however, is largely derived from royalties and advances from books, speaker fees from public engagements, deals for the couple's production company and real estate holdings. In 2018, the New York Post claimed that the Obamas were worth $135 million, although no methodology was shared with readers. Forbes estimated the Obamas' net worth in September 2024 to be $70 million. That remains the most recent public estimate.

How he made his fortune

22 years ago, Barack Obama, a Harvard Law graduate and University of Chicago law professor, was a little-known Illinois state senator when he was given the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston that nominated then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for the presidency against incumbent George W. Bush. Obama's speech was so well-received that "observers from across the political world hailed the address as an instant classic," a career-altering turn that "captured the nation's attention and opened the way for a run at the presidency," said Chicago Magazine. It was "one of the most electrifying speeches in political convention history," said Politico, although its "aspirational message" now looks like an "almost hopelessly naive relic." Unfortunately for Democrats, it did not help Kerry capture the presidency. That address also propelled sales of Obama's little-known 1995 first book, "Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," which had been re-published a month before the convention. "At a young age and without much experience as a writer, Barack Obama has bravely tackled the complexities of his remarkable upbringing," said The New York Times after the book's 1995 publication. Sales of the book subsequently "took off," and it "sold about 500,000 copies in the United States" in the two years after his breakthrough speech, said The Century Foundation.

Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and on the strength of his star turn at the DNC was already a national figure. By then, Obama had made millions from his two memoirs, including "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" (2006) before he was elected president in 2008. He also wrote a children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: Letters to My Daughters," which was published in 2010. In 2007 alone, when he announced his longshot 2008 bid for the White House, Obama "earned almost $3.3 million from Random House book royalties," said AOL.

As a senator from Illinois, Obama started at a salary of $162,100 in 2006 and then earned $169,300 in his final year in the chamber in 2009 before collecting $400,000 per year during his eight years as the president. But it was the ongoing sales of his books that sent the Obamas' wealth on a steady upward trajectory during his presidency, with total royalties of $15.6 million between 2009 and 2017. Obama "donated all post-tax profits from the children's book to provide scholarships for children of wounded and fallen soldiers," said Forbes. Fortune estimated the Obamas' net worth to be $12.2 million when they left the White House in January 2017.

Lucrative post-presidency

Throughout this political career, President Obama was as much a celebrity as he was an elected official. The Obamas have long exercised significant influence over popular reading habits by virtue of their book recommendations — and in the Trump era, this often serves as an excruciating reminder "that we used to have a thoughtful, curious, intelligent man leading this country," said Literary Hub. It is therefore not surprising, in retrospect, that entertainment has been central to Obama's activities after his presidency ended. In March 2017, the Obamas signed a joint $65 million deal with Penguin Random House for one memoir each that "appears to be bigger than any previous presidential book deal in history," said Vox. Michelle Obama's book, "Becoming," was published in 2018. It "employs the techniques of a novel more than those of a typical political memoir," resulting in a book that was "surprisingly candid, richly emotional and granularly detailed," said Vanity Fair. It "sold more copies than any other book published in the United States in 2018," said Penguin Random House.

Her 2022 book, "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times," was also an instant bestseller. Its structure was such that each "chapter is a tool" individuals can use "to help keep yourself together," and the book's insights were "nuanced and never prescriptive," said The New York Times. It was the second-highest selling book of 2022, "​​selling nearly 734,000 copies" despite not being released until November, said Publishers Weekly. Barack Obama's memoir of his time in office, "A Promised Land," was published in 2020. It was "less a personal memoir than an unusual sort of history, one recounted by the man at the center of it," said The Washington Post. It sold almost three million copies in its first year and was the "top print title in 2020," the turbulent year that was "marred by a deadly pandemic and extraordinary political and racial strife," said Publisher's Weekly. He has been working on a second volume of that memoir, and the "new tome is nearing completion," said Deadline in September 2024. A release date has not yet been announced, and the former president has not provided an update on his progress since.

President Obama "reportedly earned $800,000 for two speeches and at least $2 million for three talks" in 2017 alone, said Yahoo Entertainment. Those fees drew widespread scrutiny, as he "immediately stepped into controversy over his post-White House buck-raking," said the Los Angeles Times. In 2018, the Obamas founded a production company, Higher Ground Productions, and signed an agreement for an undisclosed amount of money with the streaming service Netflix. That agreement gave the Obamas a "global platform in the Trump era, connecting them with an audience of more than 120 million Netflix subscribers in more than 190 countries," said NBC News. Some critics assailed the deal as being "more about name recognition than actual content," said The New York Times.

The company has produced scripted and unscripted television and movies, including the children's show "Waffles and Mochi" as well as the 2023 post-apocalyptic thriller "Leave the World Behind." Obama reportedly had a hands-on role in the adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel about a family navigating a series of mysterious global events at their vacation rental, but the president's "input came after the story's script was formulated," said Forbes. The film has a "light, practically Spielbergian touch and sense of adventure," and during its runtime the "apocalypse felt fun," said Brianna Zigler at Paste Magazine. Because it didn't get a theatrical release, there is no traditional box office data for the movie.

In 2022, Higher Ground signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which "signals further growth for their company," said Deadline. CAA is a "powerhouse talent agency" with a "star-studded" roster of "Hollywood actors and sports legends," including actor Meryl Streep and baseball star Shohei Ohtani, said CBS News. That same year, Higher Ground signed a deal with Amazon's Audible service that "includes multiple audio projects that will be distributed worldwide," said CNN.

Higher Ground also produces podcasts, including "IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson," which debuted in 2025 and replaced her previous program, "The Light Podcast." The new podcast is "marked by a very American tendency to mutual self-congratulation," whose guiding principle seems to be "to stick to banalities," said The Times. The amount of money that the Obamas make from Higher Ground is unknown.

Obama also won an Emmy for Outstanding Narration in 2022 for his voice work on the Netflix documentary series "Our Great National Parks." He won a second Emmy in 2023 for narrating "Working: What We Do All Day," and again in 2024 for another Netflix documentary, "Our Oceans," which is a "nature series you'll want to binge like all your other streaming favorites," said The Daily Beast.

The Obamas bought and moved into a home in Washington, D.C., for $8.1 million in 2017, and still maintain their residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago that they purchased in 2005. It remains a "secret how often the former first family stays" in their Chicago residence, but it is "often enough that the tree out front has been cicada-proofed," said Chicago Magazine. They also bought an estate on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, in 2019 for $11.75 million. The home "sits in an area that is rich with natural and human history" and their purchase was the "first time that a former president has bought property on the Island," said the Vineyard Gazette.

Like many Americans with substantial investments, the Obamas' portfolio has likely fluctuated dramatically in the tumultuous months following President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcements on April 2, 2025, but no details of where the market drama has left them are currently available from public sources. Following the initial tariff announcement, Obama predicted they would have a negative impact but maintained that "he is more concerned with what he described as the White House's infringement of rights," said CNN.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a Japanese organisation of atomic bomb survivors.

Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen praised the "extraordinary efforts" of the Nihon Hidankyo group, saying its activities have "contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo".

How is the prize chosen?

This year, there were 286 nominations for the peace prize – comprising 197 individuals and 89 organisations. The selecting committee sends out nomination forms or invitations for proposals to "qualified nominators", and the deadline for their nominations is the end of January.

The list of people who can nominate is "long – very long", said Al Jazeera. They come under several category heads, including members of national assemblies, governments of sovereign states and current heads of state. Other nominators include officials with international peace organisations; and university professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy and religion. Former recipients can also nominate.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, the five people chosen by Norway's parliament to select the winner, says the large number of potential nominators ensures a "great variety of candidates", but it does not reveal the nominees or those who nominated them until 50 years later, though people can "self-report their submissions if they choose", said The New York Times.

Why has it been controversial?

Previous winners include Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai (2014); Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk (1993) and Mother Teresa (1979), but some recipients have proven more controversial than others.

When the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama, many commentators questioned the choice, as he had become president just 12 days before nominations had closed. The award was "not for anything he's actually done", wrote Michelle Malkin, a conservative commentator, "but for the symbolism of what he might possibly accomplish sometime way off in the future".

Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler have all been nominated in the past, although the latter nomination was meant satirically. None of them won. Meanwhile, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated five times but never actually won either, an omission that is often remarked upon.

Who is this year's winner?

The "grassroots movement" of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki was chosen "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons" and for "demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again", said the committee.

The group is the only nationwide organisation of atom-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Its website states that its main objectives include "the prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons", including "the signing of an international agreement for a total ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons".

The Nobel committee said the organisation's members "help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable", and "to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons".

Former President Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts in 2024, putting him in a club that no one wants to join. While four presidents have been assassinated in office, none have been killed since John F. Kennedy in 1963. The clear lesson of history is that it's certainly not for lack of effort. 

Some of these attempts were more serious than others, and most were foiled by authorities before shots were fired or bombs went off. But there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to kill sitting or former presidents before this year's near-misses for Trump.

19th century assassination attempts

Andrew Jackson: President Andrew Jackson was targeted by a jobless painter named Richard Lawrence, who waited in the rotunda of the Capitol building and fired two different pistols at him on January 30, 1835. After the first misfired, Lawrence took out the second pistol as the ailing Jackson charged him and hit him with his cane. Lawrence's second pistol also misfired before he was tackled by onlookers.

Abraham Lincoln: Before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865, President Abraham Lincoln survived two earlier attempts on his life, the first of which was planned to happen in Baltimore prior to Lincoln's February 1861 inauguration. And then in August of 1864, a bullet from a still-unknown gunman struck and passed through Lincoln's hat as the president was riding to the Soldier's Home outside of Washington, D.C., around 11 p.m. 

20th century assassination attempts

William Howard Taft: President William Howard Taft was in El Paso, Texas, on October 17, 1909, to meet with Mexican President Porfirio Diaz when a gunman named Julius Bergerson was apprehended with a pistol along the procession route, just three feet from Taft and Diaz. 

Theodore Roosevelt: On October 4, 1912, a saloon keeper named John Schrank shot former President Theodore Roosevelt — who was running for president again that year — in the chest, breaking one of his ribs. 

Herbert Hoover: A plot by Argentinian anarchists to blow up the train carrying President Herbert Hoover through the Andes on November 19th, 1928, was foiled. 

FDR: Hoover's successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was repeatedly targeted too. First in Chicago before his inauguration, when gunman Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt, hitting Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who later died of his injuries. Soviet officials also claimed to have thwarted a Nazi plot to assassinate FDR, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943.

Harry Truman: In November 1950, two gunmen — Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo — broke into Blair House, where President Harry Truman spent his second term. Torresola was killed by a Secret Service agent named Leslie Coffelt, who also died in the exchange. 

Richard Nixon: In April 1972, a man named Arthur Bremer made two attempts to ambush President Richard Nixon in Ottawa, Canada, but was unable to line up a shot. In May Bremer shot and seriously wounded segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. On February 22, 1974, a depressed father of four named Samuel Byck tried to hijack a DC-9 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to fly it into the White House and kill Nixon. 

Gerald Ford: Shortly after Gerald Ford was sworn in following Nixon's resignation, The Alphabet Bomber, Muharem Kurbegovic, was apprehended a day after threatening to throw a nerve gas bomb at the president. On September 5th, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, took out a pistol to shoot Ford at the state Capitol in Sacramento, California. The gun did not fire. 17 days later, FBI informant and Symbionese Liberation Army sympathizer Sara Jane Moore fired at Ford, missing him but wounding a taxi driver. 

Jimmy Carter: On May 5, 1979, a man named Raymond Lee Harvey was arrested outside the Civic Center Mall in Los Angeles ten minutes before President Jimmy Carter was set to give a speech. Harvey had a pistol and blank rounds. 

Ronald Reagan: On March 30th, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. fired six shots at President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton hotel, wounding the president, two Secret Service officers and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Reagan was seriously wounded but survived to make a full recovery. 

George H.W. Bush: In April 1993, Kuwaiti authorities arrested 17 men who they alleged were plotting to kill President George H.W. Bush with a truck bomb at the behest of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. 

Bill Clinton: There were four different plots to kill President Bill Clinton, including two masterminded by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. On November 24, 1996, Clinton's motorcade was rerouted in Manila, after authorities intercepted a threat and discovered a bomb planted underneath a bridge on the planned route. The only shots fired at Clinton, though, were by Francisco Martin Duran, who opened fire on a group of men who he mistakenly believed to include Clinton on the North Lawn of the White House on October 29, 1994. No one was injured. 

21st century assassination attempts

George W. Bush: In 2005, Georgian national Vladimir Arutyunian threw a grenade toward the podium where President George W. Bush was speaking in Tblisi, Georgia, on May 10, 1995. The grenade did not explode. 

In May 2022, Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab was arrested as part of an FBI sting operation and charged with plotting to kill former President George W. Bush.

Barack Obama: 11 plots or attempts against the life of President Barack Obama, of various degrees of seriousness, were stopped, including in April 2009, when Turkish authorities foiled a plot to kill Obama by a Syrian man posing as an Al-Jazeera journalist. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a right-wing extremist, fired 25 rounds of an automatic rifle at the White House in January 2011 in another attempt on Obama's life, breaking a window but wounding no one. Four soldiers connected with a right-wing militia were also arrested by authorities in August 2012 for plotting to kill Obama.

Glendon Scott Crawford and Eric Feight, two white supremacists, were arrested in 2013 for plotting to murder Muslims as well as President Obama with a bespoke radiation device. And in February 2015, three New York City men who claimed affiliation with ISIS were arrested when they told undercover FBI agents that they were planning to kill Obama. 

Donald Trump: Gregory Lee Leingang made the first of five plots against or attempts on President Donald Trump's life while he was in office. Leingang stole a forklift and drove it to a Trump rally in Bismarck, North Dakota on September 6th, 2017, intending to flip the president's limousine. In November 2017, a man associated with the Islamic State was arrested in Manila on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Trump. 

On October 3rd, 2018, a Utah Navy veteran named William Clyde Allen III was arrested after mailing a letter laced with ricin to President Trump. In September 2020, a Canadian woman named Pascale Ferrier was arrested while trying to enter the United States and later charged with mailing ricin-laced letters to Trump.

Hillary Clinton: In October 2018, a pipe bomb mailed by Florida man Cesar Sayoc, addressed to Hillary Clinton, was intercepted by authorities. Sayoc also mailed a bomb to former President Obama's home in Washington, D.C. as well as to other Democratic leaders. 

Joe Biden: On May 23rd, 2023, neo-Nazi Sai Varshith Kandula tried to drive a rented truck into the White House to kill President Joe Biden.

What happened

Barack and Michelle Obama gave back-to-back speeches to close out the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The former president and first lady praised Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, slyly mocked Donald Trump and warned Democrats they have to work tirelessly to turn the ebullient vibe inside the United Center into an electoral victory. Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, also celebrated his wife in personal terms and as a "joyful warrior" who "never runs from a fight."

Who said what

The Obamas were "clearly Tuesday's emotional high point" at the DNC, The Washington Post said, and their "one-two punch" combined "blistering takedowns of Trump" with an aspirational vision of a better America. They were able to "describe the perils they see of a second Trump presidency" while "making fun of him" with a "rare, incisive humor" unique at this convention, Rebecca Davis O’Brien said at The New York Times.

Michelle Obama said that Harris, unlike Trump, "understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward" or "benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth." Barack Obama said Harris would focus on solving your problems while Trump is a "78-year-old billionaire who hasn't stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago." Trump's "constant stream of gripes and grievances" is "worse now that he's afraid of losing to Kamala," he said, singling out "the childish nicknames" and "weird obsession with crowd size."

In a "significant flexing of Democratic muscle" Tuesday night, Harris addressed "two packed arenas at the same time," the Times said. She thanked the delegates in Chicago from a rally at the same Milwaukee arena where Trump's Republicans held their convention in July.

What next?

Vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz headlines Wednesday's DNC lineup.

'From Iran and Russia, the disinformation is now. The target is America.'

The Washington Post editorial board

If Iran's and Russia's disinformation campaign "sounds like a repeat of the 2016 presidential campaign, with foreign nations trying to interfere in U.S. democracy, it is," says The Washington Post editorial board. Russia has now "supercharged the process to spread disinformation at high speed and on industrial scale." It is "likely there are many other still-undetected influence campaigns," using artificial intelligence, so "Congress ought to fund and upgrade programs that warn citizens against getting duped."

Read more

'Joe Biden didn't just pass the torch at the DNC — he paid tribute to the future'

Hayes Brown at MSNBC

President Joe Biden was "fired up in a way he hadn't been in months," at the DNC says Hayes Brown. Biden used his speech to "brag a little about his accomplishments and channel righteous anger at the ways former President Donald Trump and his movement have hurt, and will hurt, the country." There was a "laundry list of accomplishments that Biden had expected to run on himself. Instead, it will be the foundation of Harris' campaign."

Read more

'What Harris can take from Obama's very first convention speech'

Julian E. Zelizer at Foreign Policy

As Democrats "prepare for the DNC in Chicago, they would do well to look back at what Obama had to say" in 2004, says Julian E. Zelizer. Obama's "keynote address remains as relevant in 2024 as it was when he was still a relatively unknown figure on the national stage." The speech "provides a solid foundation for the politics of joy that Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, hope can keep their momentum going."

Read more

'Germany's brilliant police strategy: give us your knife, get free Netflix'

Itxu Díaz at National Review

Knife violence and immigration are "merging into a crisis European officials are reluctant to seriously address," says Itxu Díaz. Germany is "debating whether the government should offer Netflix subscriptions to those who voluntarily hand in their illegal knives." This debate is "so immensely illustrative of the EU's failure that it is impossible to overlook." If Europeans "were told in 2015 about such a proposal, we would have said without hesitation: 'That will never happen here.'"

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A presidential nominee's choice of a running mate is one of the more high-profile decisions made prior to the general election. Political science research shows that these choices have limited impact, but in the kinds of agonizingly close elections that have characterized American presidential politics for most of this century, running mates can be consequential. 

The likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, is vetting her short list, and GOP nominee Donald Trump selected Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) earlier this month. Vance has subsequently come under fire for a series of controversial statements over the previous few years, fueling speculation that Trump might dump him from the ticket before it is too late. While it is much too early to say whether Vance will help or harm the Trump campaign, modern history is full of running mates who either helped the ticket across the finish line — or turned out to be a drag on losing campaigns. 

The best picks compensate for a nominee's weaknesses

George H.W. Bush (1980): In 1980, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan's brand of social and fiscal conservatism was in the process of taking over the GOP. But the party still included millions of moderates who were uncomfortable with the hawkish Reagan and considered him too extreme. So Reagan took the unusual step of tapping his moderate rival for the nomination, former U.S. Rep. and C.I.A. Director George H.W. Bush, as his running mate. Bush, who would later run successfully for the nomination and win the presidency in 1988, was from the Republican old guard of social liberals. He helped make voters comfortable with Reagan, who only a few years earlier was considered a firebrand who might accidentally start a nuclear war with the Soviets. The soft-spoken Bush ultimately helped Reagan deliver one of the worst defeats of an incumbent in American history when they vanquished Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide. 

Mike Pence (2016): Critics derided him as "Mike Dense" and mocked Trump's selection of the pious incumbent governor of Indiana. But the staid and steady Pence helped solidify support from white evangelical voters – perhaps the single most important Republican voting bloc – who were uncomfortable with Trump's personal history as a twice-divorced man with a reputation for womanizing. When the infamous Access Hollywood tape that included Trump talking about sexually assaulting women was leaked to the press in October 2016, Pence's standing on the ticket may have made it possible for Trump to survive the episode. Pence's wife, Karen, told him that she "would no longer appear in public if he carried on as Trump's running mate," after hearing the tape, said journalist Tim Alberta. But Pence stuck with Trump, and together they won the election, in part by winning 80% of white evangelical voters, according to exit polls. 

Al Gore (1992): After 12 years of Republican control of the White House and three straight blowout presidential losses, Democrats were desperate to get their nominee right – especially because the incumbent, George H.W. Bush, looked increasingly vulnerable as the party conventions approached. Already dogged by allegations of extra-marital affairs (and possibly worse), Democrats worried that their nominee, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, would be seen as too liberal despite his status as one of the early members of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Gore, a Tennessee senator, was also a charter member of that centrist Democratic group, which wanted to move away from the party's reliance on a brand of liberalism that had become unpopular. Clinton gambled that a young ticket of self-styled ideological moderates would persuade the electorate to once again trust Democrats with the country's highest office, and they were proven right when they won the election decisively.

The worst picks compensate for the wrong problem

Sarah Palin (2008): Palin is the ultimate cautionary tale in running mate selection lore. GOP nominee John McCain, a longtime Arizona senator with a carefully cultivated image as a "maverick," wanted to pick his friend and longtime colleague Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) as his running mate. But Republican strategists feared that the party's base would revolt, and McCain impulsively chose the little-known Palin to increase enthusiasm from the conservative wing of the party. Despite an electric debut at the Republican National Convention, Palin later gave a series of disastrous interviews in the following weeks that led to her enduring Saturday Night Live caricature as an intellectual lightweight. In one infamous exchange, Palin was unable to tell CBS's Katie Couric the names of any newspapers that she read. As the campaign dragged on, even Palin's own staff grew frustrated with her and voters began to doubt her credibility as a possible successor to McCain, who would be 72 by Election Day. McCain went on to lose to Democratic nominee Barack Obama by 7.3 points. The "Palin effect," ultimately "cost McCain almost 2% of the final vote share," according to one 2010 study

Tim Kaine (2016): Riding high in public opinion polls and watching Republicans make the seemingly suicidal choice of Donald Trump as their nominee, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton decided to pick Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) as her running mate. The moderate Kaine was not from a swing state, was not particularly charismatic, and did nothing to shore up Clinton's left flank with progressives still seething from the outcome of the bitter primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Reports suggested that Clinton chose Kaine precisely because of their ideological affinity, a callback to her husband Bill Clinton's choice of Al Gore in 1992. Clinton and Kaine "are cut from the same political cloth," said The New Yorker's John Cassidy about the puzzling selection. Kaine was thought by Clinton's advisors to be "someone with whom they might work closely for four or eight years," Cassidy said. Instead, they only got to work together for a few months before their shock loss to the Trump-Pence ticket. 

Joe Lieberman (2000): For Democrats, it is hard to think about Joe Lieberman outside the context of what followed his losing campaign with then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000. A social moderate, Lieberman, a veteran senator for Connecticut, became so disenchanted with his party during George W. Bush's two terms that he ran successfully as an independent for another term in 2006.  In 2008 Lieberman campaigned for the Republican nominee, John McCain and appeared at the Republican National Convention. But in 2000, Gore chose him as a way of distancing himself from President Clinton's sordid personal history. Lieberman had given a fiery speech on the Senate floor during Clinton's 1998 impeachment trial denouncing his conduct while still voting to acquit. Lieberman was also the first Jewish candidate to serve on a major-party presidential ticket and was very popular in his home state. But Gore's real problem was with the disenchanted progressive wing of his own party, and enough people deserted him for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader to cost Gore the crucial swing state of Florida and thus the election. 

Since the post-1968 reforms that led both the Democratic and Republican Parties to use binding caucuses and primaries to choose their presidential nominees, the summer nominating conventions have largely been scripted events whose outcome was rarely in doubt. But Democratic and Republican leaders rightly see the conventions as free advertising, and have often doled out prime speaking slots to politicians who are either considered rising stars or whose supporters were vital to victory. From Democrats Mario Cuomo in 1984 and Barack Obama in 2004 to Republican Pat Buchanan in 1992, ambitious politicians have used their speaking slots either as a springboard to success or as a way to steer their party in a new direction. 

Whose speeches made them political celebrities?

By far the most meteoric rise out of a plum speaking spot was an obscure Illinois state legislator named Barack Obama. Obama's keynote speech called for unity across the partisan divide. "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America," he said to thunderous applause from the crowd. In 2004, the whole concept of "red" and "blue" states was only a few years old, an outgrowth of the contested 2000 election, and Obama's address spoke to a yearning to transcend that nascent division. It didn't work, of course, but it did catapult him into the Senate and then the presidency in 2008.

Obama followed in the footsteps of another up-and-coming Democrat from 20 years earlier: New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo's keynote at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco electrified the crowd. Democrats, reeling from their 1980 shellacking at the hands of Republican Ronald Reagan, were searching for their footing as New Deal liberalism's appeal was fading. "There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces you don't see, in the places you don't visit in your shining city," Cuomo said, addressing President Reagan. While many Democrats wanted Cuomo to run for the party's presidential nomination in both 1988 and 1992, he never did. President Bill Clinton considered him for a seat on the Supreme Court, which he also declined.

Whose speeches influenced party platforms?

Other speakers have been successful in pushing the party in a different direction. That was the case for insurgent "paleoconservative" Pat Buchanan, who had run against incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 nominating contests. Buchanan said that America was in the midst of a "culture war," that was "as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America." Buchanan's positions on issues like free trade would later be adopted more successfully by Donald Trump.

Intraparty ideological struggles were also the reason for Sen. Elizabeth Warren's 2016 address to the DNC in Philadelphia. Part of the party's progressive wing, Warren was tasked with shoring up support from disappointed supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had lost a bitter primary to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Even families who are OK today worry that it could all fall apart tomorrow," she said in a speech focused on inequality and power. She led the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination in 2019, and despite falling short she remains an important figure in the party.

Not all of these decisions worked out. In 1996, Republicans gave their keynote to Rep. Susan Molinari of New York. Just one year later, however, she left her job in Congress to work as a journalist for CBS News. In 2012, Democrats awarded their keynote slot to San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who was considered a major political talent. Castro, however, was unlikely to be elected to statewide office in heavily Republican Texas, and despite a cabinet position in the Obama administration, his 2020 run for the Democratic nomination fizzled out quickly. 

While there's no way to know for sure, in all likelihood, viewers of the RNC in Milwaukee earlier this month or the DNC in Chicago next month will have watched someone give their breakout speech.

What happened

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former President Barack Obama have both raised serious concerns that President Joe Biden will not be able to defeat Donald Trump in the coming election, insiders claim. In recent conversations with Biden and his allies, the Democratic powerhouses reportedly said the president should reconsider his reelection campaign. 

Who said what

Pelosi told Biden directly that she was "pessimistic about his chances" of an electoral victory, said The New York Times. Sources said the speaker emerita, regarded as one of the Democrats' most savvy political operators, pointed to polling that suggests Biden could not win. A Pelosi spokesperson told CNN that the press "feeding frenzy" based on unnamed sources "misrepresents many conversations" that the former speaker "may have had with the president." 

Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, has also told allies that the president's "path to victory has greatly diminished" and that he should "seriously consider the viability of his campaign," The Washington Post said. A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment. 

What next?

Pelosi may yet press Biden publicly to drop out of the race, an ally said to Politico. Although Pelosi "does not want to call on him to resign," the former speaker will "do everything in her power to make sure it happens," the source said. 

A new podcast series from "Serial" is out today on the history of the Guantánamo Bay detention centre, one of the most controversial episodes in the more than two-decades long "War on Terror".

Opened as a military prison in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, the US presence in Cuba in fact dates back more a century. Built on land rented from the Cuban government as part of a contested 1903 agreement signed following the 1898 Spanish-American War, the naval base at Guantánamo Bay is under US control though not technically American territory.

It is because of its "uncertain legal status" that the base was chosen as the site of a detention centre, said Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative, "allowing the US government to argue that those detained at the base were not entitled to certain rights under US laws".

Why was it set up?

The first detainees arrived on 11 January 2002. Soon, chained prisoners in orange jumpsuits sitting in cages became the defining images of the US-led "War on Terror".

Initially a "temporary" solution to hold people suspected of being part of the Taliban or al-Qaida, "over the next two decades it hardened into an American institution with its own rules, its own prison, its own court", said Deadline.

At its peak in the early 2000s, the prison housed nearly 800 inmates, many of whom were held indefinitely without charge, unable to qualify as prisoners of war and so excluded from the rights of the Geneva Convention. The detention centre was made up of several distinct camps – the most infamous of these being Camp X-Ray for high-level detainees – which differed in their security level, their transparency, and who was imprisoned there.

"Though not singular among prisons in its harsh treatment and arbitrary detention", said Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer representing Guantánamo prisoners, in The Guardian, it was "at least for a time very overt in its extremeness, and what could be seen more plainly than usual caused a reaction".

The brutal treatment of prisoners and opaque legal status of Guantánamo made it, according to Amnesty, "a symbol of torture, rendition and indefinite detention without charge or trial".

Reports of inhumane conditions and the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" led to condemnation around the world and a growing "movement" to close the detention centre down, said Kebriaei.

Barack Obama signed an executive order with the aim of closing the camp within one year of taking office in 2009, but while the number of inmates fell significantly during his presidency, repeated attempts to repatriate the remaining inmates or send them to high-security jails in the US were thwarted by Congress. His successor in the White House, Donald Trump, pledged to fill it with more prisoners, while the Biden administration once again committed to closing it.

Legal and human rights considerations aside, keeping the Guantánamo Bay detention camp open is also "extremely costly", said the Bridge Initiative. Since 2002 the total bill has exceeded $6 billion, and the yearly cost of imprisoning each person is over $13 million, making it "almost certainly" the world's "most expensive detention program", said Carol Rosenberg in The New York Times.

What is it used for today?

Of the 30 men still held at Guantánamo, 11 have been charged with war crimes in the military commissions system, with 10 awaiting trial and one convicted. Three detainees are held in indefinite law-of-war detention and are neither facing tribunal charges nor being recommended for release. Sixteen – known as "forever prisoners" – are held in law-of-war detention but have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements to another country.

"These are detentions that are inescapably bound up with multiple layers of unlawful government conduct over the years – secret transfers, incommunicado interrogations, forced feeding of hunger strikers, torture, enforced disappearance, and a complete lack of due process," said Amnesty International's Daphne Eviatar in a statement ahead of the 20th anniversary of Guantánamo's opening.

In January this year, nearly 100 advocacy organisations sent a letter to President Biden urging him to follow through with his promise and finally close the facility.

Scott Roehm, director of global policy and advocacy at the Center for Victims of Torture, told NPR the failure to close the prison has largely been the result of "a lack of courage and a lack of priority" from the Biden administration.

"What seems most gratuitous here", concluded Kebriaei, "is that those closest to Guantánamo agree that it was a profound mistake, that most of those ever detained never should have been held at all, and that the majority of those still imprisoned after 22 years do not belong there now."

The first two episodes of the Serial podcast on the history of Guantánamo Bay will launch on Thursday 28 March, with episodes released weekly after that.

Commentators say Keir Starmer has become more open during interviews and the man behind the transformation is none other than Barack Obama, says a Labour shadow minister.

Even Starmer's "closest supporters" had become "frustrated by his inability to open up in public", said Politico, but "something has changed recently" after the former US president "urged Starmer to talk more openly".

'Barack just came alive'

An interview with Sky News earlier this month has been cited as evidence of the transformation. Starmer opened up on his "distant" relationship with his late father and said he wishes they had been closer.

Afterwards, the interviewer, Sophy Ridge, reflected that she had previously found Starmer "slightly impenetrable" but she had now "found a side that I hadn't experienced before", and felt "like I got to understand him a little better". Ridge's Sky News colleague, Adam Boulton, wrote that a "flurry of interviews and profiles" of the Labour leader is intended to answer the question of who he "really" is.

Could Obama be responsible for this change? Starmer and the former US president were introduced by Labour MP David Lammy, a friend of both politicians. The shadow foreign secretary said that, during a series of calls on Zoom, Obama told Starmer that 21st-century politicians must “communicate who they really are".

Speaking to the Power Play podcast, Lammy revealed that the former president's key message to the Labour leader was to be authentic. Obama's approach is "always seated in authenticity," said Lammy.

When Starmer began discussing his father during conversations with Obama, “Barack just came alive,” Lammy told the Labour leader's biographer, in a separate interview. The Democrat began "interrogating Keir further," Lammy said, as he thought that the story could become the "architecture for a genuine campaign".

Lammy added that Starmer has been talking a "lot more" about how his mother "struggled terribly with illness for many, many years", and how "his father cared for her". He has now discussed his "backstory, much more comfortably than perhaps we saw a few years ago" and "I know that Obama had strong views that Keir should do that".

'Clinton clone'

This is not the first time that a senior UK politician and a US president have reportedly swapped notes. During the 1997 general election campaign, Tony Blair was compared to Bill Clinton. "People called him a Clinton clone, or Clinton Lite," said Bloomberg at the time.

More recently, Boris Johnson has been compared to Donald Trump. The two men are "dangerously similar", said New Statesman and they have "overlapping lives", said The Spectator. Before he became prime minister, Johnson had quietly met Trump aide Stephen Miller, to swap speech writing tips.

'Hollywood tries a new role — gun safety advocacy'

Renée Graham in The Boston Globe

Hollywood has long normalized "guns as cool and fun," says Renée Graham. But more than 250 "Hollywood creatives" signed an open letter urging filmmakers to model "gun safety best practices" more after the 2022 deadly mass shootings at a Buffalo supermarket and a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. "Now gun safety may slowly become Hollywood's thing." But the film industry "has a long way to go to help make gun safes" as common as shootouts on screen.

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'Why Democrats are losing their grip on Latino voters'

Jason L. Riley in The Wall Street Journal

Democrats are losing their advantage with Hispanic voters, says Jason L. Riley. Barack Obama carried this long-reliably Democratic voting bloc by 44 points in 2012, but by 2020 that margin was down to 21 points. And former President Donald Trump's standing with Latinos has improved since then, despite his hardline immigration views. Policy analysts say "the Democrats' cultural lurch to the left" has turned off some Latino voters, many of whom "put economic interests above their ethnic identity."

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'The fight against birth control is already here'

Mary Ziegler in Slate

Republicans accused progressives of "political fearmongering" when they warned contraceptives were next after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade's protection of abortion rights, says Mary Ziegler. "But the concerns about birth control’s fate don’t seem so far-fetched anymore." An appeals court last week handed a victory to a former Texas solicitor general who "masterminded many of the key post-Dobbs anti-abortion strategies" and is now trying to use them to undermine teen access to contraception without parental consent. 

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'Want more women in tech and STEM jobs... ? Start in early education'

Rachael Gannon in The Oklahoman

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives help make workplaces "safer for women" and enrich "organizational culture with diverse perspectives," says Rachael Gannon. This is particularly important in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, where women constitute just 35% of the U.S. workforce. Early education helps steer more women into STEM careers. Companies can do their part by offering "benefits tailored to support women," including comprehensive parental leave and child-care discounts, to break down key "barriers women face."

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Police in Washington, D.C., arrested a 37-year-old man near former President Barack Obama's house on Thursday, finding weapons, several hundred rounds of ammunition and material for explosive devices in the nearby converted van that doubled as his home, law enforcement sources told multiple news organizations. Secret Service agents spotted the man, identified as Taylor Taranto of Seattle, a few blocks from the Obama residence, then chased him as he fled toward Obama's house, CBS News reported.

Taranto — a "conspiracy-minded Donald Trump supporter," according to NBC News — had "livestreamed his activities before his arrest, including as he drove into the neighborhood," The New York Times reported. He said on the livestream he wanted to talk with Democratic official John Podesta, and he tried to take photos of a house from a wooded area. "I'm outside Barack Obama's house," Taranto said at one point, according to the Times.

Earlier Thursday, "a Truth Social account" believed to be Taranto's "re-posted a Trump post that included what is alleged to be the address of Obama's home in Washington and noted that the home is near a mosque," NBC News reported. "'Got them surrounded!' the Truth Social account wrote."

Taranto was arrested as a fugitive from justice on an "active Jan. 6-related warrant" issued by the Capitol Police, CBS News reported, though he has not been charged in relation to the riot. Taranto has posted videos of himself inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, siege, NBC News said, and he has been camping out of his van near the D.C. jail where many Jan. 6 defendants are being held.

The widow of a D.C. police officer who died by suicide after the riot has sued Taranto and another man, David Walls-Kaufman, who is already serving time for his role in the Jan. 6 siege. Taranto, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, denied handing Walls-Kaufman the pipe or cane he allegedly used to strike the officer on the face.

Pras Michel, a member of the 1990s hip-hop group Fugees, is attempting to force former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump to testify at his upcoming campaign finance trial, Politico reported Tuesday.

"We're planning on calling former President Trump and former President Obama," Michel's defense attorney, David Kenner, said during a conference at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. "These subpoenas are going out for service today."

Kenner reportedly did not elaborate on what testimony either man would be able to provide, but claimed, "I believe it's all relevant."

Michel, a rapper who started Fugees in the early 1990s alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, was indicted in 2019 on charges of conspiring with a Malaysian businessman to defraud the U.S. government and making foreign campaign contributions.

A copy of the indictment obtained by The New York Times accuses the businessman, Jho Low, of illegally transferring $21 million to Michel in 2012, which Michel allegedly contributed a portion of to Obama's re-election campaign.

Per Politico, an additional indictment filed in 2022 also linked the campaign donations to efforts aimed at stopping a Justice Department investigation into Malaysian funds. These efforts allegedly occurred during both the Obama and Trump administrations.

Despite the planned subpoenas, Justice Department attorney John Keller said in court, "The government is not intending to call any former presidents." The judge in the case also expressed concern that subpoenas of the former presidents could delay the trial unnecessarily.

As Insider reported, "Michel's upcoming trial presents just the latest test for the Justice Department in its recent crackdown on covert foreign influence."

Presidential power made landfall in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with President Biden joining his old boss, former President Barack Obama, in the Keystone State for a last-ditch effort to drum up Democratic support in a critical swing state prior to Tuesday's midterm elections.

CNN reported that the two presidents will hold a joint rally together in Philadelphia to stump for Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate candidate, John Fetterman. The pair have rarely made appearances together during Biden's time in office, and this will mark the pair's first joint political rally for the midterms. Biden, however, is no stranger to his home state, as the president has ventured to Pennsylvania more than 20 times since being elected, CNN reported.

However, Fetterman's GOP opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, will also receive some presidential backing, as former President Donald Trump is also slated to be in Pennsylvania over the weekend to participate in a rally for Oz. The former president is set to appear with the doctor in a rally outside of Pittsburgh, in the small town of Latrobe, to stump for Oz, whom Trump has heavily endorsed as the potential future of his 'MAGA' movement.

CNN also noted that the three presidents appearing so heavily on the campaign trail is a "historic anomaly," given that former chief executives rarely get so involved with politics after leaving office. However, given the significant ramifications and pressure of the upcoming midterms, both parties have begun pulling out all stops in an effort to get people to the polls.

Former President Barack Obama was heckled during a Wednesday rally in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was stumping for Democrats Sen. Mark Kelly and gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs.

Republicans want "an economy that's very good for folks at the very top, but not always so good for ordinary people," Obama said during the event, per The Washington Post.

But a man interrupted: "Like you, Obama!"

The former president then calmed down the crowd (which had broken out boos) before asking the "young man" to "just listen for a second. You know you have to be polite and civil when people are talking, then other people are talking and then you get a chance to talk."

"Set up your own rally!" Obama went on. "A lot of people worked hard for this. Come on, man."

As the event continued and the crowd quieted down, Obama spun the heckling incident into a lesson on civility and extremism in politics, the Post notes. "You got one person yelling and suddenly everybody's yelling. You get one tweet that's stupid and suddenly everybody's obsessed with the tweet," he said. "We can't fall for that. We have to stay focused."

The former president was heckled last week, as well, during an appearance in Michigan on behalf of Democratic candidate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

With Election Day right around the corner, Democrats have sent former President Barack Obama on the campaign trail to battleground states, The Washington Post reports. He plans to support Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) on Friday and then travel to Michigan and Wisconsin, reports the Washington Examiner.

The move by Democrats comes as many races become closer than anticipated, with some pundits even anticipating a "red wave." Obama continues to be a popular figure among Democrats, and there is hope that his endorsement give candidates an important boost.

Georgia has been a state of concern for Dems for a while, since Herschel Walker (R) is still garnering support despite allegations the anti-abortion candidate once paid for a girlfriend's abortion. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was caught vocalizing his concern for the races in Georgia to President Biden.

Obama is no stranger to bad midterm elections. CNN reports that his midterm campaigns in 2010 and 2014 were some of the lowest points in his presidency. After losing 63 House seats in his first term Obama remarked that he's "not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking" as he did. He has appeared in a number of commercials for Democratic candidates all over the country.

In his interview with Pod Save America, he emphasized, "Democracy is fragile. You have to tend to it, you have to fight for it."

Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter unexpectedly passed away, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. He was 68.

According to the statement, Carter died Monday in Boston following a "sudden cardiac event." His family added that Carter had "devoted his professional life to the national security of the United States and teaching students about international affairs ... He was a beloved husband, father, mentor, and friend. His sudden loss will be felt by all who knew him."

Carter served as the 25th U.S. defense secretary from Feb. 2015 to Jan. 2017, and the last under former President Barack Obama.

He was responsible for a number of successful initiatives during his tenure, with his family noting that he "launched the successful campaign to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, opened all combat positions to women, and forged new connections between the Department of Defense and the nation's technology community."

He also enacted a major change within all branches of the military by ending the ban on transgender troops, and changed regulations to allow women to serve in all combat positions.

Carter served under five presidents during his time at the Pentagon, working in a variety of roles within the nation's military brass.

In a statement, Obama called Carter "a keen student of history, a brilliant physicist, and a steadfast defender of men and women in uniform." President Biden also released a statement saying Carter was "guided by a strong, steady moral compass and a vision of using his life for public purpose."

Update Oct. 25, 2022: This story has been updated with statements from President Biden and former President Obama.

Former President Barack Obama was interviewed on the podcast Pod Save America, where he talked about a "mistake" in his presidency and called Democrats "buzzkills."

The mistake Obama was referring to was his response to previous uprisings that took place in Iran back in 2009, CNN reports. He specifically referred to the protests from the Green Movement, which advocated for democracy amid claims of a fraudulent election. Looking back, the former president disapproved of his decision to not "publicly affirm what was going on with the Green Movement," saying the U.S. should always "express some solidarity" when people are fighting for freedom. Instead, because "the activists were being accused of being tools of the West" and he worried he'd "be undermining their street cred in Iran if I supported what they were doing" (and likely didn't want to upend progress on the nuclear deal), he was initially publicly neutral.

Obama also argued that Democrats can be a "buzzkill" and said they could be better at connecting with their voter base, The Guardian reports.

Obama said Democrats tend to get too offended and most people want "acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us ... can say things the wrong way, make mistakes." As the midterms approach, Obama discussed the importance of being a "little more real and a little more grounded" as a way to counteract outlandish claims by right-wing media.

Penguin Random House announced Wednesday that it would be renaming one of its most prestigious awards in honor of former first lady Michelle Obama.

The Michelle Obama Award for Memoir will be part of the publishing agency's Creative Writing Awards program. In a statement, Penguin said the award will recognize one talented high school senior with a $10,000 scholarship for an "original literary composition in English in the category of memoir/personal essay."

Penguin's Creative Writing Awards are given out in five different writing categories, and Obama will now stand alongside awards named for Amanda Gorman and Maya Angelou. The program has awarded more than $2.8 million in scholarships to creative writers.

Known for promoting a variety of causes during her time in the White House, Obama has become a prolific writer herself since her husband left office. Her memoir, Becoming, was released in 2018 and chronicled her youth and upbringing in Chicago through her time as the first lady. The book became wildly popular, topping best-seller lists around the world and selling more than 17 million copies, which The Associated Press notes is "by far the most popular book by a modern White House resident."

"After publishing my memoir Becoming, I've learned that writing your own story can be a powerful tool." Obama said in a statement to Penguin. "That's why I am so excited about this new award, and I can't wait to read what this next generation of young writers will share with us all."

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama returned to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their long-awaited official portraits, which are not to be confused with those of the Smithsonian Museum from 2018, The New York Times reports.

The cheery ceremony marked a certain return to form for the White House, which did not schedule the event under former President Donald Trump. It is customary for a sitting president to unveil their predecessor's portrait once it is ready, the Times notes.

But President Biden has now taken up the charge, and appeared all too excited to welcome the Obamas back to Pennsylvania Ave, writes The Washington Post. "Barack and Michelle, welcome home," the president said during his brief remarks, after which the portraits, painted by Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung, were uncovered.

Obama then took a moment to address the crowd that had gathered in the White House's East Room, many of whom used to work in his administration, per the Post. He also thanked Sprung "for capturing everything I love about Michelle," and McCurdy for "taking on a much more difficult subject, and doing a fantastic job with mine."

"When future generations walk these halls and look up at these portraits, I hope they get a better, honest sense of who Michelle and I were," Obama continued. "And I hope they lead with a deeper understanding that if we could make it here, maybe they can do remarkable things, too."

It's that time of year again — when Barack Obama releases his annual summer reading and music lists, and we all subsequently wonder how the former president of the United States manages to keep up with trending music and books while our parents have still somehow never heard of Harry Styles.

"I've read a couple of great books this year and wanted to share some of my favorites so far. What have you been reading this summer?" Obama tweeted Tuesday alongside his latest literature shortlist, which included Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein, and The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Change.

The former president later shared with followers his 2022 summer playlist, which has him queuing up old classics like Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright," Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You," and Al Green's "I Can't Get Next To You" as well as guaranteed bops like Beyoncé's "Break My Soul," Wet Leg's "Angelica," and Amber Mark's "Bliss" to soundtrack his beach season.

"Every year, I get excited to share my summer playlist because I learn about so many new artists from your replies—it's an example of how music really can bring us all together," he wrote before asking, "What songs would you add?"

Well, we certainly don't see any mention of "Running Up That Hill," Barack! Maybe you're not as up with Gen Z as we thought ...

Barack is back

Former President Barack Obama returned to the White House Tuesday for the first time since leaving office. He was there to commemorate the 12th anniversary of his Affordable Care Act and help President Biden push for further health care reform.

"Thank you, Vice President Biden," Obama said as he stepped up to the podium. It was a joke, one Obama took great pains to downplay, but it accurately reflected the dynamic. Everyone in the room promptly forgot about the most powerful man in the world. Videos show Biden shuffling awkwardly around the room while murmurations of functionaries swirled around Obama. At one point, Biden even placed his hand on Obama's shoulder and said "Barack." Obama didn't even glance at him.

All the energy in the room emanated from and returned to a man whose public life is supposedly over. It shouldn't have to be. Obama should run for Senate.

He's only 60, after all. He's got at least two terms in him. Maybe three. In any blue state, Obama would clear the primary field and win the general in a landslide, and it just so happens that he owns a home in Massachusetts. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey are both in their 70s.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Old fuddy-duddies like Ronald Reagan (who left office at the age of 77) have every right to retire at the end of their presidencies. Go fishing and spend time with the grandkids.

Obama, on the other hand, was only 55 when his second term ended. Bill Clinton was only 54, and George W. Bush only 62. The presidency is a grueling job. Eight years in office lined Obama's face and turned his hair gray, and he certainly earned a few years of leisure. But he has more to offer. So did Bush in 2009. So did Clinton in 2000. Whatever you think of them as human beings or political leaders, these are men of action. The post-presidential lives they're expected to lead are unworthy of them, especially when those long descents to the grave could stretch on for decades.

The last several presidents — with the exception of Trump, who prefers to brood like Megatron in his gilded lair — have all pursued the same combination of writing memoirs, giving paid speeches, dabbling in political kingmaking, and engaging in the sort of philanthropy one suspects is more about preserving a place in the upper echelons than serving the poor. Obama's Netflix deal is a departure from this pattern, but not a significant one. Jimmy Carter, who's done real work in diplomacy and charity, is a glaring exception.

This lingering in the limelight isn't good for former presidents, and it robs us of everything they might still contribute. If they want to retire, fine. But if they want to do something, let's give them something real to do.

Precedents for presidents

What should that "something" be? History provides a number of options. Grover Cleveland played the stock market. James Madison helped revise the Virginia state constitution and served as president of the American Colonization Society, which helped former slaves settle in Liberia. John Adams, like Washington before him, returned to his farm.

The more vigorous former commanders-in-chief could imitate Theodore Roosevelt, who — after failing to win a third term — undertook a grueling expedition to the South American jungle.

Those who aren't quite done with public life are also in good company. In the first century of the republic, three former presidents were elected to public office. One-term president John Quincy Adams won nine terms in the House of Representatives. Six years after leaving the Oval Office, Andrew Johnson was elected as a senator from Tennessee, though he died a few months after taking office. John Tyler's neighbors — all Whigs who considered his presidency a disaster — mockingly elected the former president as the local overseer of roads, a position he took up with the utmost seriousness. Tyler also served briefly in the Confederate Congress.

Princeps or Augustus?

Gaius Octavius, Julius Caesar's adopted heir and the first Roman emperor, held two separate and contradictory titles: Augustus, meaning "illustrious one," and Princeps Civitatis, meaning "first citizen." The first title presented him as an almost godlike figure, standing far above mere mortals. The second gave the opposite impression. "A monarch? Who, me? No way! I'm a citizen, just like you!"

In the United States, we seem torn between the two. We expect our presidents to kiss babies and eat hot dogs, limit them to two terms in office, and hedge them about with legislative, judicial, and bureaucratic checks. And yet, the American presidency still bears on its brow the recognizable imprint of the crown. This was especially clear in the beginning. Alexander Hamilton proposed that the president should hold office for life, John Adams suggested calling the chief executive "His Elected Highness," and George Washington personally led the army dispatched to crush the Whiskey Rebellion.

Today, the pomp of the Inauguration and the State of the Union seem far more appropriate to Elizabeth II than to Boris Johnson, who took office following a simple invitation from the queen and must regularly wrangle with lowly MPs. Recent British prime ministers Gordon Brown and Theresa May both returned to the back benches of Parliament after losing the premiership. It's difficult to imagine a modern president doing the same. Washington's famous imitation of Cincinnatus in stepping away from public life did much to cast the president as princeps. Today, ironically, that same precedent — albeit with a definition of "private life" more suited to the age of air travel and the internet — turns our former chief executives into semi-deified figures considered too pure to do anything but kill time as members of the jet-setting aristocracy.

If the president is some sort of sacramental monarch, who after being anointed with the inaugural oil remains forever after a higher sort of being, then let's acknowledge that. Repeal the term limits and give him a scepter to carry. Keep making scenes like the one we saw at the White House on Tuesday.

But if the president truly is just the first citizen, a public servant who served for a time in a particular capacity, then let's treat him or her that way. It should be considered perfectly normal for former presidents to sit on corporate boards, go into private law practice, run for Senate or governor, or accept an appointment as ambassador. The only possible argument against these activities would be that the former president's lingering aura of majesty would somehow overawe his business partners or opposing counsel or fellow lawmakers or whatever.

I'm sorry. I thought this was a republic. I thought we didn't believe in such things.

1. My husband and I want to split on good terms – thanks to no-fault divorces, we finally can

Anonymous in The Guardian

on a new law

An anonymous writer at The Guardian says she and her husband recently decided to divorce after 15 years of marriage. “This was not a spur-of-the-moment thing – we had agonised over it for a long time.” With two sons, “we were determined to live together as a family and for years we muddled along, functioning almost as a business rather than a marriage”. The couple agreed “not to go down the divorce route until we had been separated for two years” – otherwise, under UK law as it then stood, blame would need to be placed on one party for a divorce to proceed. “We didn’t want to place blame or trivialise” the marriage, and the couple felt they had “no choice but to wait”. The change in law in England and Wales to allow no-fault divorce came with a sense of “relief” that was “indescribable”. This “new, kinder form of divorce” has “given us both a sense of control”, meaning “we can divorce mutually and respectfully with our heads held high”.

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2. The true cause of No. 10’s conversion therapy muddle

Isabel Hardman in The Spectator

on drafting legislation

“The government has had to bow to the inevitable and cancel its own international LGBT conference”, writes Isabel Hardman at The Spectator. More than 100 organisations have withdrawn support following the decision not to ban conversion therapy for transgender people. “The die was cast much further back than last week’s botched double U-turn on a ban on gay conversion therapy: it was when ministers committed to the legislation without thinking it through at all,” she continues. This “row” brings to the fore “serious problems with the way Westminster deals with legislation”, its focus “almost entirely upon the principles at stake, rather than the impact of the way the laws are drafted”. The conversion therapy ban “is just the latest example of the Something Must Be Done instinct in all governments”, but “surely we want legislation that works, rather than merely claims to work,” says Hardman. Ministers “often” jump to a policy “without noticing they have made a logical leap to assuming that this is the one Thing that should be done, without checking that it's the right Thing to do.”

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3. President Obama, your country needs you

Dana Milbank in The Washington Post

on political skill

“Retirement has been good to Barack Obama,” writes Dana Milbank at The Washington Post. Obama returned to the White House this week for the first time since he left office in 2017. “Fit and vigorous, if a bit grayer and more wrinkly”, he returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “Obama has been living his best life, even making a podcast and writing a book with Bruce Springsteen.” But “President Obama: your country needs you,” implores Milbank. “Democracy is on the ropes. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the ship of state, and no one is better able to help the cause” than the 44th US President. “America desperately needs Obama in the arena – although not necessarily in the Biden White House.” Biden seemed this week to be “playing Obama’s understudy”. “Where Obama was loose, Biden was stiff”, though Democrats “shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking things would be better now if only Obama were in charge”, despite his “political skill”. But Republicans have “gotten worse” and are “taking aim at democracy itself”. Obama is in “an unrivalled position to mobilise Americans in defence of democracy”.

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4. Dear climate activists, stop alienating the public or you might lose the battle

Sophie Church in The Independent

on disruptive tactics

Last year, climate groups “caused general chaos across the UK”, using “disruptive tactics” in an effort to “force the government to make essential climate policy pledges”, writes Sophie Church at The Independent. “The result? To anger a population already close to breaking point”. The latest round of climate protests has seen “newcomers” Just Stop Oil obstruct access to terminals across England, “aiming to put the blockers on new proposed oil and gas projects. Same thing, different day.” They’ve similarly been glueing their hands to the roads and locking themselves to oil drums, with police deployed “to deal with the demonstrations”. “No one is saying their cause is not just,” writes Church, “it’s more the way they are going about it.” For protest groups, spreading awareness and gaining public supporters “can be a route to making effective change. Infuriating those same members of the public, then, can only do the opposite”. She thinks “there must be another way”.

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5. Shambolic Home Office shames Britain and betrays terrified Ukrainian refugees in need of a home

The Sun editorial board

on a ‘broken’ department

The Sun describes the Home Office as “arrogant, complacent, lazy, useless”. It “shames Britain before the eyes of the world”. The department’s “shambolic failure to green-light more refugees is a betrayal not just of those poor, terrified Ukrainians but of the families who have offered them a home and of Europe’s combined war effort”. The government’s “commitment to Ukraine’s forces” is evidenced by its donations of arms, but “Priti Patel’s department lags woefully behind”. A “supposed 24/7 helpline is swamped because just 15 staff are allegedly tasked with handling thousands of calls a day” and visa applications “take an age to process if they are processed at all”. This “is a disgraceful way to handle this emergency, matched for ineptitude only by the Home Office’s simultaneous failure to stop hundreds of illegal migrants arriving daily across the Channel”. The department is “broken” and “must be fixed”.

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Former President Barack Obama joined President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Tuesday for a press conference commemorating the 12th anniversary of Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act and laying out future plans for health care reform, CNN reported.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Harris said as she took the podium to introduce Obama. She then touted the ACA's success in providing health care to over 30 million Americans and called for legislation empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and making permanent the increased health insurance subsidies included in the 2021 COVID-19 relief bill.

Obama began by feigning confusion. "Thank you, Vice President Biden, Vice President — that was a joke," he said, stepping away from the podium to embrace Biden.

Obama called Biden an "extraordinary friend and partner" with whom he accomplished much, but said "nothing made me prouder" than passing the ACA.

"The reason we're here today," he continued, "is because President Biden, Vice President Harris, everybody who's worked on this thing understood from the start that the ACA wasn't perfect," though he added that, despite its flaws, it was "to quote a famous American, a pretty big deal."

At a signing ceremony for the ACA in 2010, Biden was caught on a hot mic whispering to Obama that passing health care reform legislation was "a big f--king deal."

"Feels like the good old days," Biden said as he took the podium. He then explained his plan to close the ACA's so-called "family glitch," which prevents some workers who add family members to their policies from qualifying for ACA subsidies.

Biden concluded the ceremony by signing an executive order that, according to CBS News, directed "agencies to do everything within their power to make health care more accessible and affordable." Before signing it, Biden warned Obama about hot mics.

Former President Barack Obama tweeted on Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, and while he has had "a scratchy throat for a couple days," he is "feeling fine otherwise."

Obama said his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, tested negative for the virus, and both are "grateful to be vaccinated and boosted." He added, "It's a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven't already, even as cases go down."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 75.2 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 47.7 percent of those who are fully vaccinated have received a booster shot.

Former President Barack Obama was one of many prominent U.S. politicians to comment on Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, saying it "threatens the foundation of the international order" and offering his perspective on what Americans should do moving forward.

The former president first condemned Moscow's "brutal" attack, despairing at the death and destruction that would leave "untold numbers" of displaced Ukrainians.

He then called on Americans to denounce Russia's actions and put aside political differences to "support President Biden's efforts ... to impose hard hitting sanctions on Russia."

"There may be some economic consequences to such sanctions, given Russia's significant role in global energy markets," Obama continued. "But that's a price we should be willing to pay to take a stand on the side of freedom."

See his full statement below.

President Biden believes that Republicans were not "nearly as obstructionist" during the Obama administration "as they are now," saying during a Wednesday press conference that when he was vice president, lawmakers from both parties could work together to "get some things done."

There were "a number of Republicans we worked closely with even back in those days," Biden said, specifically naming the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The difference today is "who seems to [have] a desire to work," Biden continued. "They had an agenda back in the administration when the eight years we were president and vice president. But I don't know what their agenda is now. ... What are they proposing to do about anything?"

During the Obama administration, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked the president from filling a Supreme Court seat and several federal judicial seats. Now, Republican lawmakers are keeping voting rights legislation from passing in the Senate, but there was bipartisan support for the passage of Biden's infrastructure bill.

President Biden, former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) all spoke at the memorial service for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Las Vegas Saturday.

Common themes in the speeches were Reid's rise from inauspicious circumstances, his humility, his persistence, and his penchant for ending phone conversations without saying goodbye.

Reid won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1983 and went on to serve for 30 years as a U.S. senator, holding the position of majority leader from 2007 to 2015. He died Dec. 28 at the age of 82.

Schumer referred jokingly to himself and Reid — a "brash Jewish kid out of Brooklyn" and a "soft-spoken Mormon" from a town "miles away from nowhere" — as a "match made in heaven." He recalled an encounter with Reid at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where Reid slipped Schumer $400 to save him from being "the worst-dressed member of the Senate."

Schumer described Reid as "tough as nails, a fighter to his core, but also one of the most compassionate individuals you could ever imagine." He read from 2 Nephi in honor of Reid's devout Mormon faith and ended his speech with the traditional Jewish words of condolence: "May his memory be a blessing."

"I never heard Harry say an unkind word about any of his Senate colleagues, Democratic or Republican," Pelosi said. Obama later disagreed, saying "I don't know about that, Nancy — but he would work with them." Pelosi also spoke fondly of Reid's "dry sense of humor" and self-effacing nature.

Obama began his eulogy by remembering that Reid was always "uncomfortable when people said too many nice things about him" but that "as he looks down on us today, Harry is going to have to suck it up." He recalled an awkward first conversation with Reid immediately after he was sworn into the U.S. Senate. But later, Obama said, he came to understand that Reid was an "outsider" in Washington, a kindred spirit whose "path to the Senate" was "at least as unlikely if not more unlikely than mine."

The 44th president also drew attention to Reid's willingness to change his mind and adopt more liberal positions on issues like gun control, immigration, and abortion as his career progressed. He credited Reid with being one of the first people to encourage him to run for president and looked back favorably on his time as president, working with Reid, Pelosi, and then-Vice President Biden to pass the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Act.

"Pragmatism, adaptability, a premium on getting things done, lack of pretension, abiding loyalty: that's what Harry Reid represented. A man of old-school virtues. They are qualities that are in short supply these days. Yet it seems to me that they are precisely the qualities our democracy requires," Obama said.

Biden, who served in the Senate with Reid for 22 years, was the last speaker of the day. "Harry was like the guys I grew up with in Scranton," Biden said. "Harry would always have your back … Harry had mine, and he knew I had his … If he gave you his word, he kept it."

Reid's granddaughter, Savannah, delivered the closing prayer. The service also featured remarks from several of Reid's children and musical performances by Carole King and Killers frontman Brandon Flowers.

Reid's body will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda next week before being interred in his hometown of Searchlight, Nevada.

Former President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy at a memorial for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Las Vegas Saturday, The Associated Press and Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Other prominent Democrats set to attend include President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Vice President Harris.

Elder M. Russell Ballard, a senior apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will also deliver an address. Reid and his wife, Landra, converted to Mormonism while in college.

Reid, who died Dec. 28, grew up in poverty in Searchlight, Nevada, a town that, according to his autobiography, had 13 brothels and no churches. He was an amateur boxer before entering politics. During the 1970s, he served in the Nevada State Assembly, as lieutenant governor of Nevada, and as chair of the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC). While chair of the NGC, he was targeted for assassination by the mob. He also set up an FBI sting operation against a man who offered him a $12,000 bribe. Then, as agents burst into the room, Reid flew into a rage and began choking the man.

Reid won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1983 and went on to serve for 30 years as a U.S. senator, holding the position of majority leader from 2007 to 2015. During that time, he was instrumental in the passage of Obama's flagship Affordable Care Act.

Former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and other lawmakers are remembering Harry Reid as "a great leader in the Senate" and "tough-as-nails strong, but caring and compassionate."

Reid, a Nevada Democrat who served as Senate majority leader from 2007 through 2014, died on Tuesday at 82. Reid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, and Obama tweeted that when Reid "was nearing the end," his wife, Landra, asked people to write letters she could read to her husband, as it was difficult for him to speak on the phone. In lieu of a statement, Obama, whose landmark health care legislation was passed thanks to Reid, shared his letter.

"Here's what I want you to know: You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect," Obama wrote to Reid. "I wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn't have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination." He also thanked Reid for being "a good friend," adding, "As different as we are, I think we both saw something of ourselves in each other — a couple of outsiders who defied the odds and knew how to take a punch and cared about the little guy. And you know what, we made a pretty good team."

Schumer said in a statement that Reid was "one of the most amazing individuals I've ever met" and "tough-as-nails strong, but caring and compassionate, and always went out of his way quietly to help people who needed help." Reid was a boxer in college, and Schumer said he "used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and the middle class."

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) praised Reid's commitment to his home state, tweeting, "To say Harry Reid was a giant doesn't fully encapsulate all that he accomplished on behalf of the state of Nevada and for Nevada families; there will never be another leader quite like Sen. Reid. To me, he was a mentor, a father figure, and someone I trusted to always give it to me straight."

Republican lawmakers are also sharing their memories of Reid, with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeting that "early in our career, we worked together to get a taxpayers bill of rights passed. Even though I am ideologically opposite I must say he did a good job representing the interests of Nevada in the U.S. Senate. As majority leader he ran a tight ship."

It's that time of year again — when Barack Obama reveals his favorite music, movies, and books of the year, and lauded actors, authors, and artists react in glee and perhaps disbelief that their work made an impact on the former president.

On Friday, Obama released his third of the year-end lists, this one featuring his favorite tunes of 2021. Soon after, mentioned artists like Lizzo, Yebba, and Jon Batiste shared his post across social channels, thanking him for listening while relishing in their presidential Spotify win.

Former President Barack Obama is "smart and sharp," but sowed "tremendous division" during his time in office, former President Donald Trump said at an event in Florida on Saturday. Trump also said he "liked" Obama, The New York Post reported.

The comments mark a major shift in rhetoric for the forty-fifth president, who spent years claiming his predecessor was born in Kenya and was "the most ignorant president in our history."

Even as he warms up to Obama, Trump appears to have soured on his longtime ally, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to CNN.

An Israeli outlet released excerpts Friday from an interview in which Trump blasted Netanyahu for congratulating then-President-elect Biden on his victory before Trump had conceded. He also referred to the former premier by his nickname, Bibi, throughout the interview.

"F--k him," Trump said of Netanyahu. "Nobody did more for Bibi. And I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty." Trump added that the "first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi. And not only did he congratulate him, he did it on tape."

This is false. Netanyahu was not the first world leader to congratulate Biden; that honor went to Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau. Also, Netanyahu — at least initially — congratulated Biden by tweet, not "on tape."

Rather than matching Trump's harsh language, Netanyahu explained in an interview Friday that it was important for him to congratulate Biden but that he still values "President Trump's big contribution to Israel and its security."

Former President Barack Obama criticized his successor and the Republican Party for what he described as "active hostility toward climate science" during remarks at the COP26 climate summit on Monday.

The 44th president told attendees in Glasgow that "time really is running out" to address climate change, warning not "nearly enough" has been done so far and that "collectively and individually, we are still falling short." He also criticized former President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

"Some of our progress stalled when my successor decided to unilaterally pull out of the Paris agreement in his first year in office," Obama said. "I wasn't real happy about that."

Even so, Obama said despite "four years of active hostility toward climate science coming from the very top of our federal government," the United States was able to continue "moving forward." The U.S. rejoined the Paris agreement after President Biden took office, so Obama said the U.S. is now "once again engaged."

Later in the speech, Obama said he wishes he had a "stable congressional majority that was willing and eager to take action" to fight climate change while he was president. But he argued both his administration and Biden's have been "constrained, in large part, by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines, but express active hostility toward climate science and make climate change a partisan issue." The former president urged voters to "reward politicians who take this problem seriously, and send out of office those who don't," and he closed by encouraging young people to "stay angry" while pushing for progress on the issue.

Biden previously offered an apology at the climate summit for Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris agreement, saying this put the U.S. "behind the eight ball a little bit."

The last U.S. military flight out of Afghanistan on Monday was "the final chapter" in a contentions 20-year military effort that ultimately "saw the U.S. handing Afghanistan back to the very Islamist militants it sought to root out when American troops entered the country in 2001," BBC News reports.

The Afghanistan War "began under President George W. Bush as a hunt for Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, the Qaeda leader who oversaw the 9/11 attacks on the United States," The New York Times recounts. "On that score, it succeeded: Al Qaeda was driven out and Bin Laden was killed by an American SEAL team in Pakistan in 2011." But 20 years, three presidents, more than $2 trillion, and 170,000 lives after the 2001 invasion, America's longest war "failed in nearly every other goal."

Early on, the U.S., "confident it had routed the Taliban, refused their entreaties for a negotiated surrender, and plowed ahead with an enormous effort to not only drive them out but to construct a Western-style democracy in Afghanistan," the Times writes. "The lengthy occupation allowed the Taliban to regroup, casting itself as the national resistance to the American invaders and, three American presidents later, driving them out in a war of attrition, much as Afghans had done to the Soviets in the 1980s."

BBC News broke the war into four phases: Bush's "nation building," former President Barack Obama's "shifted expectations," former President Donald Trump "planning withdrawal," and President Biden's "rapid execution." Presidential historian Barbara Perry and Carrie A. Lee, a national security expert at the Truman National Security Project, judged the collected U.S. effort an initial victory followed by a long defeat.

"There's an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan," former President John F. Kennedy said in 1961, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. If that were true, the Afghanistan War's paternity test would show a "victory," even if the war was not.

Former President Barack Obama reportedly couldn't curb Larry David's enthusiasm when the comedian was cut from the guest list for Obama's somewhat controversial 60th birthday party on Martha's Vineyard last week.

David's apparent elation over getting uninvited mostly seemed to stem from the fact that he initially feared he was going to be expected to perform at the event, which was eventually scaled down because of concerns about the Delta coronavirus variant. In an email to The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, David said he was struggling to come up with a standup routine after Obama's assistant called him with the invite. "I was glum when I finally called back his assistant," David told Dowd.

But then things turnaround for the creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

"When he told me I was eighty-sixed from the party, I was so relieved I screamed, 'Thank you! Thank you!' He must've though I was insane," David said. "Then I hung up the phone, poured myself a drink, and finished my crossword puzzle." Read Dowd's full column at The New York Times.

Former President Barack Obama held his 60th birthday celebration over the weekend, and despite it being smaller than originally planned, one attendee declared it the "party of all parties."

Obama gathered friends and family at Martha's Vineyard on Saturday for a birthday party, which ended up being scaled back at the last minute due to the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. There were about 200 friends and family members in attendance for the outdoor gathering, according to People. Videos that spread over social media provided a look into the party, with Obama seen dancing in a tent to the song "Birthday B----" with the lyrics changed to "Birthday Prez," The Washington Post reports.

In an Instagram post, music manager T.J. Chapman wrote, "The production, the sound, the lights, the staff, the food, the drinks — like, man, epic. Epic, epic, man. Y'all never seen Obama like this in your life. … The party of all parties." An insider also told People that Obama "had the biggest smile" throughout the party, and he "danced all night." Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and John Legend were reportedly among those on the guest list, though The New York Times reported that Larry David, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien were among those who were uninvited when the party was scaled back. Obama still faced criticism for holding the party amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the United States.

President Biden himself wasn't in attendance, but he sent a happy birthday video message that played at the party, the Post reports. As he turns 60, the Post describes how Obama seems to clearly be enjoying his post-presidency life, with former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett saying of Barack and Michelle Obama, "Over the 30 years I've known them, I don't think I've ever seen them as happy as they are now."

It's former President Barack Obama's party, and he can cancel if he wants to. Of course Obama, having planned his 60th birthday party for months, almost certainly did not want to significantly scale back Saturday's big celebration on Martha's Vineyard, but spokeswoman Hannah Hankins said Wednesday morning that "due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week," the Obamas "have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends." Obama is "appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon," Hankins added.

The hundred of guests expected to attend included George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey, The New York Times reports, and "many invitees had already arrived on Martha's Vineyard" when Obama announced the change of plans. Obama had appeared eager to proceed with the party even as the virulent Delta strain prompted cities and states to reimpose mask mandates and institute other anti-coronavirus measures.

"They've been concerned about the virus from the beginning, asking invited guests if they had been vaccinated, requesting that they get a test proximate to the event," David Axelrod, a former top Obama adviser, tells the Times. "But when this was planned, the situation was quite different. So they responded to the changing circumstances."

Over the weekend, former President Barack Obama announced plans for a lavish birthday party at his Martha's Vineyard estate. The bash will attract around 500 guests, to be entertained by the rock band Pearl Jam, and served by a staff of 200.

The announcement makes a mockery of heightened COVID-19 restrictions being imposed around the country. Even if the outdoor event is safe, the prospect of well-connected Democrats partying while ordinary Americans contemplate rising hospitalizations, mask mandates, and even renewed lockdowns is unseemly.

Public health hypocrisy isn't the only problem. Obama is just the most recent president who adopted a plutocratic lifestyle after leaving office, partly at public expense. Former presidents enjoy benefits and subsidies worth millions of dollar annually under the Former Presidents Acts.

It's always been a bit fraudulent. The FPA was passed in 1958, partly due to the influence of Harry Truman. Truman claimed he was broke after decades of public life, a claim echoed in David McCullough's bestselling biography. But new scholarship finds that Truman was very rich by the standards of his time. In addition to a fortune earned by sale of his memoirs, Truman may have embezzled funds from the White House expense account.

In addition to Truman's lobbying, the FPA was passed because some earlier presidents struggled to earn a living after leaving office. American history is haunted by the image of Ulysses S. Grant, furiously composing his bestselling (and brilliant) memoirs as he was dying of cancer. It's reasonable to provide ex-presidents a pension. And it's probably necessary to guarantee some level of Secret Service protection.

But benefits should be means-tested against other income. Ex-presidents who make big bucks from book deals, speaking fees, or borderline scams don't deserve additional public support. Truman was right: We don't want public service to be a path to bankruptcy. But ex-presidents haven't earned the right to party like rock stars.

Being first lady of the United States is undoubtedly time-consuming but Jill Biden has made clear that she won’t be giving up her pre-existing responsibilities any time soon.

The teacher, grandmother and long-time cancer research advocate is in the UK with her president husband this week for the G7 summit in Cornwall and is also due to meet the Queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday. But despite her busy schedule as first lady, the doctor of education is continuing her professional career during her husband’s presidential term - a decision that has been met with both praise and criticism.

Speaking to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show in December, she expressed her “surprise” at a controversial article by Joseph Epstein in The Wall Street Journal advising her to “drop the ‘Dr’ before your name” and “settle for the larger thrill of living for the next four years in the best public housing in the world”.

That she has ignored this advice is unlikely to come as a surprise to those who followed her stint as second lady during Joe Biden’s vice-presidency, between 2009 and 2017.

While residing at the VP’s official residence, Number One Observatory Circle in Washington D.C, Jill carried on teaching as professor of writing at the city’s Northern Virginia Community College, a role that she still holds today. “Teaching is not what I do. It’s who I am,” she tweeted in August last year.

Lady of learning

Jill Biden, née Jacobs, was born in the New Jersey town of Hammonton on 3 June 1951, but spent her childhood in Willow Grove, a northern suburb of Philadelphia. The eldest of five daughters, she described herself as “that girl from Philly” - a label that “if you’re from Philadelphia”, you know means she’s “down-to-earth, but also tough”, Kelly Dittmar, a political science professor at New Jersey’s Rutgers University-Camden, told Vox.

The future first lady married her first husband, Bill Stevenson, in 1970 before going on to study at the University of Delaware. She graduated with a degree in English in 1975, the same year that she and Stevenson divorced.

After a stint as a high-school English teacher, she completed a master’s degree in education specialising in reading at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and then a master’s of arts in English from the state’s Villanova University.

Following years working in community colleges, as well as a psychiatric hospital, she was also received a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Delaware in 2007.

For better or for worse

The 44-year marriage between Joe and Jill “hasn’t always been a straightforward fairytale romance��, Vogue noted during the former’s stint as VP. His first wife, college sweetheart Neilia, and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident in 1972. His sons Beau and Hunter were also in the car but survived.

The future US leader met Jill three years later, according to the White House - although her first husband told the Daily Mail last year that he suspected she had cheated on him with Biden, with the alleged affair dating back to at least August 1974. Stevenson claimed that he and his then wife had first met Biden while working on his campaign for Senate in 1972.

But those claims have been refuted by multiple sources, who say the future White House residents first met in 1975 on a blind date set up by the president’s brother.

The couple married in 1977, although the then-senator had to propose five times before she accepted. Their daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981.

Tragedy struck in 2015, however, when Beau Biden died from brain cancer. The politician’s son had battled ill health for years, suffering a stroke in 2010 and undergoing surgery to remove a legion from his brain three years later, shortly before being diagnosed with cancer.

Reflecting on her marriage in her 2019 memoir Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself, Jill wrote that “we have had our hearts wrung and broken”, but added: “One thing in my life has stayed the same: Joe and I have always had each other.”

Triple challenge

During her time as second lady, Jill began “tackling a traditional trio” of causes comprising cancer prevention, the military and education, says Philadelphia Magazine.

Having established the Biden Breast Health Initiative in 1993 to educate girls about breast cancer, in 2016 she helped launch the Cancer Moonshot initiative, a national coalition of cancer researchers. The initiative has “yielded rapid progress in the understanding, detection, and treatment of cancer”, reports The Lancet, which is joining calls for the now president to launch Moonshot 2.0 in order to “expand and amplify this progress”.

The first lady has also authored a children’s book, Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops, which was published in 2012 and encourages support of people serving in the military and their families.

And the seasoned educator has long championed the role of community colleges in America’s education system. She hosted the first White House Summit on Community Colleges during Barack Obama’s presidency, and as honorary chair of the College Promise National Advisory Board, advocated for making the first two years of college “as free and universal as high school”.

Taking centre stage

As well as continuing her work for the causes she took up as second lady, along with her teaching job, Jill has spent her first few months as first lady visiting Covid-19 vaccination clinics and healthcare centres across the US, to support for the country’s healthcare workers.

She is also facing calls to help stamp out the Trumps’ legacy in the White House, with more than 79,000 people signing a petition asking her and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to “restore” the famous Rose Garden to its former pre-Melania design.

All the same, as a familiar face in US politics, Jill “hasn't received an overwhelming amount of media attention in the same way some of her predecessors did”, says USA Today.

But “compared to previous first ladies, she’s off to a fast start” , historian Myra Gutin, a professor at New Jersey’s Rider University, told the newspaper. “This is not Jill Biden’s first rodeo - she really does know what goes on at the White House because she had a front-row seat to the first lady's role.”