President Trump's election reportedly made former President Obama second guess everything.
A new book by Benjamin Rhodes, one of Obama's longtime advisers, paints a portrait of a troubled Obama who struggled to understand the meaning of his successor's victory. Shortly after the 2016 election, Obama wondered whether his administration had "pushed too far," The New York Times reports.
"Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early," Obama reportedly mused aloud. Rhodes' upcoming book, The World as It Is, recalls details from the Obama administration, including the former president grappling with the transition to a Trump White House. Obama wondered "whether he had misjudged his own influence on American history," reports the Times.
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Obama also worried about speaking out too much about potential Russian interference in the upcoming election for fear that Trump would claim it as evidence that the system was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton, the book describes. After Trump won the election, Obama told aides that they were all "about to find out just how resilient our institutions are, at home and around the world." Read more details from the book at The New York Times.
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