menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Barack Obama, Where the F--k Are You?

9 22
20.01.2026

This article was originally published on HOWL, Michael Wolff’s official newsletter on Substack. Subscribe to HOWL to support independent journalism and gain access to exclusive daily content.

How bad is bad? How bad might it become in Trump’s America? Or have we already, as one might reasonably conclude in Minneapolis, crossed the line into a world of bad, one unimaginably at odds with the rules of law, tolerance and comity that most of us, even when all that has been sorely tested, grew up with.

Or, let me put it another way: How bad does Barack Obama think it is?

Perhaps not that bad. Because mostly, it seems, he’s playing golf. And hanging out in Hollywood.

Occasionally, yes, the former president pipes up with a disapproving pronouncement. But, so far, he certainly seems to be holding his moral authority in reserve.

He may be one of the few people in politics left with such a thing, moral authority. His other Democratic presidential colleagues, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, each who sporadically and to no avail express their horror and contempt for Trump, have, in their own way, squandered theirs. It is Barack Obama who yet holds the respect and........

© The Daily Beast