Stephen Colbert asked Barack Obama for advice about possibly running for president — and some shade appeared to be thrown at President Donald Trump.
“I’m looking for a new gig soon, and a lot of people tell me I should run for president,” Colbert, 61, said during the Tuesday, May 6, episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, referring to the show’s cancellation. “For the record, I think it’s a stupid idea.”
Obama, 64, told Colbert that he “certainly” has the presidential look.
“How dumb do you think it is for people to say that I should run for president?” Colbert continued.
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Obama appeared to think this one through before offering a response, seemingly acknowledging Trump, 70.
“Well, you know, the bar has changed,” Obama said with a laugh. Colbert noted that it’s “subterranean,” which got another laugh from the former president.
“Let me put it this way, I think that you could perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen,” Obama continued. “I have great confidence in that.”
Obama did make it clear, however, that his comment “was not” an endorsement for Colbert to run.
Obama — who was president from 2009 to 2017 — has recently been candid about how Trump’s current presidency has caused him to continue working in politics “more than I would have preferred,” which may be impacting his marriage to wife Michelle Obama.
“She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives,” Barack told The New Yorker in a profile published on Tuesday, May 4. “It does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her.”
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Barack is “more forgiving” of people wanting to hear his take and see him on the campaign circuit.
“I’m more forgiving of it, in the sense that I understand why people feel that way, because people aren’t looking at me in historical comparison to other Presidents,” he added. “The fact that people want me to be ‘doing more’ is a good sign.”
Trump and Barack have also had a bit of a back and forth over aliens. Barack made headlines in February when revealing that aliens are “real,” while Trump accused him of sharing “classified information” on a public scale.
“He’s not supposed to be doing that. I don’t know if they’re real or not,” Trump added. “He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”
Barack attempted to clear the air on Tuesday night, telling Colbert, “If there were aliens, or alien spaceships, or anything under the control of the U.S. government that we knew about … I promise you some guy guarding the installation would have taken a selfie with one of the aliens and sent it to his girlfriend to impress them. It would leak.”
