Barack Obama speaks of ‘undercurrent of tension’ during marriage to Michelle in new memoir
The 44th president also discusses how he believes his presidency paved the way for Donald Trump
Former president Barack Obama is set to release a memoir looking back on his life in the White House, according to CNN, who received an early copy of the book.
According to the network, Obama discussed how his relationship with his wife Michelle was affected by his presidency, despite her widespread popularity.
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“I continued to sense an undercurrent of tension in her, subtle but constant, like the faint thrum of a hidden machine,” Obama wrote.
“It was as if, confined as we were within the walls of the White House, all her previous sources of frustration became more concentrated, more vivid, whether it was my round the clock absorption with work, or the way politics exposed our family to scrutiny and attacks, or the tendency of even friends and family members to treat her role as secondary in importance,” he continued.
The former president became more candid when spoke about missing the “lighter” days of his relationship and observing his wife and seeing her smile less often.
“My heart would suddenly tighten at the thought that those days might not return,” he wrote.
In the book, Obama also discusses how he believes, in a way, his presidency paved the way for Donald Trump’s election.
“For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety,” wrote Obama.
Obama said he believes his election created panic for many white people and Republicans who felt as if a ‘“natural order” had been disrupted. He writes that Trump fed on this panic with his birtherism claims and subsequent attacks.
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“A Promised Land,” the title of Obama’s third, 768-page memoir, is set to be released on Nov. 17.
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