Barack Obama can’t help taking a crowd-size jab at Trump but it backfires: 'This is all he has to say?

Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump’s crowd size obsession and said the 2020 election wasn’t won by 'the guy complaining about it'
PUBLISHED JUN 19, 2025
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama arrive for Trump's inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington, USA on January 20, 2017 (J Scott Applewhite / Pool / AP/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama arrive for Trump's inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington, USA on January 20, 2017 (J Scott Applewhite / Pool / AP/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT: It seems Barack Obama still cares about crowd sizes.

The 63-year-old former president finally broke his silence on Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the status quo.

Barack Obama shades Donald Trump, White House hits back hard

Speaking at a low-key Q&A event in Connecticut, Barack Obama didn’t name Donald Trump outright—but it was clear who he had in his crosshairs.

“In 2020, one person won the election, and it wasn’t the guy complaining about it,” Obama told the crowd Tuesday night, according to Connecticut Public. “And that’s just a fact, just like [the fact that] my inauguration had more people. I say that, by the way, not because—I don’t care, but facts are important.”

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Former US President Barack Obama waves after he delivered a speech
Former US President Barack Obama waves after he delivered a speech while attending day nine of the COP26 at SECC on November 8, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

It didn’t take long for Trump’s camp to clap back. By Wednesday, the White House had fired off a scathing statement to the Daily Beast.

“Barack Obama should spend less time whining about his total lack of relevance and more time figuring out why the Democratic Party’s approval ratings are at historic lows,” said Liz Huston, Assistant Press Secretary.

Barack Obama previously blasted Donald Trump during Democratic National Convention

This isn’t the first time Barack Obama has ribbed Donald Trump for his supposed obsession with audience numbers. He came for him hard at the Democratic National Convention last summer, too.

“Here’s a 78‑year‑old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said at the time. “It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes. It just goes on and on and on.”



 

Back then, Trump was still a candidate. That said, Obama’s recent tiptoeing may be his way of following the unspoken ex-presidents’ rule that they don’t excoriate the sitting president in public. Of course, Trump never got that memo during Joe Biden’s term.

While Obama didn't name-drop Trump during his Connecticut appearance, he came pretty close. Sharing the stage with historian Heather Cox Richardson, he warned about the dangers of disinformation.

“You just have to flood the zone with so much untruth, constantly, that at some point, people don’t believe anything,” Obama alleged. “So it doesn’t matter if a candidate running for office just is constantly—just hypothetically—saying untrue things. Or if an elected president claims that he won when he lost, and that the system was rigged. But then, when he wins, that it isn’t rigged—because he won. It doesn’t matter if everybody believes it. It just matters if everybody starts kind of throwing up their hands and saying, ‘Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.’ And that’s what’s happening.”

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 10:  President-elect Donald Trump (L) talks after a meeting with U.S. Pres
President Donald Trump (L) talks after a meeting with former US President Barack Obama (R) in the Oval Office, November 10, 2016, in Washington, DC (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Barack Obama slammed for his latest remarks

While Barack Obama’s fans were glad to see him finally speak up, not everyone was feeling his latest flex about crowd sizes.

"Seriously? With everything going on this is all he has to say?" one posted on Facebook.

"2nd best joke this year, 1st best joke Biden is competent," another quipped.

"Now crowd sizes matter to the left," someone else noted.

"The result of Obama was Trump. Obama hurt millions of Americans," read a comment.

"The Democrats are doing nothing but putting themselves in the hole," another insisted.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.

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