Critics of President Joe Biden have made the claim that his administration is essentially a third term for former President Barack Obama, as many of the policies are the same while nearly three-quarters of the top aides appointed by Biden had served in the Obama administration.
President Biden has repeatedly pushed back on some claims, which began even before he took office.
“This is not a third Obama term. We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” then-President-elect Biden told NBC News anchor Lester Holt in November 2020. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”
Trump may have changed the landscape, but this week at an event in New Hampshire, the former president suggested Biden is still taking orders from Obama.
“You’ve been ripped off by everybody and betrayed by the corrupt globalists, Washington, Wall Street people, those combinations of Washington, Wall Street, they’re the worst of all. And it’s never been worse than it is now under crooked Joe Biden, and frankly, his boss, Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump said at the event on Monday. “I think it’s his boss.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has suggested that Obama is secretly pulling Biden’s strings from the shadows, and earlier this month he said of his political rival, “I don’t believe he’s smart enough to be doing this stuff. I believe it’s the people that are surrounding him.”
Obama – the Biden Puppet Master?
The former president is hardly alone in making such comments. Conservative commentator and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said just last month, “There are a lot of people who think the Obamas are already running the government and that there is some sort of shadow puppet situation going on that they’re controlling.”
A similar sentiment was shared by Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo who said in March 2021 that Biden was often on the phone with Obama and said, “I’m hearing that he’s (Obama) running things from behind the scenes.”
Several prominent Republican lawmakers have also suggested that Obama had significant influence on the White House. That included former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who said on Fox News in August that he had a hunch that former President Obama was “making decisions in the White House.”
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) said in an interview with Fox Business that he believed Biden was merely “a puppet for a progressive left committee, as it were, head by Obama,” – while Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also said she believes Obama has been “calling the shots” since Biden took office.
What Evidence?
However, as NBC News reported, there has never been any evidence to suggest that former President Obama had any significant influence on the current White House beyond providing suggestions, as well as the occasional offers of help in meetings with Biden. NBC News also noted that the relationship between Obama and Biden was far more “complicated” and cooler than was reported at the time.
The notion of the “bromance” was likely just one for the campaign trail. During the Obama Administration, Biden was only once invited to the White House residence – and then only to the Yellow Room, the “Oval upstairs.”
Biden, who served in public office far longer than Obama, has also made a number of high-profile gaffes and dubious claims. That is not the sort of thing one would expect from Obama!
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
