Obama Took On Recession, Health Care and Iraq. What He Didn’t See Coming Was Trump. - Incite at Columbia University
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Obama Took On Recession, Health Care and Iraq. What He Didn’t See Coming Was Trump.
Feb 17, 2026 - Author Peter Baker
As President Barack Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, made his way across a hotel ballroom on the night of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in 2011, he happened to overhear Donald J. Trump boasting to other guests. “I know it’s crazy,” Mr. Trump was saying, “but I’m in front of the polls.”
“I kind of chuckled at it and went to my seat,” Mr. Axelrod recalled. “I don’t think any of us really anticipated that Donald Trump would be a serious candidate for president, much less president.” It was later that same evening that Mr. Obama would mock Mr. Trump from the stage, ridiculing the reality television star in a moment that would go viral.
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