Barack Obamahas saidDonald Trump's presidency placed real strain on his marriage, admitting in a new interview that his long running role as a de facto Democratic standard bearer has created 'genuine tension' at home with Michelle Obama.

Since leaving the White House in January 2017, Obama has remained unusually prominent for a former president, repeatedly returning to the campaign trail as one of the Democratic Party's most reliable star surrogates. In an interview withThe New Yorkerpublished on Monday, 4 May, the 64 year old said Trump's time in office pulled him back into frontline politics 'more than [he] would have preferred', disrupting the quieter post presidential life he and Michelle had once imagined.

In theNew Yorkerinterview, Obama was blunt about the effect Trump's presidency had on his own plans after leaving office. He linked the strain directly to the years he has spent travelling, campaigning and staying politically engaged.

'She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives,' he said of Michelle, now 62. He added that the constant schedule 'does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her'.

Obama suggested that many voters now take his unusual post White House role for granted. '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 told the magazine. 'They don't care about the fact that no other ex-president was the main surrogate for the Party for four election cycles after they left office.'

That sense of being drawn back into the political fight was something he had already described last autumn on Marc Maron'sWTFpodcast. Reflecting on the party's position after 2017, he said: 'I leave office, and there's no obvious person who's now the shadow prime minister, the leader of the party for the Democrats.' He added that while there were 'a lot of terrific people who were doing good work', there was no single national figure clearly filling that role.

OBAMA: “One of the problems with the American political system is, although we have political parties, we don't have a parliamentary system. So I leave office and there's no obvious person who's now the shadow prime minister.”pic.twitter.com/D0XapHkbK3

Taken together, the comments suggest Obama felt pulled back into the centre of Democratic politics at precisely the moment he had hoped to step away. In his account, Trump's presidency was the force that made that retreat impossible.

Obama's remarks land after years in which his continuing political presence has been closely watched.The Hillrecently reported him stepping up pressure in Virginia to back a redistricting measure aimed at improving Democratic prospects in the November midterms, one of many interventions that have included rallies, robocalls and campaign appearances.

From the outside, that activism often looks like a reassuring burst of Obama era nostalgia for Democratic voters. Inside the Obama household, he now admits it has come with a cost. The frustration he describes from Michelle is not about the politics themselves, but about the amount of time and energy still being consumed by campaigning when most former presidents have already stepped back.

Source: International Business Times UK