--- title: Barack Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President description: “He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence, which is … probably a prerequisite for the job," Obama said canonical: https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-09T16:36:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:37:27.044Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President og:description: “He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence." og:url: https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt937ba67a80826fb0/6988b4cc8e060171d8468bf7/gettyimages-631158784.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Departs from the White House to Florida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President twitter:description: “He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt937ba67a80826fb0/6988b4cc8e060171d8468bf7/gettyimages-631158784.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Barack Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 9, 2017 4:36 PM UTC  President Barack Obama walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 7, 2017 President Barack Obama walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 7, 2017Shawn Thew—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 9, 2017 4:36 PM UTC President Obama gave his successor Donald Trump a bit of a compliment during a [wide-ranging interview with _ABC News_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-obamacare-survive-presidency/story?id=44623528&cid=clicksource%5F903%5Fnull%5Fdp%5Fhed)‘ George Stephanopoulos, saying the president-elect had the right amount of “craziness” needed to lead the country. When asked if he liked the businessman and president-elect, President Obama responded that he does not think Trump lacks confidence. The president has given measured responses to questions about Trump throughout the transition, though the president-elect has insinuated that Obama has sought to make the transfer of power difficult on Twitter only to backtrack in [conversations with reporters](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-tweet-barack-obama-roadblocks-transition-233000). “You know, I’ve enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had,” Obama said. “He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence, which is … probably a prerequisite for the job, or at least you have to have enough craziness to think that you can do the job.” The president did say, however, that he does not think Trump has “spent a lot of time sweating the details of, you know, all the policies.” President Obama spoke to [ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-obamacare-survive-presidency/story?id=44623528&cid=clicksource%5F903%5Fnull%5Fdp%5Fhed) ahead of his farewell address, set to be delivered Tuesday evening from Chicago. In the interview, the president also discussed his thoughts on the future of his signature health law, the Affordable Care Act, under the Trump administration. Despite Congress’s plans to repeal the law, Obama told ABC he is confident it will survive though he said it may get a new name. Obama said of Congress, “I’m skeptical that they can \[repeal the law\] mainly because for seven years now, including when we first tried to pass healthcare, I said to ’em, ‘OK, if this doesn’t work tell me what does.'” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/"},"headline":"Barack Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President","datePublished":"2017-01-09T16:36:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:37:27.044Z","description":"'He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence, which is … probably a prerequisite for the job'","url":"https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/","keywords":["2016 Election topic","Barack Obama","White House","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt937ba67a80826fb0/6988b4cc8e060171d8468bf7/gettyimages-631158784.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt937ba67a80826fb0/6988b4cc8e060171d8468bf7/gettyimages-631158784.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Departs from the White House to Florida","caption":"President Obama Departs from the White House to Florida","creditText":"Shawn Thew—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4628747/barack-obama-donald-trump-enough-craziness/","name":"Barack Obama: Trump Has 'Enough Craziness' to Be President"}}]}] ```