--- title: Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Trump description: Former first lady Michelle Obama compared President Donald Trump with her husband former President Barack Obama canonical: https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-07T18:16:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:29.790Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Trump og:description: 'It was sort of like having the good parent at home' og:url: https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc676885eaa2bf7c/69892d1222fb85d705e25471/michelle-obama-trump-president-parent.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: MUSE New York 2018 With Featured Guest Michelle Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Trump twitter:description: 'It was sort of like having the good parent at home' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc676885eaa2bf7c/69892d1222fb85d705e25471/michelle-obama-trump-president-parent.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Donald Trump's Presidency > Sponsored content. 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The National Portrait Gallery will unveil the long-awaited portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on Monday._ by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 7, 2018 6:16 PM UTC  Michelle Obama speaks on stage at MUSE New York 2018 at the One World Observatory on February 27, 2018 in New York City. Michelle Obama speaks on stage at MUSE New York 2018 at the One World Observatory on February 27, 2018 in New York City. Photo by Ryan Emberley—Getty Images for Klick Inc. by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 7, 2018 6:16 PM UTC Former first lady [Michelle Obama](http://time.com/5210892/barack-michelle-obama-parkland-march-lives/) compared President Donald Trump to her husband, former President Barack Obama, using a parenting metaphor. “I always sort of felt like the eight years that Barack was president, it was sort of like having the good parent at home. You know, the responsible parent, the one who told you to eat your carrots and go to bed on time,” Obama said during a discussion at the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston, [USA _Today_ reported](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/06/michelle-obama-compares-barack-obama-and-donald-trump-presidencies/495527002/). Obama continued the metaphor by explaining what kind of parent she think [Trump](http://time.com/5231876/trump-catch-and-release-immigration/) represents. “And now perhaps we have the other parent in the house,” Obama added. “People thought it would be ‘fun’ to have Trump in charge because we can eat candy all day and stay up late and not follow the rules.” She also touched on [Hillary Clinton’s failed candidacy](http://time.com/2990265/hillary-clinton-2016-election-candidacy-daily-show-jon-stewart/), whom she helped campaign for, noting Clinton “wasn’t perfect, but she was way more perfect than many of the alternatives.” Obama also added that she was uninterested in running for office herself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Donald Trump's Presidency","datePublished":"2018-04-07T18:16:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:29.790Z","description":"'It was sort of like having the good parent at home'","url":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/","keywords":["politics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc676885eaa2bf7c/69892d1222fb85d705e25471/michelle-obama-trump-president-parent.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc676885eaa2bf7c/69892d1222fb85d705e25471/michelle-obama-trump-president-parent.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MUSE New York 2018 With Featured Guest Michelle Obama","caption":"MUSE New York 2018 With Featured Guest Michelle Obama","creditText":"Photo by Ryan Emberley—Getty Images for Klick Inc.","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":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/","name":"Michelle Obama Uses Parenting Metaphor to Describe Donald Trump's Presidency"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See the Newly Unveiled Official Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama","description":"The National Portrait Gallery will unveil the long-awaited portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on Monday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kjOZ9VOE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-02-12T16:39:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kjOZ9VOE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5232016/michelle-obama-donald-trump-parenting-metaphor/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```