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Presidents need to avoid watching television according to former President Barrack Obama. Social media and TV can only cloud your judgment in the Oval Office, according to the two-term president and philanthropist.
The comments came at a tech conference in San Francisco, the city Trump recently singled out in comments related to homelessness.
Speaking to the gathered crowd at the tech conference, former President Obama warned against a president focusing too strongly on media. “What you have to do is to create a process where you have confidence that whatever data is out there has been sifted, sorted and the core issues that are going to be important to your decision, you’re able to see it around.”
Trump has famously ignored direct advisories from his intelligence agencies, much to the chagrin of officials and confusion of the public.
“And that requires not just a good process but making sure you have a team that’s got a diversity of opinion,” Obama continued as the crowd cheered on. “The other thing that’s helpful is not watching TV. Or, you know, reading, you know, social media,” the former president said to laughter and cheers.
“So those are two things I would advise if you’re president not to do, because it creates a lot of noise and clouds your judgment.” Notably, Obama didn’t mention Trump by name, though his comments could be understood as such.
It is uncommon for former presidents to openly criticize their successors, but Trump has been an uncommon type of president, no matter your opinion on him.
It’s no secret that the president takes considerable “executive time” to scroll through social media and to watch cable news. Trump’s most famous, or infamous, Twitter feuds typically stem from something happening on Fox News, MSNBC or some other major news network. Perhaps owing to his past on reality TV, Trump seems ever conscious of his public image.
Interestingly, it doesn’t appear as though Obama was directing his comments at Trump in particular. Long before Trump ever began running for president, Obama often spoke on the dangers of watching too much TV and spending numerous hours on social media.
His advice seemed more general here: it’s important, Obama says, to get straight facts without having them put through a filter, sanitized or sugar-coated.
