Former President Barack Obama has been known for his affable nature, and after leaving office in 2017, he largely continued the presidential tradition of not speaking out against his successor, former President Donald Trump.
However, by the time the 2020 presidential campaign came around, the gloves were off.
With President Joe Biden in the throes of a campaign to unseat an incumbent president, Obama made several high-profile campaign appearances for his former vice president where he slammed Trump. He also voiced plenty of R-rated criticism of Trump.
According to an upcoming book, "Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump," written by Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at The Atlantic, Obama reportedly let loose on Trump behind the scenes. The Guardian provided early excerpts from the book.
In conversations with donors and political advisors, Obama called Trump a "corrupt motherf---er," a "madman," a "racist, sexist pig," and a "f---ing lunatic."
Obama's comments about Trump will likely elicit a strong reaction from the former president, as both have publicly revealed their distaste for one another.
Read more: We joined the White House press corps the day masks came off. Here's what a 'hard pass' and fewer restrictions mean for us — and our reporting.
Trump has long had an antagonistic relationship with Obama, from his promotion of the birther conspiracy theory that sought to question the first Black president's citizenship to the former president's repeated efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature domestic policy legislation.
While most people would assume that Obama and Trump would likely never golf together, the details of Obama's contempt towards the former president have not been as widely reported.
Dovere also reported that Obama was more keen on Trump potentially becoming president than GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, mostly because he believed that Trump wasn't as cunning as the Princeton and Harvard Law-educated Cruz.
As Trump's presidency went on, though, Obama was less charitable towards his successor.
"He's a madman," Dovere reports Obama telling "big donors looking to squeeze a reaction out of him in exchange for the big checks they were writing to his foundation."
"More often: I didn't think it would be this bad. Sometimes: I didn't think we'd have a racist, sexist pig," Obama said referring to Trump.
According to Dovere, Obama was highly displeased by reports that Trump was conversing with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, without aides as part of the call.
"That corrupt motherf---er," Obama reportedly said.
Dovere's book will be released on May 25.
