Michelle Obama didn’t hold back when she was asked how she felt about President Donald Trump tearing down the century-old East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom. During a candid conversation on Jamie Kern Lima’s podcast, she said the whole thing went far beyond her personal connection to the building. According to The Washington Post, she saw it as something much bigger.
“I think in my body, I felt confusion because I’m like, who are we? What do we value? And who decides that?” Obama said. “That’s the thing that’s going through my head a lot lately. Who are we? What are the rules? Because I’m confused by what our norms and our mores — not the laws — but how do we live together? That’s the part of it that hurts.”
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Even though she and Barack Obama spent eight years in the White House, she kept reminding people it doesn’t belong to any one family. “I think I felt a loss for us as a nation, but personally, you know … that’s not our house. That’s the people’s house,” she said.
Over the past year, Obama has been more open about how uneasy she feels about Trump’s return to the presidency. She skipped his second inauguration back in January and has been vocal about the direction the country is heading under his leadership. She has criticized what she sees as his hard-line approach to immigration and his general view of how government should work.
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But even with that level of concern, she made it clear she has zero interest in jumping into politics herself. While promoting her new book, “The Look,” in Brooklyn during a conversation with Tracee Ellis Ross, she shut down any talk of her running for president.
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said while referencing the results of the last race. She didn’t sugarcoat it either. “That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running ‘cause you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman,” she said. “We got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still … a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.”
Obama’s comments tie together a bigger point she has been returning to in recent years. It’s not just about politics or the White House or her own role in public life. It’s about what the country values and whether people can still agree on the basics of how to live together. For her, the East Wing demolition wasn’t just construction. It was a symbol of something deeper, and she’s still trying to make sense of it.
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