To say I miss the Obamas would be the understatement of this century. I'd vote for the former president's third term if it meant more coordinating family outfits from Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and Barack Obama. Alas, that's against the Constitution. Applauding their looks at the Barack Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony on June 18 certainly isn't, however.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the South Side of Chicago became Washington D.C. for a day. Everyone from former President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and both Obama children, RSVP'd to the ribbon-cutting event. Paparazzi photos looked as official as a presidential inauguration, thanks to the polished dress code.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama were some of the first A-listers to take center stage, Barack in a black suit and Michelle in a pinstripe matching set from Thom Browne. It marked her return to American brands, after stylist Meredith Koop dressed her in Celine and Acne Studios earlier this week.

First, the former first lady's shoulder-padded blazer and elongated pencil skirt tapped into the skirt suit trend. Distressing the edges of her jacket confirmed her personal style has loosened up since her days in the White House. Michelle also left traditional white button-downs to her husband, fastening a peplum corset top instead.

To finish, she click-clacked onto center stage in Thom Browne stilettos. Zoom in to see the New York-based designer's signature red, white, and blue tag atop each heel. Choosing a label like Thom Browne—with such recognizable Americana roots—helped Michelle look patriotic without being too on the nose. (She's mastered this maneuver over the last two decades in the spotlight.)

Shortly after Michelle and Barack arrived hand-in-hand, they were joined by their daughters, Malia and Sasha. It seems the quartet hasn't been publicly photographed together since 2017, though Michelle and her daughters had a post-Mother's Day dinner last month.

Sasha led the way in a gauzy cream-colored set, which featured an off-the-shoulder blouse and a matching pencil skirt. Neither style looked as structured as her mother's two-piece, though. Then, the anklet trend, grommeted sandals, and a thick, chestnut brown belt ended her Presidential Center outfit on a boho-chic note.

Meanwhile, Malia took cues from her mother's affinity for classic tailoring. She waved to thousands of onlookers in a gray blazer-turned-top. Drawstrings around the single-breasted waistband cinched the otherwise oversize jacket, which she styled shirt-free.

Next, the 27-year-old added some moodier tones to her skirt suit by stacking the blazer's elongated hem over a charcoal mini skirt. Mismatched rings were the filmmaker's only visible accessories. If she's anything like her mother, there's a statement earring stack beneath her braids.

Once the Presidential Center celebrations end, Sasha and Malia will go back to their lives—and cool-girl closets—in L.A. While sightings of the Obama quartet at future government events will be few and far between, the sisters are certainly ones to watch on the street style front.

Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for 70 years, during which time the United States had 14 presidents. According to a new political biography, the late Queen shared her secret views on Brexit with former president Barack Obama, with whom she was known to have a strong relationship.

In her new book, The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, journalist Susan Page shared details about Elizabeth's private conservations with then-president Obama.

Page interviewed Obama for the new book, who explained to the author (via the Times), "[Elizabeth II] said, effectively, 'It's hard to understand why a prime minister, who presumably understands politics, would put a public referendum forward that he didn't know what the answer would be of such importance.'"

According to the publication, Queen Elizabeth "did not believe that as big a decision as the U.K. leaving the European Union 'should have been decided by plebiscite.'"

Page also noted that, per Obama, the conversation took place approximately two months after the referendum was announced by former British prime minister David Cameron. As a result, the meeting was described as a "very rare royal critique of a prime minister, in public or private."

Prior to her death on September 8, 2022, Brexit became a huge topic of conversation for Queen Elizabeth.

As Page shared, "Her view on whether to leave the European Union was the subject of endless speculation during her reign and after her death." The journalist continued, "In fact, at the fiercest time of the furore, she had expressed her real views to Obama."

Judging by the late Queen's comments about Brexit, she clearly valued her friendship with Obama and was able to discuss even the most challenging topics with him.

After eight years in the White House, Michelle Obama and husband Barack likely find it impossible to enjoy a low-key date night just about anywhere. So on February 15, the Obamas were spotted on a rare public date night at the NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome in California—which was also attended by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

For their laidback date night, Michelle appeared to be wearing a matching set from Jean Paul Gaultier, including the label's Slit Denim Jacket and coordinating Snap-Button Denim Jeans, both in navy. The distinctive set features silver snap-button closures pinching at the ankles, as well as structured jacket pockets and a silver zip fastening.

Michelle shared a sweet snap taken at the game on Instagram, featuring husband Barack and daughter Sasha Obama, along with the caption, "My favorite teammates on and off the court." Throughout the event, the Obamas appeared to be having fun and were photographed laughing together on multiple occasions.

Even when she's keeping her date night attire casual in a denim matching set, Michelle manages to look endlessly chic and entirely enviable.

Shop Outfits Inspired by Michelle Obama

Prince Harry has been outspoken about his adoration of his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. According to one royal author, the Duke of Sussex's deference to the late Queen meant that he sometimes feared requesting too much of the beloved monarch.

According to royal biographer Valentine Low, Prince Harry wanted to ask Queen Elizabeth to film a video to promote the 2016 Invictus Games, via the Daily Mail. However, as Low wrote in his book Courtiers, Prince Harry reportedly said of the idea, "I don't want to put her in an awkward position."

The Duke of Sussex reportedly said of the project, "I don't know if it is going to belittle anything she does." As a result, Harry allegedly decided to contact the former Queen's private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, for advice. But according to Low, the prince received a "rather unsympathetic response," with Geidt reportedly saying, "If you want to ask The Queen, ask The Queen."

Luckily, Prince Harry's alleged fears were completely unfounded, and Queen Elizabeth was reportedly "more than willing to help."

Still, when it came to filming the Invictus Games video alongside his grandmother, Harry "was nervous how it was going to go," a source told Low.

The video—which later went viral—was filmed in just two takes, and saw Harry and The Queen receive a phone call from the Obamas. After filming was complete, Elizabeth reportedly said, "Oh this is rather fun...People should ask me to do these more often."

A source told Low that Queen Elizabeth had no hesitation in agreeing to take part in the video, as she "wanted to support her grandson." As the source told Low, "She wanted to support the cause, and was happy for having some fun in the process." Obviously, the final product speaks for itself.

King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to host Donald and Melania Trump during their presidential state visit to the U.K. this week. Throughout her time on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II met a plethora of American presidents, and she appears to have developed a soft spot for Barack Obama. However, his final state visit to the U.K. in 2016, which coincided with the monarch's 90th birthday, apparently caused an argument to erupt.

During an episode of the Daily Mail's "Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things" podcast, royal expert Robert Hardman revealed that the late monarch wanted to "pop out" and meet the Obamas in her own vehicle upon their arrival. Unsurprisingly, the Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the president were reportedly displeased with the idea.

According to Hardman, Queen Elizabeth's casual suggestion caused a "very serious row" to start between the Secret Service and Buckingham Palace. "The Secret Service said absolutely no way is that happening," the royal biographer explained. "The president can only be driven around by us."

Hardman further revealed that Obama's staff had "said there was a very serious row over which car they were going to go in and who was going to drive it." He continued, "This dilemma went right the way up to Obama himself, who had to decide. He thought, well it obviously means quite a lot to them, so I'll go in their car."

According to the royal expert, Obama had the final say in how he traveled to Windsor Castle. "For the only time in his entire presidency, he and the First Lady were driven, not in a bullet-proof, bomb-proof whatever, but in a Range Rover driven by Prince Philip," Hardman shared.

Clearly, the Obamas put a lot of faith in the British Royal Family.

Since leaving the White House, Michelle Obama has been pretty candid about her life and open about her marriage to Barack Obama. Following the former president's revelation that he'd been "trying to dig" himself out of a "deep deficit" in his marriage, Michelle has shared the reason why she's "so glad" she doesn't have any sons with her husband.

During the June 18 episode of her podcast, "IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson," the former First Lady shared why she was grateful to have two daughters with Barack. "I'm so glad I didn't have a boy," Michelle explained (via Us Weekly). "He would have been a Barack Obama [the Third]. Oh, no. I would have felt for him."

Robinson, who is Michelle's brother and co-host, responded by telling her she could "just borrow [his] boys," her nephews, whenever she wanted to.

Michelle and Barack have raised two daughters—Malia Ann Obama, who was born in 1998, and Natasha [known as Sasha] Obama, who was born in 2001.

Back in March, Michelle appeared on Kylie Kelce's "Not Gonna Lie" podcast, and revealed why she decided to "stop" at two children. "You're doing it a fourth time," Michelle told Kelce (via Us Weekly). "I just had to stop." She continued, "I was like, 'I think I've been lucky with these two.'"

Initially, Michelle's husband didn't agree with her decision to stop at two children. "Barack was like, 'We should have a third,' and I was like, 'Dude,'" Michelle shared.

The Becoming author also appreciated her two daughters, who were both "good sleepers." "I'm thinking, 'We're gonna get a crazy one,'" she told Kelce. "It's just the roll of the dice."

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have both been candid about the challenges their relationship endured while they lived in the White House. Now, Barack is discussing how he fought for his marriage after his presidency ended.

On April 3, Barack spoke to Hamilton College President Steven Tepper about the state of his marriage following two terms as POTUS. "I was in a deep deficit with my wife," the author of Dreams From My Father said, via The Daily Beast. "So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things."

The Obamas tied the knot on October 3, 1992 in Chicago, and subsequently welcomed two daughters—Malia, born in July 1998, and Sasha, born in June 2001.

In December 2022, Michelle was similarly open about experiencing troubling periods in her marriage to Barack. "People think I'm being catty by saying this—it's like, there were 10 years where I couldn't stand my husband," she revealed during a roundtable conversation with Revolt TV. "And guess when it happened? When those kids were little."

While Barack pursued his political career, Michelle seemingly found her own professional dreams stalling. "And for 10 years while we're trying to build our careers and, you know, worrying about school and who's doing what and what, I was like, 'Ugh, this isn't even,'" the author of Becoming said at the roundtable. "And guess what? Marriage isn't 50/50, ever, ever."

Barack previously shared that Michelle didn't initially want him to run for president. "Her initial response was, 'No,'" he said during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2020. "What I said to her, 'We still need to think through all the different elements of it and if at the end of that you still say no, then it's a no.'"

With all this talk of nepo babies, Barack Obama's daughter Malia Obama is doing everything in her power to make it on her own.

President Obama recently appeared on The Pivot Podcast, where he was asked about how he and Michelle Obama encourage their daughters Malia and Sasha to be their own people in the world.

"The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all," the President said. "I mean, they're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."

He continued, "Malia, she's making movies. So she made her first movie, and I'll be a dad, I'll brag a little bit. She's working with Donald [Glover], and you know, her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals—and she didn't use Obama as director on the credits. [She was] Malia Ann. She used her middle name and didn't put Obama. I was all like, 'You do know they'll know who you are?' And she's all like, 'You know what, I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association to it.'"

He concluded, "I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that."

Back in February of this year, news broke that the former First Daughter was going by Malia Ann in the credits for her short film The Heart, which (fact-check alert!) was in fact shown at Sundance.

Donald Glover told Vanity Fair about Malia in March, "I feel like she’s just somebody who’s gonna have really good things coming soon. Her writing style is great."

His brother Stephen Glover, who is working with Donald and Malia on a new Amazon series, joked, "We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the [former] president’s daughter."

And by the sounds of it, she wouldn't want that either!

When your parents are as well-known and history making as Barack and Michelle Obama, it would be difficult for anyone to live in that shadow. The couple’s eldest daughter, Malia, has grown up in the glare of the spotlight—her father was elected President when she was just 10 years old—and, as she pursues her own career ambitions, is apparently deciding to use a stage name, E! News reports.

Keen to carve her own path and not rest on the high-powered Obama name, Malia has chosen to go by Malia Ann, her first name and middle name, for her newest film project, The Heart.

“Fans did a double take after Malia’s pen name was revealed in the Sundance Institute’s ‘Meet the Artist’ spotlight video, which introduced her as filmmaker Malia Ann, seemingly in an effort to distance herself from her powerful parents, who have also launched careers in entertainment,” E! News reports. 

As her parents move deeper into the film and podcasting space with their company Higher Ground Productions—which signed a multi-year contract with Netflix in 2018—they have produced feature films (Rustin, Leave the World Behind), television series (like Waffles + Mochi, a show for kids focused on healthy eating), documentaries (American Factory, Becoming), and podcasts (including “The Michelle Obama Podcast"). Even if the former President and First Lady hadn’t gone into the film industry, as Malia has chosen to do as well, the Obama name would receive accusations of nepo baby-ism; but, since Malia is in the film industry too, it makes sense why “Malia Ann” is her choice to go by professionally.

E! News pointed out that, when Malia made her red carpet debut at the premiere of The Heart at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, her parents weren’t there—likely because if they were, the attention would have shifted from Malia’s important work to the former First Couple. 

Malia described The Heart as “an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.” The film was produced by Donald Glover’s production company Gilga and marked Malia’s first time directing; she already has writing credits as a staff writer on Glover’s Amazon Prime show Swarm.

“She’s a very professional person,” Swarm co-creator Janine Nabers told Vanity Fair. “She’s an incredible writer and artist.” Glover agreed, adding that her parents didn’t play a role in how the Harvard graduate was treated on set.

“I feel like she’s just somebody who’s gonna have really good things coming soon,” he told Vanity Fair. “Her writing style is great. We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the President’s daughter.” 

Malia has shown an interest in film and television as far back as high school, when she spent the summer of 2014 and 2015 working in television studios in both New York City and Los Angeles. (She spent the summer of 2016 working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain.) In 2017, Malia undertook an internship at The Weinstein Company film studio in New York City, about six months before she started at Harvard. She graduated from the Ivy League school in 2021 and worked on Swarm; she both wrote and directed The Heart.

Malia isn’t the first child of a celebrity to adopt a different moniker so as to differentiate themselves from his or her famous parents. Nicolas Cage changed his last name from the Hollywood powerhouse name Coppola, and Angelina Jolie too goes by her middle name, dropping her surname, Voight (most closely associated with her well-known father, fellow actor Jon).

He saved the best for last.

Just one day after he published his highly anticipated favorite movies of the year list, Barack Obama made a much well-deserved update.

"Update: I just saw The Color Purple and loved it. I'm adding it to this list as one of my favorite movies of the year," he tweeted.

The newest iteration of The Color Purple had the biggest Christmas Day opening since 2009 and sparked massive fanfare for its long list of talented stars. This is just another honor to add to the list.

And Danielle Brooks, who fans are already buzzing about cinching a supporting actress nomination for her role as Sofia, had a most fitting response.

"That's what I'm talking about!! Hell Yess!" she wrote, retweeting the former president.

Brooks, along with co-stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi (to name a few) are being rightfully celebrated for their roles in the newest film adaptation of the best-selling novel, movie and broadway musical.

Barrino, who shines as Celie, recently opened up to People Magazine about the struggles she faced during her rise to fame after winning American Idol in 2004, sharing that she "lost everything.

She and the rest of the cast are certainly winning now.

It was "the biggest event of the summer" for friends of the Obama family, per The New York Times. Barack Obama's 60th birthday party, held at the family's Martha's Vineyard mansion this past weekend, boasted celebrity guests from George Clooney and Chrissy Teigen to Gabrielle Union and Jennifer Hudson. Conspicuously absent, according to royal observers, were Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who are famously close with the former president and his family—and reports vary as to why they weren't there.

Claimed royal commentator Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph: "It was thought that the newly California-based couple would be shoo-ins at Obama's 60th, as prominent "progressives" and new-found members of the U.S. metropolitan liberal elite." She added that royal experts expected the couple to be "front and center" at the event.

Yet Harry and Meghan were nowhere to be seen in leaked photos of the party, instead choosing to spend a low-key weekend at their home in Montecito. Were they invited? Did they choose not to attend? People have theories, so let's dive right in.

The Obama family were forced to cut down the guest list.

In the days before the party, the New York Times reported: "This week, some invitees were treated to a cold dose of reality when they were abruptly cut from the guest list." The Obamas were concerned about the rapid spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the Times noted, and chose to reduce the guest list from its original 475. The cuts included big names: David Letterman and Conan O’Brien were uninvited, among others.

However...

Were Meghan and Harry invited in the first place?

Reports differ on this one. On one hand, it's a long way from Montecito to Martha's Vineyard, and Meghan and Harry are both on parental leave after the birth of their second child, Lilibet. It's entirely possible that, had the Obamas invited them, they would have—and perhaps did—decline the invitation.

Yet royal correspondent Angela Levin told The Sun: "Harry and Meghan were never even on the original list.”

Meghan and Obama's birthdays fall on the same day.

Both Meghan and Obama's birthdays fall on August 4, and both celebrated new decades: Meghan turned 40, and Obama 60. (Meghan chose to celebrate by launching a 40x40 initiative via an Archewell video, asking 40 women to spend 40 minutes mentoring other women.) This presents a social awkwardness: Do you invite someone to your birthday party when they're also celebrating a major birthday?

It's also possible that Meghan had planned a low-key birthday party of her own in Montecito, or that she didn't want to spend her birthday weekend on a plane to celebrate someone else's big day, especially so soon after giving birth. Both would be understandable.

The Obamas may have disagreed with the Sussexes' messaging over the last year.

Personally and professionally, the Obamas have always prioritized family over all else. In the past year and a half, Harry and Meghan have publicly separated from their family in the U.K., with Harry acknowledging his rifts with both his brother and his dad in the couple's Oprah interview. Of the royal family, he said: "My father and my brother are trapped. They don’t get to leave, and I have huge compassion for that.”

Following the interview, Michelle Obama told Access Hollywood: "My hope is that, when I think about what they’re going through, I think about the importance of family and I just pray that there is forgiveness and there is clarity and love and resolve at some point in time. Because there’s nothing more important than family."

The comment may have suggested that the Obamas disagree with Harry and Meghan's ugly break from the royal family. Tominey told the Telegraph: "When it comes to Harry and Meghan, it seems, the former president and first lady remain firmly of the view that blood is thicker than water.”

As soon as the results of the election had finally been certified in his favor and the transition was officially allowed to commence, now-President Joe Biden wasted no time at all in releasing a steady stream of Cabinet and other senior White House staff appointments in the months leading up to his inauguration on Jan. 20. Among these, in line with his promise to construct an Executive Branch that reflects the diversity of the citizens it'll be serving, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Nov. 29 their press team appointees, all of whom are women.

"Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a President, and this team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House. I am proud to announce today the first senior White House communications team comprised entirely of women," Biden said in a statement.

The seven appointees include communications directors for Harris, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and the White House as a whole, as well as two deputy directors and Harris' chief spokesperson. At the helm of this history-making team is Jen Psaki, who, as press secretary, now serves as spokesperson for the entire Biden administration. Here's what you need to know about Psaki, including all the details on her (many) years of experience in senior White House communications roles.

Psaki has worked as a core member of multiple presidential and campaign press teams for nearly two decades. Within a few years of her graduation from the College of William & Mary in 2000, she joined John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign as deputy press secretary. After a short stint as a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she returned to the world of presidential campaigns, joining the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign as traveling press secretary, a position she held again throughout their 2012 reelection campaign.

During Obama's first term, Psaki was named deputy press secretary, then promoted to deputy communications director. Following a brief break from politics in 2011, during which she worked as senior vice president and managing director at a Washington, D.C., PR firm, Psaki rejoined Obama's reelection campaign. During his second term, she served as the spokesperson for the State Department under Secretary John Kerry, before returning to the White House as communications director for the last two years of the Obama administration.

While Donald Trump was in office, Psaki became a political commentator on CNN and the vice president for communications and strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Upon Biden's election to the presidency, however, she left those posts to oversee the confirmations team for the Biden-Harris transition.

What will Psaki do as press secretary?

The White House press secretary is the media's go-to source for information and statements from the Executive Branch, for which the press secretary serves as the primary spokesperson. The post was first established in 1929, under President Herbert Hoover.

As the public face of the White House, Psaki will gather information from the president, vice president, and Cabinet, and coordinate with the rest of the administration's press team to hold daily press briefings, during which she'll provide Biden's daily schedule and outline the administration's official position on national and international happenings. The White House press secretary is also typically made available to the press throughout the day in other press conferences, event-specific briefings, and off-camera "press gaggles" to answer their questions about specific administration plans and policies.

If you'd like to keep up with Psaki's work, her press briefings are streamed live every day by C-SPAN, PBS, and other news networks, and she provides further daily updates via the official @PressSec Twitter account.

What did Psaki say about her appointment?

Upon Biden's announcement that Psaki would be returning with him to the White House as press secretary, she tweeted, "Honored to work again for @JoeBiden, a man I worked on behalf of during the Obama-Biden Admin as he helped lead economic recovery, rebuilt our relationships with partners (turns out good practice) and injected empathy and humanity into nearly every meeting I sat in."

She also gave shout-outs to the other "talented, battle-tested" women joining her on the senior White House communications team, noting that they comprise the "most diverse team in history and also 6 Moms of young kids."

Finally, Psaki went on to hint at the form the Biden administration's communications strategy will take with her at the lead: "We can't wait to share what we are thinking as we get closer to inauguration, but [Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre] and I spoke just this am about taking the next few weeks to think outside of the box about how to ensure we are making the Biden-Harris agenda more accessible from the podium," she tweeted.

How did her first press briefing go?

Within hours of taking office, Biden immediately settled in to get work done, signing 17 executive orders and dispatching Psaki to deliver her first official press briefing to the assembled White House press corps on the afternoon of Jan. 20. True to her initial statements upon being appointed to the position, Psaki made a point throughout the address to emphasize the new White House communications team's focus on "rebuilding trust" and providing transparency and accessibility, in sharp contrast to the antagonistic attitude toward the media adopted by the previous administration's comms squad.

"I have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press. We have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people," Psaki said during the briefing, per The New York Times, adding, "There will be times when we see things differently in this room. That's OK. That's part of our democracy."

She proceeded to take questions from almost every reporter present, including those with viewpoints different from those of the administration. Groundbreaking!

In a fun peek behind the very stately curtain, an episode of Showtime's The Circus that aired after Psaki's debut shows her prepping for her first press briefing. She does a little dance to shake off the pre-briefing jitters, while singing a little tune about the big day.

In an interview later on in the episode, per The Hill, she explained the reason for her first day nerves. "Even though I had done a similar job at the State Department, you have the weight of 'I want to represent the president, I want to meet this moment, people are watching, I want my mom to be proud'—you know, all the things," Psaki said. "But once I got out there, it felt great."

How does her approach compare to previous press secretaries?

Psaki's calm, reasonable approach to the press briefing was refreshingly banal compared to the last four years' worth of press secretaries: The Trump administration's briefings kicked off with Sean Spicer lying about the size of the crowd in attendance at Trump's inauguration, and wrapped up most recently with Kayleigh McEnany refusing to take questions from CNN reporters, to whom she referred as "activists." Along the way, Trump's communications team eventually stopped holding daily press briefings at all.

After all of that, as presidential historian Michael Beschloss put it, Psaki's level-headedness and clear respect for the truth immediately made her the "first non-weird White House Press Secretary in four years."

It didn't take long for the "controversy" to begin. Just days after Kamala Harris announced her bid to become president in 2020, the racist attacks on Harris' eligibility started. "Kamala Harris is NOT eligible!" cried right-wing activist Jacob Wohl on Twitter. Later, when Joe Biden asked Harris to be his vice president, with the pair ultimately winning the 2020 election to become president and president-elect, the attacks started up again. To be clear: The only technical requirements a presidential candidate must meet are that he or she is 1) a natural-born citizen of the United States, 2) a resident for 14 years, and 3) 35 years of age or older. Wohl was claiming that Harris is not, in fact, a "natural-born American" (we'll get into the specifics shortly).

But first, let's break this down once and for all: Kamala Harris has birthright citizenship, and in the United States, that makes her eligible to president, vice-president, or any other office she chooses. (She's also deeply qualified to all of those roles, for what it's worth, but unlike the status of her citizenship, that isn't encoded in the Constitution.)

Speaking of the Constitution, let's start there. Per the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1, which was added in 1868:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

In other words: If you are born in America, you are an American. That's the way America works, and has been working for more than 150 years. (Interestingly, the U.S. is one of only a handful countries that upholds birthright citizenship, but that's neither here or there when it comes to Harris.)

Of course, that hasn't stopped certain people from debating this particular point—particularly, narrowing down the definition of natural born citizen. Courtesy of a commentary piece on the San Antonio Express News: "As a constitutionalist, I believe the definition of a natural-born citizen is one who was born on American soil of two parents who were American citizens at the time of their birth." This pulls from information in a book the framers of the Constitution used (information that, it should be noted, did not make it into the Constitution).

The piece continues: "Based on the information I have found, neither of Sen. Kamala Harris’ parents were American citizens at the time of her birth. Therefore, I believe it is impossible for her to be a natural-born citizen, which is one of the requirements to be president."

But, to be fully clear here, by the definition currently written in the Constitution, Harris is eligible to serve her country in office. Changing or expanding the current wording just to invalidate her seems...let's call it excessive. But this kind of attempt to create "disqualification on a technicality" helps spread of misinformation around Harris's citizenship and her career.

Which brings me to "birtherism," a term that you might remember came out of Trump slinging falsehoods at then-candidate Obama over and over again in 2008. Trump, it should be noted here, was not even a politician at the time, merely a real-estate mogul and reality TV star who decided to declare that Obama was not eligible to be president, spreading lies about his place of birth that were categorically false. But Trump's conspiracy theory thrilled an army of right-wingers. Even after Trump rescinded the comment in 2016, they continued to attack America's former First Family for being "ineligible," which is just a euphemism here for "not white."

The "birtherism" controversy surrounding Obama—if "controversy" is the right term for a bigoted conspiracy—is grounded in racism. It always has been. This is also the case with Harris. Birtherism is a lie designed to perceive Americans of color as "un-American."

Let me be as clear as possible: Kamala Harris was born in the United States (Oakland, California to be exact), thus making her a citizen. Her parents were both immigrants—her mom from Chennai, India, her dad from Jamaica—and when they divorced, Harris spent her teenage years in Canada before returning to the U.S. for college. These are all facts that have no bearing on Harris' citizenship, but I mention them to explain why Harris, and only Harris, is being subjected to "birther" claims. Her parents are immigrants, and Harris herself is a woman of color, and even though conservatives routinely tout a route to citizenship as the American Dream writ large, a slice of the American population believe these facts make Harris too "other" to serve them in public office.

By all means, people will and should provide plenty of reasons why they don't want Harris to be vice president. That, too, is enshrined in the Constitution—a right to a democratic electoral process. Say what you want about her—freedom of speech, too, is enshrined in the Constitution—but please make no mistake: To say that she may not be eligible for office is wrong. This is a fact.

At every stage of President-elect's Joe Biden's candidacy, his late son Beau Biden has been on his mind. Biden has said that he selected vice president-elect Kamala Harris in part because Beau liked and trusted her. On the eve of his inauguration, Biden gave an emotional farewell speech to the state of Delaware, saying through tears: “Ladies and gentleman, I only have one regret: He's not here. Because we should be introducing him as president.”

Beau, who had served as attorney general of Delaware and is survived by his wife Hallie and children Natalie and Robert, passed away from brain cancer in 2015. At the time of his death, Beau was 46 years old.

Joe and his family picked the then-president Barack Obama to deliver the eulogy at Beau's funeral. In the moving speech, Obama said of Beau: "He did in 46 years what most of us couldn’t do in 146. He left nothing in the tank. He was a man who led a life where the means were as important as the ends. And the example he set made you want to be a better dad, or a better son, or a better brother or sister, better at your job, the better soldier. He made you want to be a better person."

Joe and Beau had always been close. As a young boy, Beau had been hospitalized along with his brother Hunter following a car accident that killed his mom and Joe's wife, Neilia, as well as Beau's 1-year-old sister Naomi. His father held his Senate swearing-in at Beau's hospital bedside, and was dubbed "Amtrak Joe" while serving in office thanks to his commitment to heading home to his boys after work via train.

"By focusing on my sons, I found my redemption," Joe said in a Yale commencement speech in 2015. "The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through."

Beau agreed with his father that the accident tightly bonded the family: "One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side. We, not the Senate, were all he cared about," Beau said at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Beau and his younger brother Hunter also shared a strong bond. Together the brothers went to Archmere Academy, the same Catholic high school their father attended. There Beau was called "The Sheriff" among friends. Hunter recalled to The New Yorker of his rule-following ways, "If we wanted to jump off a cliff into a watering hole, I would say, 'I'm ready, let's go,' and Beau would say, 'Wait, wait, wait, before we do it, make sure there aren't any rocks down there.'"

He was elected student body president with Hunter's help at school, who helped pass campaign flyers around school. "Dad knew that is what Beau wanted," said Hunter to The New Yorker of Beau's early interest in politics.

After college, Beau served in the military and won a Bronze Star. While serving as attorney general of Delaware, Beau announced that he would run for governor in 2016—until his diagnosis cut his burgeoning political career short.

In 2010, Beau had suffered a small stroke, and in 2013 he had a lesion removed from his brain. He underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to treat the cancer, but in 2015 his health rapidly declined over the course of a few weeks. Beau died in May 2015, at the age of 46. In a statement, the family wrote:

It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life...The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.

Beau's death at a young age was a particularly public tragedy, since Joe was serving out his last years as Vice President at the time. Though rumors flew that Beau had encouraged his father to run for president on Beau's deathbed, Joe shot down the rumors in 60 Minutes interview in 2015. "Beau all along thought that I should run and I could win," he said. "But there was not what was sort of made out as kind of this Hollywood-esque thing that at the last minute Beau grabbed my hand and said, 'Dad, you've got to run, like, win one for the Gipper.' It wasn't anything like that."

In January on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the former Vice President tearfully recalled his late son saying, "Beau should be the one running for president, not me. Every morning I get up Joe, not a joke, and I think to myself, 'Is he proud of me?'"

In a New York Times article from 2019, Joe continued to actively connect with constituents over this issue. According to the article: "'Some politicians have a sixth sense for weakness,' said Mr. Israel, a New York Democrat. 'Some can sense power. Joe Biden has a sixth sense for people who are struggling.'"

When Joe announced his candidacy on The View, he made mention of the tragedies he's suffered, including the death of Beau. He has also brought Beau into his campaign speeches and event speeches of the past few weeks. "Beau cared a great deal about being here. You all know the loss of a loved one. Somehow, the pain fades, a little bit,” he said at a recent rally. And in Houston, he honored doctors who had treated Beau: "You were wonderful, wonderful to my family,” he said, according to NBC.

Biden has also made curing cancer one of his campaign pledges, which undoubtedly is connected to the loss of his beloved son.

Beau was a huge support for his father when he was running as vice president. In his 2017 memoir Promise Me, Dad Joe wrote about his son's calm demeanor and how it helped him before significant campaign events.

"Beau had a way of instilling courage and calming me," he wrote. "Beau would always grab my arm just before I walked onstage and pull me back toward him until I was looking into his eyes. 'Dad. Look at me. Look at me, Dad. Remember, Dad. Home base, Dad. Home base.'"

Joe even factored Beau into his decision to selected California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, who had a close relationship with his son. In an email to his supporters, he explained, "They were both Attorneys General at the same time. He had enormous respect for her and her work. I thought a lot about that as I made this decision. There is no one's opinion I valued more than Beau's and I'm proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign."

According to The Washington Post, Harris and Beau were so close, his closest staffers had a list of about 60 people that should be the first to know about his death, and she was on that list.

The vice president-elect still honors him today. On the fourth anniversary of his death, she tweeted, "Thinking of @JoeBiden, @DrBiden and the entire Biden family today. Beau Biden was my friend. We were AGs together, and you couldn't find a person who cared more deeply for his family, the nation he served, and the state of Delaware. Four years after his passing, I still miss him."

• During a recent interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, former President Barack Obama opened up about the toll that running for president took on his marriage. 
• When he first approached Michelle Obama with his plan to run for president, she shot the idea down directly and, even though she eventually "sort of changed her mind," she never fully forgave her husband for putting her and their daughters through the difficult campaign process.
• The interview was part of Obama's ongoing press tour promoting his new book, A Promised Land, which also delves into his marriage to Michelle. 

Running for president isn't just hard on the person vying for the job—just the process of a campaign is draining and difficult for the candidate's family, too. That's why, when Barack Obama first approached his wife, Michelle Obama, with his desire to run for the top political office in the U.S., she was clear that she didn't want him to do it.

"Her initial response was 'No,'" Obama explained during a recent interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show while promoting his new book, A Promised Land. "What I said to her, 'We still need to think through all the different elements of it and if at the end of that you still say no, then it's a no.'"

Obviously, Obama did end up deciding to run for president—and Michelle only kind of got on board with the decision, apparently. 

"And she sort of changed her mind, kind of," Barack continued. "But, what is absolutely true is—and I've never fully got out of the dog house for this—is that I put her and our kids through an extraordinarily stressful, difficult sequence in deciding to run for president, right after I had just gone through a tough race."

The impact of that decision followed the couple and hung over their marriage for Obama's entire eight-year tenure in the White House.

"Michelle stayed angry at me about it," he admitted, adding that "it would flare up every so often, but she stayed mad about it through all eight years."

Watch Obama's interview with Colbert below:

Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's the totalitarian hell we're living through, but I've been thinking a lot about you lately. Though our time together wasn't perfect, Barack, the nearly four years we've spent apart have been...illuminating, to say the least. They say you don't know what you have 'til it's gone, and Barack, now that you're gone, I just wanted to say...I miss you. With every fiber of my being, I miss you.

Anyway, that's what I'm planning on texting to Barack Obama today, now that he's shared his phone number with the world. The drastic move comes a mere 40 days before the 2020 election—not that this very short amount of time is stopping Mitch McConnell from shoehorning a warm body into the available Supreme Court seat, but I digress. Obama is the first major politician to join Community, the platform that allows you to send or receive texts from large groups you hand-pick (for example, Kerry Washington recently used it to ask her fans in Toronto where she could get a good green juice).

Per Fast Company, Obama has been exceedingly down with the kids of late, utilizing Twitch and Snapchat to get out the vote; he's an old hand at Twitch, having used it back in 2016 to encourage gamers to get health insurance. This is because Obama was a cool president. That was nice, but I don't need a cool president. I just need a president who doesn't call 207,000 people who have died of a poorly managed virus "nobody," really.

Anyway! If you need me, I'll be drafting texts to Barack today, including but not limited to: "Do u ever think about us?" and "Please come back xoxo."

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have signed with a major public speaking agency, as People reports.
•  New York's Harry Walker Agency also represents Oprah Winfrey and Michelle and Barack Obama—among many other huge public figures.
• The Sussexes will reportedly speak at "trade associations, corporations, and community forums," where they'll discuss topics including "racial injustice, gender equality, mental health, and environmental concerns."

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have made a significant move in their post-royal careers by signing with prestigious speaking agents Harry Walker Agency, People confirms. The Sussexes will be booked by "trade associations, corporations and community forums," according to People, in order to speak on topics including "racial injustice, gender equality, mental health and environmental concerns."

Meghan and Harry join numerous other major names at the New York-based agency: Fellow clients include Michelle and Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stacey Abrams, Gloria Steinem, Alex Rodriguez, Tina Fey, and Jane Goodall. Both Winfrey and Goodall are already longterm friends with the Sussexes, while the royals reportedly had dinner with Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez earlier this year.

The Sussexes also plan to launch a nonprofit, Archewell, but have pushed back its inaugural projects until 2021, in order to focus on both the Black Lives Matter movement and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. According to People, Meghan and Harry "are holding calls with community leaders and organizations" regarding Black Lives Matter, in order to "see how they can play a role" in the movement.

Explaining the delayed launch of Archewell, a royal insider told the Telegraph, "What’s absolutely clear is that they want to get it right and there’s no point in rushing." The source added, "They are settling into a new life, a new era. This is about getting it right and making sure they are able to make the difference they want to make."

For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.

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The pressure of what to wear when you meet the president (and possibly the first lady) is tenfolds anxiety-inducing compared to picking out a normal ensemble for work meetings. Most of us mere mortals may never get to experience these nerves (we, for one, don't mind), but we can empathize with celebrities who often have a front row seat or access to meeting the president. When this happens, they are photographed and publicized (we want to know what happened when Barack Obama met The Rock!), which means their outfits have to be on point. And, you know the celebrity's team of stylists have carefully thought out his/her every outfits. Most celebrities appear in modest dresses, suits, and the like, along with giddy smiles and a few tears. Ahead, see what the stars wore while meeting the presidents.

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For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter (subscribe here).

Did you know that FDR and Katharine Hepburn were related through a common ancestor on the Mayflower? Well, when the actress joined the president for a luncheon devoted planning a radio show special on behalf of his 1940 presidential election—to which Hepburn wore a signature button down—they probably talked about that and more.

Hollywood's most iconic blonde bombshell sang a brow-raising rendition of "Happy Birthday" for President Kennedy's 45th birthday in a stunning glittery gown. Fun fact: This is the only known photo of the two rumored lovers.

Barbra Streisand is obviously a mega star in her own right, but even this diva looked smitten with JFK when she met him in 1963. Her elbow-length white gloves and feathery boa are fancy and fun. And look at that chic bob!

In 1970, Elvis appeared at the White House in a collar nearly as exaggerated as his belt and was named a “Federal Agent at Large" by President Nixon—he also received an honorary badge.

President Reagan and his wife Nancy snapped a quick photo with the famous supermodels at a Tribute to Bob Hope's 80th birthday at the Kennedy Center in 1983. All the women were in gowns—Brinkley in a two-piece number (a look that's recently back in style)!

President Ronald Reagan awarded Michael Jackson with the Presidential Public Safety Communication Award; the award was the result of MJ's classic song "Beat It" being used as the anthem of Reagan's public service campaign against teen drinking and driving. The King of Pop donned a single glove, naturally.

Michael Jackson visited the White House in this snazzy black and red military-inspired ensemble in 1990 when he received the “Artist of the Decade” award from the first President Bush. The megastar received this honor more than one time throughout his life.

Music legend Whitney Houston got a private tour of the White House from the president himself 1990. During that visit, President Bush named the icon a “Point of Light Contributing Leader.”

In 1991, Brooke Shields joined President Bush and many others at "Welcome Home, America," the United Service Organization's 50th anniversary. (Her sleeves are perfectly turn-of-the-decade.) To the delight of the audience, Frank Sinatra sang the patriotic ballad "What is America to Me?" at the event.

Many celebrities were thrilled when Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States. Just before his inauguration, to celebrate cultural diversity, the likes of MJ, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder performed in a two-day festival called America's Reunion on the Mall. The monochromatic ensemble Ross chose for the event is truly as iconic as she is.

The VH1 Save the Music Foundation (founded in 1997) raised funding to maintain and support music programs in public schools across the United States. In 1999, the nonprofit organization held its Concert of the Century, and famous supporters of the arts such as SJP showed love. The star had just begun her role on Sex and the City and we think Carrie would very much approve of this outfit.

Grammy-winning rocker Leny Kravitz also performed at VH1's Concert of the Century. The "American Woman" singer rocked the mic onstage, showing off his patriotism with his red, white, and blue guitar. 'Merica.

Meryl Streep got close and personal with President Clinton at the Concert of the Century. The Oscar-winning actress maintained a close relationship with the Clinton family, campaigning for Secretary Hilary Clinton in her 2016 presidential bid and was reportedly considered to play her in a biopic.

Only a rocker could meet a president in just a vest. Here, the Rolling Stones singer-songwriter poses with the former president backstage at the 2001 Concert for New York City, a benefit concert in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mandy Moore appeared with President Bush and the FLOTUS at TNT's annual holiday spectacular, "Christmas in Washington," in 2001 (for which she chose an appropriately festive red dress). She starred in the romantic comedy classic The Princess Diaries and released her self-titled third album that same year. 

In 2003, R&B songstress Ashanti joined the president at the same holiday celebration clad in a chic black dress with button details.

"Christmas in Washington" continued in 2005, and Carrie Underwood belted out various holiday staples onstage including "Last Christmas" and "O Holy Night." All eyes were on the American Idol winner as she glittered in a sparkled in a white ballgown, reminiscent of holiday tinsel.

Ciara also scored an invite to the 2005 "Christmas in Washington" special, dressed in a festive emerald gown. The singer's debut album Goodies put her on the map, and Ciara spent much of that year touring the country with fellow R&B and hip hop up-and-comers Bow Wow and Omarion.

When George W. Bush was elected president for a second time, the 2005 inaugural festivities included a youth concert headlined by Disney darling Hilary Duff (note the totally early 2000s red streaks in her hair) and featuring American Idol winner Reuben Studdard, Jojo, and Ryan Cabrera. The concert, called "America's Future Rocks Today," caused a stir when Brett Scallions of the band Fuel cursed on stage. A totally different time, 2005.

Oprah Winfrey stepped out in a grey power suit to offer one of the earliest endorsements of then-Senator Barack Obama's first presidential run in 2007. Passionate about the young senator's cause and drive, the TV mogul even hit the road with the Obamas and joined them on the campaign trail. To this day, Winfrey and the Obamas remain the best of friends.

Kerry Washington and Usher showed some love to the future 44th president as he campaigned for his first election in 2008. The trio reunited once more at President Obama's White House farewell party in 2017, which, apparently, was a total rager—word on the street is that the demure actress was moshing!

Snazzily dressed in their best black-tie attire, J.Lo and Marc Anthony posed with the First Couple at President Obama's inaugural ball in 2008. The then-married couple also performed together at the big event, singing the romantic duet "No Me Ames" onstage.

Barack Obama thanks Fergie for performing the national anthem during the 2009 White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn in 2009. The star wore a classic white trench coat.

Barack Obama and Law and Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay shared an air kiss during a Domestic Violence Awareness Month event in the East Room of the White House in 2010. The star kept it classic in black, which also paid homage to her character Olivia Benson's professional wardrobe.

The Los Angeles Lakers guard looked so dapper in a suit while presenting a jersey to Barack Obama during an event with the National Basketball Association 2009 champions in the East Room of the White House in 2010.

The actor dressed up in formal attire and visited Obama to talk about Sudan during a meeting outside the Oval Office in 2010.

Sheryl Crow went in for a hug after hitting the stage at the 2009 "We are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration" in Washington, D.C. (in a T-shirt featuring his visage, no less). The singer-songwriter supported President Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and even performed at a 2015 Democratic primary debate.

The "Girl on Fire" reconnected with President Obama at a World AIDS Day event at George Washington University. The event, Hosted by ONE and (RED), was attended by politicians (including former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton) and major entertainment influencers like Keys and U2 frontman Bono.

The celebrities joined the First Family in the capital for the the 2011 "Christmas in Washington" festivities. And all showed up in their formal holiday best (Bieber even went for a white jacket!). It wouldn't be Jennifer Hudson's last time performing in front of the Obamas, however; the Chicago native dazzled the crowd at the president's second inaugural ball with a jazzy rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

The cast of ABC's family sitcom Modern Family laughed it up with the president during a 2012 visit to the White House. President Obama looked excited to be meeting some of his favorite actors—he is, after all a huge fan of the show and tunes in regularly to watch the Pritchett family's shenanigans. (Unrelated, but can we just take a moment of appreciation for Bowen's biceps?)

President Obama hosted a reception for the 2012 US Olympic women's gymnastics team in the White House, celebrating the Fierce Five's accomplishments at the London games. The young women traded their leotards and warm up suits for business casual.

The ever-playful POTUS even asked to pose with McKayla Maroney to recreate her viral "not impressed" face. "[Obama] the coolest person I ever met," the gold medal-winning gymnast said about the president. "He's got the hardest job in the entire world."

In 2010, President Obama became the first sitting president ever to appear on a daytime television show when he appeared on The View. The cast's choice of apparel didn't differ much from what they typically wear for the show, with each woman showing off her personality via her clothing. Two years later, he and Michelle visited the ABC show again to talk about his presidency and his desire to be re-elected.

"What are those?!" Just kidding. At a 2012 event in Doolittle Park, Katy Perry showed off her killer shoes to President Obama as her grandmother (who was also her date for the night—so precious!) looked on.

David Beckham shook hands with the president—they were both in a suit and tie—after his team won the Major League Soccer Cup in 2012.

The president shook hands with Shakira, who wore a casual ensemble, during an event to hand over land titles to representatives of the Afro-Colombian community at the Plaza de San Pedro in Cartagena, Colombia in 2012.

Beyoncé was personally selected to sing the national anthem at President Obama's second inauguration ceremony in 2013, and looked stunning. But her performance wasn't without controversy. Critics believed that Beyoncé had lip-synced through the entire song (really?), but she was able to prove her haters wrong when she gave a stellar impromptu performance of the song a week later during her Super Bowl press conference. We never doubted you, Bey.

Kelly Clarkson also attended President Obama's second inauguration, sporting a burgundy peacoat and a bright purple scarf for the occasion. The singer reminded the country that she is *the* original American Idol with a heartfelt and passionate rendition of "My Country Tis of Thee."

After the Miami Heat won the 2013 NBA championship, the entire team swapped their jerseys for tailored suits to visit the president, who just happens to be a major basketball fan.

Though he should be partial to the Chicago Bulls because of the hometown connection, President Obama has admitted that he would have liked to play for the San Antonio Spurs if he were a pro-baller. "They’re smart, they’re well-run, they’re focused on team,” he said of the Spurs in 2018. “They treat everybody in the organization with respect, and that is the kind of organization that I want to be a part of."

The Queen of Whistle Notes and Shade Mariah Carey was all smiles beside President Obama during the 2013 National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Washington D.C. Guess she knows him.

President Barack Obama awarded Gloria Steinem, who wore a classic black dress, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2013.

At the 2014 TNT "Christmas in Washington" event, President Obama exchanged greetings with The Rock, who really stepped up his game in a three-piece suit, onstage. A year later, the two would cross paths again..well, kinda—the actor played The Rock Obama, the angry, jacked up version of the president, in a Saturday Night Live skit when he hosted the show in 2015.

Rita Ora also attended "Christmas in Washington," joining the Obamas onstage to sing Christmas carols and we really want a pair of gloves.

In 2014, President Obama awarded Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with a Medal of Freedom for the indelible impact she made on the world of acting. He may have held the highest title in the land as president, but Obama was also pretty much the president of Streep's fan club. “I love Meryl Streep," President Obama gushed at the event. “Her husband knows I love her. Michelle knows I love her. There's nothing they can do about it.” Streep, who has a very specific aesthetic and doesn't bend to the whims of fashion, chose a wildlife motif dress to receive the honor.

During the last few months of his presidency, President Obama made an appearance on The Ellen Show to talk about his wife Michelle, his daughters, and his life plans post-White House. Ellen wore her usual button-down and suit jacket combo. Later that year, Obama awarded his bestie (and Diana Ross, Robert DeNiro AND Tom Hanks) with a Medal of Freedom for her contributions to the LGBT community.

Eva Longoria joined President Obama in a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" in a white belted coat dress at the 94th Annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in 2016. The actress has long been a friend and supporter of the president; she campaigned for Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and even served on a high-profile committee to help hm figure out what he should do after his tenure in the White House.

Rocking a fabulous coat, Janelle Monae performed at the White House Fourth of July party at the request of President Obama's daughter Malia, who also happened to be celebrating her 18th birthday.

The fête was the first of many great Obama-hosted parties that the singer attended, and to this day, Monae maintains that "there is nobody who can party like [Barack Obama]." Hope our invite doesn't get lost in the mail next time!

The two share a laugh at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in 2015. Barack Obama and the singer, who was in a neutral metallic ensemble, were there for the portrait unveiling ceremony for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The two shared a friendly hello during the second-annual White House Student Film Festival in 2015. The event features the winning short films created by students highlighting the idea of service and helping the community. Swank kept it sleek and profesh in a dark colored blazer.

The president greets musician Ludacris (who was in a suit) and other guests during a gathering of criminal actors, hip-hip artists, justice activists, state and local elected officials, and community leaders in 2015. The leaders gathered for a screening of Fixing the System, a special documentary about criminal justice reform.

The actress was bundled up in black as she stood on stage with Barack Obama and Malia Obama during the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in 2015.

The actor and president, both in full suits, arrived for a discussion on climate change during the South by South Lawn festival at the White House in 2016.

The pair matched in crisp button-downs while watching a wheelchair basketball game on day 7 of the Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017.

Kanye West shocked the world when he announced his support for the 45th president of the United States. West claimed that he went to Trump Tower in early 2017—in black sweats and a gold chain—to talk to the president about finding solutions to gun violence in his hometown of Chicago. Though he didn't vote in the 2016 election, the rapper said that he would have been Team Trump if he had, putting him in direct conflict with his wife and Hillary Clinton–supporter Kim Kardashian.

Kanye rocked a "Make America Great Again" red hat while retired NFL player Jim Brown donned a suit as they made an appearance at the Oval Office to have a chat with the president. Brown has used his stardom to advocate for civil rights and spearhead initiatives to help African Americans.

The reality star and business mogul went to the White House in May 2018 to meet with Trump about criminal justice reform issues, which eventually lead to Trump granting 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson clemency for a low-level, non-violent drug offense that happened in the '90s. Here, Kim, dressed in a blazer, is pictured speaking alongside the president in June 2019 at a second chance hiring and criminal justice reform event in Washington D.C.

The musician is an avid Trump supporter, so no surprise here that he was all dressed up at the White House while shaking hands with Trump in October 2018. The musician was there prior to the signing of H.R. 1551, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act.

The Queen, a (royal) celebrity in her own right, along with her family, met with Melania and Trump in December 2019. The group gathered for a reception hosted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II ahead of the NATO alliance summit. All the ladies wore their brightest hues.

Even just a few months into 2019, we'd had our world rocked by this year's documentary movies. Think about it: R. Kelly had been arrested, Michael Jackson's legacy was being questioned, and all of us knew way more about Fyre Festival than we ever thought we would. Later in the year, Erin Lee Carr caused us to question what we know about both the Larry Nassar case and the Michelle Carter case. And even beyond those cases, we had more to discover from the biggest documentaries of 2019.

American Factory

American Factory has all the credentials you could want from a documentary. The Netflix-distributed film debuted at Sundance and was the first film from Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions. The film focuses on a Chinese company factory in Ohio. The company, Fuyao, set up shop in Moraine Assembly, a former General Motors plant in a suburb of Dayton and American Factory uses its story as an entry point to explore the complex dynamics of the global economy.

Stream It

The 2018 midterms saw the elections of a new class of progressive democrats to the House of Representatives. Knock Down the House, which is streaming on Netflix, follows the primary campaigns of four of these politicians: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin.

Stream It

Knock Down the House

This harrowing documentary tells the story of twin brothers Alex and Marcus Lewis. When the brothers were 18, Alex was involved in a devastating motorcycle accident that robbed him of his memories, leaving him to depend on his twin to fill in the blanks about his childhood. Marcus fills in the blanks, but as Alex eventually realizes, not with the truth. Tell Me Who I Am is a story of deception, abuse, and, ultimately, love.

Stream It

Tell Me Who I Am

This environmental doc, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, explores the possibility of an extinction-level event caused by arctic methane release, as well as new technologies with the potential to reverse the effects of global warming.

Stream It

Ice on Fire

Two Fyre Festival documentaries came out this year (this one, which premiered on Netflix in January, and Fyre Fraud, which premiered on Hulu a few weeks before), but the Netflix one is superior for several reasons. For one, the Netflix doc just looks better, elevating the true story of the notoriously failed music festival into something like opera, through dizzying cuts and modern, empty spaces that evoke the kind of hubris and vapidity that led to, you know, Fyre Festival. For another, the Netflix doc is the one that didn’t pay thousands of dollars to Fyre mastermind and conman Billy McFarland in order to get him to talk about nothing of substance.

Then again, you could always just be a completist and watch both. Either way, you’ll get a schadenfreude-inducing peek into a modern-day disaster that will leave you shocked. Check Fyre out on Netflix.

STREAM IT

Surviving R. Kelly

If 2017 was a year of rage aimed at the ways men in power have exploited their influence, and 2018 was a year of crystallizing that rage into meaningful conversations, then 2019 looks to be the year we parse through what we've learned and pave a new way forward. One of the first documentaries to take this important step was Surviving R. Kelly, which looks at the alleged sex crimes of the musician. The rumors swirled for so long about what Kelly was doing—decades, even—but the first wave of #MeToo didn’t touch his career. This series on Lifetime may have finally changed that overlooked hypocrisy, as scores of women—the vast majority women of color—came forward with their harrowing, heartbreaking allegations of abuse.

After the six-part series aired, Kelly was dropped from his record label and arrested for 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse. You can watch it with your cable provider through Lifetime.

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Leaving Neverland

Another documentary that’s hard to watch, Leaving Neverland is the tragic, slow-burning tale of two men who claim that Michael Jackson sexually abused them when they were kids. Like R. Kelly, Jackson’s legacy before this documentary laid it out so straightforwardly was complicated: Many people knew what he was suspected of doing, but remained so enamored with his work that we could sometimes collectively convince ourselves it was okay to push the allegations aside. Leaving Neverland revokes that privilege by giving Jackson’s accusers the freedom to speak openly and wrenchingly about their experiences. You can never un-see it, but you owe it to the accusers to watch. Stream it on HBO Go.

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Lorena

Though the case is a punchline now, back in 1993, the story of a fed-up housewife who cut off her husband’s penis was receiving wall-to-wall coverage. But what do we really know about Lorena Bobbitt? According to this documentary in which we hear it directly from her, she was also the victim of horrible alleged abuse—a facet of her story that recontextualizes the whole narrative in the wake of #MeToo. Watch the four-part doc, produced by Jordan Peele, now on Amazon.

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The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Director Alex Gibney has tackled a lot of maligned public figures and organizations—the Church of Scientology, Eliot Spitzer, the leaders of Enron—but Elizabeth Holmes is in a category all her own. The once-lauded CEO of blood-testing startup Theranos was in the running to be the next Steve Jobs, before it all came crashing down. Find out what really happened in Gibney’s compelling, very fair retelling.

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Penguins

Say what you will about the cutesiness of some of DisneyNature’s documentaries, I love a good penguin movie. And this one, which came out on Earth Day, has it all: Love, danger, a penguin who trips over stuff a lot—what more do you need? I will take one ticket, please!

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Hail Satan?

Look, obviously we all love Satan. But the activities of the Satanic Temple, which chooses to worship the devil in an organized fashion, are more fascinating than you may realize. For instance, the Satanists' focus on fairness and social justice and their abhorrence to religious hypocrisy has resulted in them taking up several First Amendment cases—and sometimes winning. In Penny Lane’s surprisingly warm and thoughtful documentary, this and more is explored.

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At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal

Erin Lee Carr is about to be everywhere. This is one of two documentaries by the filmmaker on this very list, and both look to be powerful and illuminating. At the Heart of Gold explores at the ground level the scores of brave women who came forward from USA Gymnastics to accuse Larry Nassar of decades of abuse.

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Ask Dr. Ruth

In a year that has a lot of documentaries about sexual misconduct, it was refreshing to see one about a woman who made sex more navigable for millions of people. Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a legend: Famed sex therapist, Holocaust survivor, sexual literacy and HIV activist, prolific author. She was talking about sex frankly when people were very nervous about the subject, forever altering the discourse in ways we still see today. This documentary celebrates the 90-year-old’s brilliant, tragic life—so far.

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I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter

Another Erin Lee Carr joint, this two-part documentary goes into the real story of the famous texting case between troubled teens Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy, her boyfriend. Carter was famously tried for murder for Roy's death after text records showed her appearing to pressure him into committing suicide. The doc brings up questions about technology, mental health, and the pressure put on teenagers in modern life.

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The Great Hack

You know what happened with the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal, right? There was a company called Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook got hacked...and also Hillary Clinton was there, I think...and I want to say there were Russians? Hmm, maybe I need a refresh. This documentary will explain it through the stories of two people at either end of the scandal: David Carroll, a professor at Parsons who sued Cambridge Analytica to figure out where it was getting its data, and Brittany Kaiser, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica who left as the controversy started to crescendo. Sounds dramatic.

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One Child Nation

Filmmaker Nanfu Wang grapples with the realities of China’s horrific former one child policy (it ended in 2015), as she becomes a first-time mother herself. The resulting film looks so spooky, so gaspingly awful, that even watching the trailer I had to remember that it really did happen—and for a long time, and in one of the biggest nations on earth.

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Jawline

This Hulu documentary follows the story of a 16-year-old from rural Tennessee who dreams of internet stardom. But even though screaming girls and live broadcast fandoms may follow, what’s at the end of this rainbow? And who gets to become internet-famous, and how long do they get to last? As much the story of a boy’s modern life as it is an indictment of internet celebrity culture, this one looks sad.

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Untouchable

Though most of us never want to see Harvey Weinstein’s monstrous face ever again, it would behoove us not to explore the power dynamics and seeming untouchability he maintained in Hollywood for decades in order to make sure we don’t, as a society, let anything like that happen again. This documentary, which initially premiered at Sundance, will explore some of those issues.

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Fireball

Werner Herzog is the master of strange, beautiful documentaries—if you haven’t yet, let Grizzly Man and Little Dieter Needs to Fly change your life—and this one sounds especially weird. It’s apparently about comets and other space debris more broadly, and how astronomical bodies have influenced man for thousands of years, in ways great and small.

Rumored for release in late 2019.

Salvatore Ferragamo: The Shoemaker of Dreams

Ferragamo shoes are iconic, thanks to the beautiful mind of the man who started making them. His life and legacy are parsed in this documentary, which is currently rumored for a fall release.

Release date TBD 2019.

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Meghan Markle's September issue of British Vogue, "Forces for Change," is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving (to use a cliche that Meghan, a beautifully elegant writer, would never stoop to.) The magazine customarily features a Q&A on its final page—and Meghan secured none other than Michelle Obama, our forever First Lady, to do the honors. "My first thought was that it needed to be someone kind, inspirational, motivating, funny, with gravitas and as much depth as levity. My second thought: it needed to be Michelle Obama," the Duchess of Sussex wrote.

Meghan asked Michelle, who sent the Duchess a message on Mother's Day, what she'd learned from motherhood. "Being a mother has been a masterclass in letting go. Try as we might, there’s only so much we can control. And, boy, have I tried—especially at first," Michelle replied. "As mothers, we just don’t want anything or anyone to hurt our babies. But life has other plans. Bruised knees, bumpy roads and broken hearts are part of the deal. What’s both humbled and heartened me is seeing the resiliency of my daughters."

"In some ways, Malia and Sasha couldn’t be more different," Michelle said of our forever First Daughters. "One speaks freely and often, one opens up on her own terms. One shares her innermost feelings, the other is content to let you figure it out. Neither approach is better or worse, because they’ve both grown into smart, compassionate and independent young women, fully capable of paving their own paths."

"Motherhood has taught me that, most of the time, my job is to give them the space to explore and develop into the people they want to be. Not who I want them to be or who I wish I was at that age, but who they are, deep inside," she added.

Meghan also asked Michelle to share the advice she gives Malia and Sasha. "There is no prescribed path," she responded. "Don’t just check the boxes you think you’re supposed to check, like I did when I was their age. I tell them that I hope they’ll keep trying on new experiences until they find what feels right," she said. "Becoming who we are is an ongoing process, and thank God—because where’s the fun in waking up one day and deciding there’s nowhere left to go? That’s something I wish I’d recognized a little earlier. As a younger woman, I spent too much time worrying that I wasn’t achieving enough, or I was straying too far from what I thought was the prescribed path."

Michelle reflected on the Girls Opportunity Alliance, a program she established with the Obama Foundation to "empower adolescent girls around the world through education." "Today, nearly 98 million adolescent girls around the world are not in school. That’s a tragedy—for the girls, of course, but also for all of us. Think of everything we’re missing out on. We know that when we educate girls, when we truly invest in their potential, there is no limit to the good it can do," she said. "I formed the Girls Opportunity Alliance because I’ve seen the power of education in my own life."

Michelle's 15-year-old self, she told Meghan, would "remind me there are still too many girls on the South Side of Chicago who are being shushed, cast aside or told they’re dreaming too big. She’d tell me to keep fighting for them. If I’m being honest, she’d probably smile about how cute my husband is, too."

The Duchess' final question was a sweet one: "What is the most beautiful sound that you've ever heard?" And Michelle's answer was equally lovely: "When Malia and Sasha were newborns, Barack and I could lose hours just watching them sleep. We loved to listen to the little sounds they’d make—especially the way they cooed when they were deep into dreaming. Don’t get me wrong, early parenthood is exhausting. I’m sure you know a thing or two about that these days. But there is something so magical about having a baby in the house. Time expands and contracts; each moment holds its own little eternity."

"I’m so excited for you and Harry to experience that, Meghan," Michelle said. "Savor it all."

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Alert: While you were sleeping, Lin-Manuel Miranda quietly dropped the final "Hamildrop" track—and this one, fittingly a cover of Christopher Jackson's "One Last Time," features Barack Obama himself. The track, originally written by Miranda as a loving goodbye from George Washington to the country he served upon his resignation in 1783, is labeled "One Last Time (44 Remix)," and features Obama re-reading extracts of George Washington's famous resignation speech, which Christopher Jackson reads in the original song. (Christopher Jackson also sings in the Obama version.)

Here's the Washington extract that Obama reads in the track:

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will view them with indulgence. And after 45 years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize the sweet enjoyment of partaking. In the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws. Under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

Here's what Miranda shared Thursday night, and how you can listen to it:

The only thing that could possibly make this any better is if Obama had sung Christopher Jackson's part of the song instead of Jackson, but I get it, not super presidential. (More presidential than trying to shut down the government to get a border wall built, you might say, but I digress!)

Obama and Miranda go way back—the duo first met at the White House in 2009 when Miranda previewed some songs from a little musical he was writing about Alexander Hamilton, and Barack and Michelle introduced the cast of Hamilton at the Tonys in 2016. 

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In his second major wave of endorsements for the midterm election cycle, ex-president Barack Obama released Monday a list of 2018 candidates who have his blessing. The list includes candidates Abby Finkenauer and Gretchen Whitmer, two high-profile female candidates running in 2018 in an effort to seek change. "I'm so honored!" Whitmer, who is running for governor in Michigan, wrote on Twitter.

Wrote Obama on Twitter: "Today, I’m proud to endorse even more Democratic candidates who aren’t just running against something, but for something—to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore dignity, honor, and compassion to public service. They deserve your vote." This list brings the total number of 2018 candidates endorsed by Obama to more than 300.

For Whitmer, who is running against Republican attorney general Bill Schuette for the governorship, the moment is a game-changer. "Gretchen is proud to be endorsed by Barack Obama," read a meme posted by the gubernatorial candidate's Twitter account. (On Tuesday, one day after the endorsement, Whitmer was among a crowd of protesters who were hit by a truck, but Whitmer was not injured. She said in a statement that she was "incredibly sad" about the incident, which left several others with injuries.)

Obama also endorsed Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens, both running for Congress in Michigan, Arizona senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema, New York candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vermont gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist, and Iowa congressional candidate Abby Finkenauer, among others.

In response, Finkenauer shared a throwback photo of when she met the then-Senator back in 2007:

Here's a full list of Obama's endorsements, per his Twitter feed:

From explainers to essays, cheat sheets to candidate analysis, we're breaking down exactly what you need to know about this year's midterms. Visit Marie Claire's Midterms Guide for more.

On Saturday morning, people on both sides of the political aisle came together to pay tribute to John McCain and his legacy. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both gave eulogies at the Washington National Cathedral, as did McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain.

Meghan's eulogy for her father was inspiring and pointed. It celebrated her father's life and accomplishments and took aim at the Trump administration, with which her father famously butted heads toward the end of his time in the Senate.

"We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness — the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served," she said, her voice trembling alternately with sadness and anger.

In one of the most memorable moments from Meghan's speech, she took direct aim at Donald Trump, referencing his well-known campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," she said. This moment was met with great applause from those in attendance, who hung on Meghan's every word throughout her eulogy.

Watch Meghan's speech for yourself below:

Barack and Michelle Obama are still "having fun," after 25 years of being married. Last night, the former first lady posted a throwback picture on Instagram of her and Barack's wedding reception, revealing that he was actually sick on the day of their wedding—but, of course, he was feeling better after seeing Michelle walk down the aisle.

"You can’t tell it from this photo, but Barack woke up on our wedding day in October, 1992, with a nasty head cold. Somehow, by the time I met him at the altar, it had miraculously disappeared and we ended up dancing almost all night," she wrote in the caption.

"Twenty five years later, we’re still having fun, while also doing the hard work to build our partnership and support each other as individuals. I can’t imagine going on this wild ride with anybody else," she continued.

True love is real after all! Yesterday, Michelle shared quite a few throwback photos, and—great news!—we can expect to see more, soon. "Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some photos and memories from my book, BECOMING," she captioned another photo.

Obviously this means our plans for the week now include obsessively refreshing Michelle's Instagram feed and...well, that's pretty much it. We'll be sharing any other really adorable photos of her and Barack with you here.

Prince Harry and Barack Obama go way back—but despite their hanging out together at Kensington Palace and interviewing each other on a BBC radio program, the former U.S. president and first lady did not receive an invitation to the royal wedding. But don't worry, no other political leaders did either, which means British Prime Minister Theresa May, President Trump, and Melania Trump will not be in attendance.

According to a tweet from Daily Express royal reporter, Richard Palmer, “It has been decided that an official list of political leaders—both UK and international—is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.”

Palmer added that no one would be invited based on a position they held, and that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will personally know everyone who attends their wedding.

Daily Mail royal reporter Rebecca English confirmed that the Obamas did not receive an invitation. This morning she tweeted: "President Obama & his wife, Michelle, will NOT be guests at Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s wedding next month—and nor will Donald Trump. The couple have decided not to invite any political leaders both from the UK & abroad, which means that even Br PM Theresa May is uninvited."

A source told English that it was not necessary for Prince Harry to have such a formal guest list because he is not a direct heir to the throne. English added that the Obamas "are very much looking forward to seeing them soon."

Hopefully we'll see another reunion—maybe a double date?—again soon after the honeymoon.

Gun control isn't a new issue. But after any kind of tragedy—like the student who opened fire in his Florida high school, taking the lives of 17 of his classmates, or the mass shooting in the Las Vegas at the Route 91 music festival that left 58 concertgoers dead and 851 injured—we turn to the person who has the power to influence those important decisions that would deter such terrible events. Enter: The President.

After the horrific incident that became the deadliest school shooting in the last five years, Donald Trump tweeted his condolences...but then blamed the students at the school for what happened:

In the digital age, it's necessary for our president to have a platform to connect with citizens. During Barack Obama's presidency, he would often tweet about current events, keeping citizens aware of what he was doing in office. Since taking office in 2017, Donald Trump has made it his prerogative to use his Twitter account in a way we've never seen any other president do before: most often using his tweets to push policy change and personally attack media outlets, political figures, and celebrities.

MaireClarie.com analyzed Trump's and Obama's Twitter accounts to see just how many times each has addressed the issue of guns.

Trump has tweeted only 4 times about guns and gun policy.

Behold, the 4 times—out of nearly 37,000 tweets—where Donald Trump used the word "gun." Note: One of them was about Snoop Dogg.

Obama has tweeted or retweeted about guns 52 times.

Here, just 4 of them...

A thought: Maybe Trump should be spending less time worrying about a hypothetical gun scenario with Snoop Dogg, and should focus more on addressing the real problem at hand.

Following reports of sexual misconduct in The New York Times and The New Yorker, former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama have released a statement about Harvey Weinstein.

“Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein. Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status,” Obama said in a statement. "We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture—including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect—so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future."

Michelle and Barack Obama's daughter, Malia, interned for The Weinstein Company's NYC office over the summer. Harvey Weinstein himself is a known supporter of the Democratic party, and fundraised for Hillary Clinton's recent campaign (as well as Obama's campaign in 2012). Clinton released a statement saying she was "shocked and appalled by the revelations."

For more reactions to the news, click below.

Former first daughter Malia Obama started her freshman year at Harvard this fall. And though President Obama put up a brave face in front of her, he revealed during a speech that as the Secret Service was driving him home, he was a blubbering mess, just like any parent.

According to WDEL, Obama was in Delaware to support Vice President Joe Biden at an event for the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children, in honor of the VP’s late son. His brief remarks at the reception were mostly to honor the Biden family, but he touched upon what it’s like to see his children grow up.

“For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast. I dropped off Malia at college and I was saying to Joe and Jill that it was a little bit like open-heart surgery,” he said. “I was proud that I did not cry in front of her, but on the way back, the Secret Service was looking straight ahead, pretending they weren’t hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose. It was rough.”

But ultimately, Obama said, seeing your kids succeed is a way to remember what matters most in life. “It’s a reminder that at the end of our lives, whatever else we’ve accomplished, the things that we’ll remember are the joys that our children, and hopefully way later, our grandchildren, bring us,” he said. “Holding their hand, swinging on a swing, listening to them talk about what happened at school.”

Watch him talk about dropping Malia off at college below. And then call your dad.

Barack Obama's tweet condemning racism following the violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has become the most-liked in Twitter history.

In the aftermath of the deadly attack on Saturday, the former president responded with a quote from Nelson Mandela. It read: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion."

So far, the sentiment has been liked more than 3 million times, passing the 2.7 million for singer Ariana Grande's tweet in the wake of the bombing of Manchester Arena in May. Twitter has confirmed Obama's poignant message is also the fifth most re-tweeted post of all time.

Obama continued to call for peace in two more tweets which referenced the late South African leader. "People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite," he wrote. Each post has received over one million likes and hundreds of thousands of re-tweets.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was arrested after driving a car into a group of counter-protesters, which caused the death of a 32-year-old woman and left dozens injured. He's since been charged with second-degree murder. And two more people have been declared dead after a helicopter monitoring the rally crashed.

President Trump came under fire for his initial reaction to the clash between white nationalists and anti-racist protesters, which blamed "many sides" for the violence. On Tuesday, he once again blamed "both sides" during a press conference at Trump Tower.

"You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," he said. "Nobody wants to say that but I'll say it."

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On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister and Global Favorite Human Justin Trudeau took time out of his busy kayaking schedule to have a dinner date with another painfully cool politician. He and President Obama had massive crowds lining the streets of Montreal and the entirety of the internet melting down, but hey, that's a typical day for these two.

Obama was in town to give a speech to a crowd of 6,000 people at the Montreal Chamber of Commerce. During the speech, Obama took a page from Michelle and trashed Trump without ever saying his name, citing a "temporary absence of American leadership" and praising U.S. mayors and governors for upholding the Paris climate change agreement on their own.

All that Trump talk can get you hungry, so afterward, he and Trudeau sat down for a bite to eat. They went to the St-Henri neighborhood spot Liverpool House, according to the Montreal Gazette, and people lined up on both sides of the street to try to get a glimpse. After a few hours, they emerged from the restaurant to cheers.

Meanwhile, Twitter's servers practically short-circuited.

Both of them tweeted photos from their dinner date, and honestly it's so rude to not invite us even though there was plenty of room in the booth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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If you're one of the many feeling shell-shocked in the wake of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, you're not alone. Former president Barack Obama just issued a characteristically articulate response in which he denounced Trump's White House for its short-sighted rejection of the future.

"The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created," Obama said in a statement per The Washington Post. "I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack."

The Paris agreement marked a turning point in the global fight against climate change, uniting almost 200 nations worldwide to legally ratify action against pollution. In withdrawing from the Paris agreement, described by Obama as "the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children," Trump puts the United States in the company of just two other nations: Syria and Nicaragua.

"Even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future," Obama's statement continued, "I'm confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we've got."

Watch Trump's announcement here:

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During former president Barack Obama's recent trip to Europe, he stopped by Kensington Palace to hang out and catch up with Prince Harry. Because of course he did.

CNN reports that Obama offered his condolences to the victims of the Manchester attacks and that Obama and Harry took the time to catch up on a range of topics.

"They discussed a range of shared interests including support for veterans, mental health, conservation, empowering young people and the work of their respective foundations," Kensington Palace said in a statement.

These two go way back. Harry visited the White House in 2015 and, a little over a year ago, Harry, along with Prince William and Kate Middleton, hosted Obama and his wife, Michelle, for a private dinner at Kensington Palace.

And that meeting resulted in one of our favorite pictures of all time—this snap of Harry greeting his BFF Michelle Obama with a kiss on the cheek.

Filing this one under: Hangouts we're devastated not to have been invited to.

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In the glimmering lobby of the Trump International Hotel on Washington D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue, five blocks from the White House where Donald Trump now resides, Donald Jr. leans on his blue velvet sofa towards Brad Parscale, digital director for the Trump campaign, seated to his left. Their backs are to the bar, above which hang four flatscreen TVs—two tuned to Fox News, one to NBC, one to an endless string of infomercials—and a massive American flag.

As an objectively terrible remix of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" starts to play, Don Jr.'s younger brother Eric walks in, pausing for a handshake beneath one of the six chandeliers dripping from the cathedral-style ceiling. Save for the servers, all 70 or so people in the room appear to be white. It's also a dapper crowd. The President himself might feel underdressed, what with his habit of wearing Scotch tape on his necktie.

A bartender pops a bottle of Trump champagne as a Fox News anchor speculates on Trump's next political move while two Trump progeny mingle among Trump staffers at a Trump Hotel in Trump's America. The branding is magnificent; the synergy, unnerving.

"It's literally a who's who of Trump aides," Ashley Parker, a Washington Post White House reporter, says of the usual scene at the Trump Hotel. Even before the inauguration, she predicted that "it's just so clearly going to be a hub" for Trump acolytes.

That's all well and good for the Trump cabal inside. But beyond the hotel's doors, the opposition awaits. Only 4.1 percent of the District voted for our 45th President, after all.

The Obamas were largely embraced by Washington, even getting credit for changes that were, in fact, already in the works under Bush: the rise of the restaurant scene, the construction of shiny new condos. But 44's arrival coincided with—and surely contributed to—the influx of an unprecedented number of young people into the city, who in turn shaped D.C.'s social landscape. And he brought the star power: Obama celebrated his 55th birthday with the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Kendrick Lamar; his farewell throwdown brought George and Amal Clooney, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and dozens of other stars to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But more than anything, the Obamas created the ephemeral sense that D.C. was a place to be—as Democratic administrations tend to do, according to restaurateur Mark Bucher, co-owner of Medium Rare. "It actually started during Bill Clinton's first term, when D.C. had a complete turnover after decades of Republican presidencies, from old-school meat-eating Republicans to teenagers and 20-somethings coming here to believe in politics," Bucher says. "It got re-energized in Obama's first term, with these 'yes we can' kids coming to town. That did make D.C. cool again."

The first family doesn't necessarily set the trends, notes Maura Judkis, a food and culture reporter for the Washington Post, but "amplifies them." Michelle Obama is a prime example: "She was so beloved here, and the city's demographics and political affiliation aligned well with her values and beliefs," Judkis says. Michelle grew vegetables in the White House garden and encouraged the slow food movement and healthier eating; restaurants with a similar ethos opened in turn. Washington women emulated her style, swapping power suits for sleeveless sheaths and SoulCycle-ing their way to the impressively-toned physique those dresses revealed. Will all that be undone now that Michelle is a private citizen? Not necessarily. "Just because Trump loves fast food and Doritos, I don't think farm-to-table restaurants are going to go out of business," says Parker. "I don't think there's going to be an influx of Hardees."

In the four months since Trump took office, his faction has yet to show signs of exerting the same influence that the Obamas did. "Even as glamorous as Ivanka is, as powerful as she is, this city still feels uneasy about the Trump administration," says Jessica Sidman, food editor at Washingtonian magazine.

So what kind of cultural impact can the Trumps have on a city that, barring those in the inner sanctum, is somewhat hostile to them? Will the new guard make its presence felt throughout the DMV (insider-speak for District-Maryland-Virginia), or will its reach be limited to the confines of the Trump International Hotel?

Even though many Washingtonians are against Trump's policies, they may still end up fawning over and emulating the man—he is, after all, the most important person in town. "D.C. is a celebrity-obsessed city, in a weird way, because there are so few," Parker says.

Bucher has already noticed changes in the restaurant world since Inauguration Day. Customers are skewing a bit older; they're ordering steak and are taking a particular interest in finer, high-priced wines. But Trump's tendency to spend just about every weekend at Mar-a-Lago has left the city's dining scene quiet—Bucher says that the week leading up to Easter was the slowest he's seen in 20 years. Khalid Pitts and Diane Gross, who were considered trailblazers when they opened Cork Wine Bar in Logan Circle in 2008, told The Washington Post recently that "business has been a little slower with the inauguration of this president." They believe, however, that the change has less to do with Trump's influence as a tastemaker and more to do with his political heft: In March the couple filed suit against the president alleging that, by operating Trump International Hotel while Commander-in-Chief, Trump is at an unfair advantage when it comes to bringing in clientele.

On the rare occasion that Trump has been in town on a Saturday night, he's eaten at the White House, possibly because it's the only place where he knows he'll get his preferred dessert treatment: Waiters at the residence reportedly know to serve Trump two scoops of ice cream while everyone around him gets just one. Still if POTUS—whose penchant for dining in his own restaurants caused his campaign to spend $219,000 on Trump food during the election—does eat out at a non-namesake location in D.C, Bucher expects residents will adjust accordingly. "Here's what happens: The president holds the most power in the city. He can wipe anyone out with a tweet or a sneeze. Everyone is going to be kissing up. Everyone wants access."

Georgetown, the cobblestoned Northwest enclave with the highest concentration of Republicans in D.C., will almost surely see its social stock rise under Trump. The neighborhood is exclusive by design: Though you can get there by bus, it has no Metro station. It was a hot spot during the W. years; neighborhood bar Smith Point was a regular hangout for Jenna and Barbara Bush and—when they were Georgetown University undergrads—Ivanka and Eric Trump.

"Then the Obamas came in and the scene shifted away from Georgetown," Parker says. "There was this sense of a nexus, right where D.C. was young and hip and changing: Logan Circle, U Street, and 14th Street."

But the near-certain resurgence of Georgetown under a Republican leader is now practically guaranteed by the fact that the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has lifted a 27-year moratorium on new liquor licenses in Georgetown. With the booze ban out of the way, big-name restaurateurs like José Andrés (who happens to be embroiled in a legal battle with Trump) are setting up shop alongside "a lot of old-school, classic Washington restaurants that are known as being political haunts," says Judkis, like Café Milano, which "has very private dining and is very discreet about who comes to the restaurant."

In fact the New York Times has recently deemed Café Milano the place "where the powerful gather to hold court." Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and his fiancée (moderately controversial and sometime small-budget horror movie star Louise Linton) dined there last month while Secret Service agents, clear cords curlicuing from their ears like rotary telephone wires, milled about the restaurant.

The cuisine at Café Milano is Italian, which may be as exotic as GOP palates get. "Under Republicans, the dining scene tends to skew older, Southern, and steak," Bucher says. But the past ten years saw a rise in ethnic cuisine, with young, more adventurous residents hankering for exotic flavors. "When Obama came into office, millennials flocked to H Street and Shaw, and you saw those neighborhoods really come to life," Sidman says of the more adventurous food options there. "I don't see a lot of millennials coming in with the Trump administration." Bucher agrees that "millennials are no longer driving the city"—not even older millennials like Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner. Both have been spotted at a few higher-end establishments like the Four Seasons, Rasika West End, Le Diplomate, and Tosca, but with extremely limited exception (she was spotted at Michelin-starred Masseria on Valentine's Day), the First Daughter rarely seems to stray east of 6th Street NW, preferring downtown, Logan Circle, and Georgetown.

People may have expected her to be more of a presence in the social scene, but "they're not out and about," Bucher says of Ivanka and Jared, who, in their official capacities as employees of the president, might just not have time. "When the Bush twins were here, they were going to clubs. Ivanka and Jared, that's not their lifestyle. They have a family with young kids. They eat out less than Michelle Obama."

When a new leader of the free world moves in, Bucher says, "his taste for food follows him." George Bush Sr. "ushered in a Tex-Mex movement" while Reagan brought "the finest French chefs" to Washington. Clinton was a fast food junky, "and I think that started the quick service in Washington," Bucher says. The onset of plastic-bowl lunches was accelerated by Clinton's passage of a bill that reduced deductions for business meals. "That cut the high-end restaurant business off at the knees."

Under Obama, grab-and-go places like Sweetgreen boomed "because they weren't opulent," Bucher explains. President Obama was so concerned with being sensitive to the economic crisis that he didn't even redecorate the Oval Office until mid-2010. In spite of their celebrity, Bucher says, "the Obamas were understated."

Trump, on the other hand, promises to revise the tax code in ways that will incentivize extravagant meals on the company dime. While his own palate is pedestrian—he likes his steak well-done with ketchup and his White House kitchen stocked with Lay's potato chips—his general thirst for extravagance, Bucher predicts, will spark a "fine dining resurgence, $100 and $200 a head, where there's a name chef working in the restaurant. I think the three-martini lunch is coming back."

Whenever Barack or Michelle dined out, an "Obama bump" in buzz and reservations was all but guaranteed to follow. (That fact may still hold: A recent date-night spotting earned the couple a standing ovation from fellow diners.) "When they went somewhere, that business bragged about it," says Sidman. "I don't think that will be the case under Trump. In fact, you might see the opposite: Restaurateurs may try to distance themselves or ignore the fact that he went somewhere." Still, experts doubt there will be any out-and-out hostility. Restaurant owners are, after all, in the hospitality business. And despite the fact that such a small number of D.C. residents voted for Trump, plenty of Americans did. "There are so many visitors who come through D.C. and many of them are Trump supporters," says Judkis. In that sense, if nothing else, a Trump visit could "bring that restaurant more business from out-of-towners."

From the president's first few months in office, though, it appears that engaging with the cultural life of Washington is not particularly important to him. Unlike Obama, "Trump is not interested in having that kind of cultural sway," Parker says. "The Obamas were very savvy. From Michelle and the clothes she wore to the places they went out…the Obamas expertly blended the high and the low. I think Trump has no interest in doing that."

The one person in the first family who could change the opinions of the nearly 700,000 residents of Trump's new city? Melania. "She's a trendsetter," says Bucher. "She's going to move the needle. I know she will." Perhaps he's right. Perhaps FLOTUS will breathe new life into the District. Of course, she'll have to actually live in the District first.

After I became then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama's adviser/ director of scheduling in late 2004, [chief of staff ] Pete Rouse became my spiritual guide and mentor. Pete had worked on Capitol Hill for about 40 years, many of those as chief of staff to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and was known as the "101st senator" and "mayor of Capitol Hill." He knew everyone and didn't like talking to any of them. Walking the halls with him always involved some commentary on the people he considered to be violating his personal space.

There is no one more thoughtful in the way he gives advice. He returns every e-mail, makes every connection, and does it all while being a wheeler and dealer. His code name in the White House was "Possum," which is why from here on out, he will be referred to only as Possum. Also, he loves cats.

When we got to the Senate, Possum drafted one of his famous "strategic plans"—lengthy, painfully thorough memos about how to get something done. In this case, it was the strategic plan for Senator Obama's first year, and it could be summed up as "workhorse, not show horse." It included lots of time with constituents and in Illinois, and less time with D.C. insiders and celebrities. Obama was quite fine with that. Every decision we made had to stand up to the workhorse vs. show horse test.

Obama had a political action committee called the Hope Fund that was right down the street from the Hart Senate Office Building. The Hope Fund ran initiatives for getting young adults from diverse backgrounds into community organizing and politics; it also managed Obama's political engagements. I had been working in the Senate office for a little over a year when Possum decided that I should replace the Hope Fund's outgoing political director, who was moving to Paris.

Initially, I was psyched. I thought "political director" was an awesome title. I would be lying if I said I really knew what the job entailed, but I trusted Possum to know what was best. Before I was offered the job, I had been working in the back office with Favs [Jon Favreau, speechwriter], Tommy Vietor [spokesman], Possum, and [press secretary Robert] Gibbs. I loved it there. We sat near the back door of Senator Obama's office, so he would come out and visit with us a lot. Sometimes he would come to talk about policy issues; sometimes he and the guys would talk about sports. (I would chime in about gymnastics, swimming, and ice-skating during the Olympics, but that's about it.) On occasion, we might have a little squabble over Mariah Carey. (The specifics of the squabble are classified.) I think it was back there that we all really developed a bond. One night during a vote-a-rama—what usually happens before the Senate breaks for a recess and they vote on measures late into the night to get everything done—Senator Obama came out the back door and walked in on me doing sit-ups on the floor. Most senators would have been appalled; he said, "Good for you." On Friday mornings, after a bad Thursday, Tommy and Favs and I would get French toast from the cafeteria. On Friday nights, the bros and I would get the $7 Maniac Special (tempura, sushi, and some teriyaki) at Kyoto.

After I reflected on all the good times we'd had in Obama's Senate office, I had a meltdown. The prospect of moving three blocks down the street to work at the Hope Fund filled me with dread. Why? I had a lot of bad reasons. I was happy for the promotion, but it was definitely outside my comfort zone. I don't love talking to people I don't know, and this job would put me in charge of our political engagements for the 2006 midterm elections; I would also manage Obama's profile and relationships. That was a lot of responsibility, and it would be the first time I was really at the tip of the spear—this was going to be my first experience being The Boss. I did not get the impression that the Hope Fund staff was psyched I was coming down there, either. I had no reason to feel that way, but that didn't matter!

I dragged out the transition for a few weeks. Each time someone asked me why I was still in the Senate office, I had a different excuse, but I never deviated too far from, "Wrapping up a few projects!" I thought I had everyone fooled—until one day when Possum called me into his office and asked, "Why the hell are you still here?"

As soon as he asked, I started to cry. That's right. I cry a lot, but I generally think it's not OK to cry in front of your boss. If you're feeling real emotion about something that merits strong feelings, fine, but at best, you come off as "sensitive," and at worst, you seem like you're trying to use your tears to get what you want. I told Possum I was afraid to leave; he told me I had one hour to pack my stuff and get to the Hope Fund office, three blocks away from $7 Maniac Fridays and all my friends.

This was NOT a big deal, but I felt like it was. I argued that I was probably too important to leave the Senate office, that Obama needed me nearby (he didn't), and that I should probably stay. Possum told me again, loudly, to get out of the office and start my new job. He was mad. I knew he had decided to move me over in part because it would benefit me—undoubtedly, I would be able to grow and develop a new skill set. I was being my own worst enemy.

One of my main goals in writing my book is to give you the permission to admit to feeling or doing things that are silly; once you do, you can get on with your life. So here it is, the real reason why I didn't want to go down the street: The crew at the Hope Fund had been together since the Senate race in 2003. They were all friends, and I really didn't want to be the new kid.

Often, when you're dreading something, it can feel as if there is just no possible way that whatever you're dreading will actually happen—as if some goddess of serendipity will surely swoop in and stop it in the nick of time. The test you haven't studied for will be rescheduled for next week; the guy you've really been meaning to break up with will tell you he's decided to move to India to embark upon a life of meditation but will always love you and remember the times you shared; the cockroaches in your apartment will be revealed to have been a very involved art project your roommate was working on, so you're not going to have to argue with the landlord and call the exterminator nine times and be afraid of going to the bathroom in the middle of the night for several weeks. The goddess of serendipity almost never swoops in.

I packed up my stuff and moved down the street. It took me a few weeks to start feeling comfortable. In late May 2006, Reggie Love came down to the Hope Fund, too, and became my deputy. He had graduated from Duke University the year before, where he'd been a star on the football and basketball teams, and Possum hired him as an intern in the Senate office. By the time I understood how big my job really was, I knew I needed help, and Reggie was the guy. He started traveling with Obama on complicated political trips and helped me do outreach (checking in with supporters, tracking elections, etc.). Obama was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), and he made his first trip to Africa that summer. Gibbs and Mark Lippert, our SFRC staffer, managed that trip, and Reggie and I focused on political travel and plans for Obama's book tour for The Audacity of Hope, which would kick off in September.

While Obama was in Africa, I wrote the political plan for the 2006 midterms. A political plan is basically the who/what/when of the year: key people Obama should be seeing, major events that we should be planning around, and how it all fits together so that at the end of the year, you can say, "We wanted to get XYZ done, and we did." (Or didn't.) It was also a very good way to make sure the most senior people and Obama were aligned on the mission. In Obama's case, we all felt like the midterm elections were his chance to really arrive—we saw how popular he was, he was getting all these crazy invitations, and we wanted him to use that momentum to be a workhorse on behalf of Democrats running for reelection. Our political plan included introducing him to labor leaders, state party activists across the country, and what we called "rising political stars"—people who were like he'd been a few years earlier. (One person on that list was Eric Garcetti, now the mayor of L.A.; another was Cecilia Muñoz, who at the time was at Latino civil rights organization the National Council of La Raza.) We wanted to make sure that, for all of the fancy, high-profile people who would reach out to meet him, he was also spending time with lesser-known thought leaders. Obama himself felt this was important, too.

There are probably a lot of people with my job who would not have committed a plan like this to paper. It was ambitious and complicated. But I was raised in the Possum school of memo writing, and I think that he and Gibbs wanted to see what I would do. It was entitled "The Political Plan for the Best Candidate Not Running for President."

As soon as Obama came back from his trip to Africa, his publisher started calling. One after another, his book tour events were selling out: Would it be possible to move them to bigger venues? On top of The Audacity of Hope, we layered on political and Hope Fund travel. Every candidate for the House and Senate wanted Obama to headline their events. Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa invited him to the annual Steak Fry fundraiser—THE place to be if you're a politician who wants to run for president or get national attention. Things were getting crazy. Obama never faltered (and if he did, he was mostly joking). At one point, we were doing an event for Cory Booker in Newark, New Jersey, and from there we planned to fly Continental Airlines to Providence, Rhode Island, where we had scheduled a fundraiser for Sheldon Whitehouse, who was running for Senate. Halfway through Booker's event, we got a note that all Continental flights had been canceled because of weather. Bad! I got on the phone to try to find a private plane, a helicopter, anything that would get us up there; if senators managed to snag an event with Obama, they really looked forward to it. They raised so much more money, and the atmosphere was electric.

After a few calls, it seemed like there was nothing we could do. We couldn't get a private plane or a helicopter on such short notice. A train would take too long. But even though we had every excuse to cancel, Obama was not going to let Whitehouse down: "We don't disappoint our friends." He suggested we rent a car. I was not going to be in the driver's seat with Obama during bad-weather rush hour, but I was able to secure a car service, and we spent the trip up to Rhode Island reading People magazine in the back.

Some combination of me, Gibbs, Reggie, and the finance directors for the Hope Fund, Jenny Yeager and Jordan Kaplan [who are married now, with three kids], criss-crossed the country with Obama for more than two months. When you got back to the hotel every night, you passed out cold, but the response to Obama was exhilarating.

We all spent a lot of time together. Jordan and I would get on Obama's nerves by singing in the car—Obama was always in the front with the volunteer driver, and like kids in the back seat on long trips, Jordan and I would sing along to whatever was on the radio. Once, when we were butchering a Motown song in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Obama snapped at us—something like, "Must you both?"—and we stopped immediately. We didn't know if we were in trouble; it felt like we were. But after a while, the silence was deafening, and he told us we could sing again. Another time, after we had all been served Obama's traditionally healthy road meal of grilled salmon and brown rice, he noticed I wasn't touching my food. "Aren't you going to eat something?" he asked. I had gotten so sick of grilled salmon paired with a complex carbohydrate that I couldn't eat any more; I told him no, it was too boring. "Food is fuel," he replied, and went back to his dinner.

Obama also enjoyed gossiping about my dating life (or lack thereof ). Once, we were at an event at movie producer Lawrence Bender's house in L.A.; Gibbs and I were in the den reading our BlackBerrys when Obama came over and told me that he had "found someone" for me and that I should "get off the couch and come be social."

It turned out the person he'd "found" for me was Bender himself— the man who produced An Inconvenient Truth, plus Reservoir Dogs and almost all of Quentin Tarantino's movies afterward. I appreciated Obama's opinion of me, but I was pretty sure Bender was not going to be interested in me, or even understand why Obama was dragging my ass up to talk to him. I stayed on the couch.

Things got a little more serious at the end of October, when around 5 a.m. one day, I got a call from Rahm Emanuel, who was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the time—his job was to get more Democrats into the House and Senate. He told me that John Kerry had said something controversial while out campaigning hard for congressional candidates in the hopes of making another presidential run in 2008: He'd told a group of students in California that those unable to navigate the country's education system would "get stuck in Iraq." Republicans pounced. They tried to make it sound like Kerry, a decorated war veteran, thought our soldiers were dumb—that uneducated people end up in the military. That was absolutely not what he meant, but it didn't matter. George W. Bush had won in 2004 by painting Kerry as aloof and unpatriotic. He was toast. Tim Walz—a candidate from Minnesota— canceled Kerry's appearances in Mankato, and Rahm needed Obama and Hillary Clinton to cover all the events that Kerry was scheduled for that week. Rahm and I brainstormed three or four stops Obama could add to his next few days of travel. Talk about adrenaline; this was go time. We were single-handedly going to take back the House and Senate! It felt like the country was finally turning against Bush and the Republicans, and some dumb gaffe wasn't going to slow our momentum. We wanted Obama to be leading the charge.

Gibbs, Possum, and I agreed on all the added stops. We would do a big roundup going into Election Day—Missouri, Iowa, and Tennessee again, and we would even hit Arkansas to campaign for Governor Mike Beebe. Not many Democrats besides Bill Clinton were requested in Arkansas. I went in and pitched the new schedule to Obama.

"Who do you work for?" he asked. "Me or Rahm?"

I did not take the bait. My job was to be confident in my recommendations. This was his moment, and we were taking it.

"Come on!" I replied. "WE HAVE TO WIN!"

He laughed, said of course, and we hit the road again. We were doing election night in Chicago, and we had a little setup at the Hilton on Wacker Place, where Obama would get incoming election results and be available for live interviews. During a few hours of downtime, I went to the Bloomingdale's on Michigan Avenue and bought a pair of very proper, very adult, very political director-y Isaac Mizrahi heels. I didn't need them—Obama wasn't formal—but I was starring in this very West Wing scene playing in my head, and in this scene, I was not wearing Minnetonka moccasins.

The Democratic landslide started at around 7 p.m. While Obama was doing interviews, we were calling so many candidates to congratulate them (and slyly take some credit for their margin of victory) that I didn't have enough cell phones to go around. We were happy. We had met some really terrific candidates on the road, people dedicated to public service who would undoubtedly have a positive impact in Washington, and it felt good. I didn't feel uncertain about my job anymore; I had risen to the occasion and taken the help I needed along the way.

Obama was still firm that he was not thinking about running for president in 2008, that he was just out there working hard for the class of 2006. But the rest of us weren't so sure. I knew that if we were going to launch an exploratory committee, I would have to be ready.

Editor's note: Mastromonaco played central roles in Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and administrations, and in 2011, became the youngest White House deputy chief of staff for operations. She left the White House in 2014 and is currently president of global communications strategy and talent at A+E Networks and a contributing editor at Marie Claire.

Excerpted from Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House, by Alyssa Mastromonaco, to be published by Twelve Books on March 21, 2017.

This article appears in the April issue of Marie Claire, on newsstands now.

Mapping Donald Trump's feelings about Barack Obama is a wild ride. First, Trump famously spent years trying to undermine the legitimacy of Obama's presidency, citizenship and birth certificate. Since being elected president, Trump has described POTUS 44 in much more favorable terms, and recently revealed that he's pretty sure Obama likes him. But now, Trump is accusing Obama of orchestrating protests against him.

"I think he is behind it," Trump said during a Fox and Friends interview that aired this morning, when asked about the protests. "I also think it's politics. That's the way it is."

"I think that President Obama's behind it because his people are certainly behind it," he added. "And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, you know, some of the leaks—which are very serious leaks, because they're very bad in terms of national security." Trump seemed pretty sanguine about the whole thing, because he "understands that's politics." Needless to say, he provided no evidence to support his accusation.

It's not clear whether Trump still believes that Obama is secretly his friend. But on balance, given what we know about Trump's business practices, it actually makes total sense that he wouldn't see liking someone and going against them as mutually exclusive concepts.

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Donald Trump is president, and in between limiting access to abortion and supporting torture, he gave his first interview to ABC News—where he (somewhat surprisingly) gushed about Barack Obama.

Our former POTUS was photographed leaving a note on the desk of President Trump, who seemed eager to share the general good vibes of its contents.

"This was the letter given to me by President Obama. I won't show to you or read it to you, but a—just a, a beautiful letter," Trump said. "It was long, it was complex, it was thoughtful, and it took time to do it....I doubt too many of them were written in this manner.He really—in fact, I called him and thanked him for the thought that was put into that letter."

ABC News' David Muir pressed for more details, and Trump had this to say: "[Obama] said something that was very interesting to me, he said, 'You know if I thought your healthcare plan was going to be better than his plan, Obamacare, then I would support it,' and I believe he would."

He continued that the letter contained "Nothing that surprised me, but it was stated beautifully but that I'm representing a lot of people and I'm carrying on a very important tradition, and just do a great job. He wants me to do a great job."

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After the swearing-in of President Donald Trump earlier today, Barack and Michelle Obama made their final departure from the White House.

They stood on the rain-soaked steps of the U.S. Capitol, Barack in a crisp suit with a blue tie and Michelle in a simple red belted dress and matching coat, waiting for Mission One to take them away to Palm Springs, California. They stood looking out at the people, next to President and First Lady Trump in powder blue. And then Barack made one small, simple gesture that melted the hearts of anyone who saw it.

That hand squeeze was not an empty gesture. It was not a political move. It was not for the crowds, or for the press, or for the TV stations. It was Barack saying, "We did this together. Now let's go home."

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After eight glorious years, President Barack Obama will soon be out of a job at the White House—but don't worry, Spotify might be ready to snatch him up for a position on their team. Obama's playlists are famously killer, and he recently joked about expecting a job offer from the streaming company. His reasoning? "'Cuz I know y'all loved my playlist."

The statement seems to have grabbed Spotify CEO's Daniel Ek's attention, who tweeted a job opening for POTUS...President of Playlists.

From the looks of the job description, it seems like President Obama is well qualified. Key responsibilities include identifying new playlist ideas—from"shooting hoops with your friends, to the perfect warm up playlist for addressing the nation about health care legislation that bears your name." Spotify would also love someone who has "at least eight years of experience running a highly-regarded nation," and who knows industry artists. Good thing Obama is friends with the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Kendrick Lamar.

By the way—the listing throws some shade thrown at President-elect, Donald Trump, taking shots at his lack of attendance at intelligence briefings, for starters.

President Obama first started making playlists on Spotify in the summer of 2015. Let's hope he never stops.

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Michelle Obama, like many women in the United States, fought hard to elect Hillary Clinton president. And just like many women, she knows what it's like to deal with the aftermath. In her final interview at the White House, Michelle Obama opens up to Oprah about her husband's legacy and the uncertainty that comes with a Donald Trump administration. And judging by a preview clip aired on CBS This Morning, the exchange will make you wish for a Michelle/Oprah ticket in 2020.

Oprah asked her if she felt her husband's administration achieved its goal of giving America hope. The first lady said yes, and that was especially apparent after Donald Trump won the election. "We feel the difference now. See, now, we are feeling what not having hope feels like," she said. "Hope is necessary. It's a necessary concept and Barack didn't just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes. [He] and I and so many believe that—what else do you have if you don't have hope? What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?"

She also talked about how her husband gave America what it desperately needed: a grown-up to tell them it's going to be okay. As usual, she didn't mention Trump by name, but it's clear she means the next guy in charge will likely not serve that role as well:

The first lady also talked about how she wishes people didn't divide themselves by factors like, race, gender, or wealth. "It's sad because the thing that least defines us as people is the color of our skin," she said. You can watch that clip below. The full interview airs Monday night on CBS.

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Fact: Joe Biden and Barack Obama are one high five away from sharing traveling pants and wearing BFF necklaces from Claire's. Nothing (NOTHING!) comes between POTUS and VEEP, and naturally their wives are completely on board.

"They're so cute," Michelle Obama told People, before being asked what Barack and Joe would do once they stopped working together. "They're gonna find each other. They'll go for long walks, looking into each other's eyes."

Meanwhile, Jill Biden noted that Barack and Joe have a "truly beautiful friendship" and that "they really love one another."

Is now a good time to revisit the best #BidenMemes?

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We all know that FLOTUS and POTUS are the ultimate power couple. I mean, there's a movie about their first date coming out starring people who are only marginally better-looking than them because they are already so damn stunning. And have you seen this heavenly photo that gave the Internet a whole new level of #relationshipgoals?

After 16 years together, it's safe to say that they're still totally in love. Which means they are very comfortable throwing a little sass at one another–or at least Michelle is.

The First Lady recently stopped by Ellen with NBA all-star Steph Curry, who sometimes plays golf with Obama. Ellen asked which one of them was better and immediately Michelle was like definitely not my husband.

Then, when Curry joked that he couldn't give away Obama's golf kryptonite, Michelle made the best expression:

Then, she revealed that apparently Obama is a major trash-talker. And she gave Curry a little tip of how to trash-talk right back to him:

She's even got a line ready: "As you're putting, you wanna say, 'The shadow from your ears is really messing up my putt."

All the LOLs.

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On Friday night, Michelle Obama hosted the party to end all parties in celebration of her husband Barack Obama's 55th birthday, which was on August 4. Given that the occasion was not only a milestone birthday, but the last birthday her family would celebrate in the White House, it's no wonder she went all out.

"The First Lady is hosting a 55th birthday celebration for the President at the White House," said a White House rep in a statement to People. "The guest list includes a large number of family members and friends to mark the occasion. The private event will be paid for with the family's personal funds."

The President partied it up with his family and just a few of his famous celebrity friends. And by a few we mean A LOT. According to Page Six, the lucky invitees included Beyoncé and Jay Z (obviously), Kendrick Lamar (one of POTUS' favorite rappers), Jason Wu (one of FLOTUS' favorite designers), Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi, Usher, Stevie Wonder, and Magic Johnson among others. The political figures expected to attend included Vice President and Obama BFF Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, to name a few.

Guests were asked not to tweet or post during the event, reports the New York Times, which of course many ignored. Not that we're complaining—that means we get a little more access to the goings-on at the exclusive soirée...

Here, we've got Ellen DeGeneres snapping a quick selfie.

Nick Jonas gushing about the event.

Al Roker arriving at the White House.

Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie getting ready for the big night...

Partying with Samuel L. Jackson once they're there...

And then reminding us it was awesome and we weren't there.

Even George Lucas was there to party down with the Prez.

Along with Reverend Al Sharpton and his wife.

Plus, Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts.

And former NBA player Grant Hill and his wife Tamia.

See some of the A-list attendees as they made their arrival in this footage captured by TMZ:

Is that a present in Sarah Jessica Parker's arms?? We cannot even fathom the stress in trying to find the perfect birthday present for a man like Barack Obama. Whatever she got him could not possibly trump this though:

Happy 55th, President Obama!

On Friday, Barack and Michelle Obama arrived in the UK for a two-day visit, and they stopped by Windsor Castle for a spot of tea with Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her 90th birthday yesterday, and her husband, Prince Philip. 

For the big 9-0, the Obamas gave her a personalized photo album documenting her many encounters with American presidents throughout her lifetime. She, in turn, coached them precisely on where they could sit in her living room because she is the Queen of Sass. 

Afterwards, they headed to Kensington Palace for a small dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and perpetual third-wheel Prince Harry. 

They seemed pretty chummy as they greeted each other in classic English weather. 

Prince Harry even managed to squeeze in a cheeky kiss, protocol be damned!

Once inside, Prince Harry clearly decided to show everyone his best Indiana Jones impression. Caption contest anyone? 

But the best moment by far was when they met Prince George, who got to stay up past his bedtime for the special visit. That rocking horse. That luscious robe. I die. 

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If you thought you were too old for bedtime stories, think again. Barack and Michelle Obama are making story time cool for children, adults, and adult-children alike, thanks to a spirited rendition of Where the Wild Things Are, which went down at the White House's Annual Easter Egg Roll.

Let's just hop right to it, shall we? (Ha, ha, ha.)

Well, this is completely amazing. 

Also, in unrelated news, is this a photo of Obama's newest staff member, y/n?

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Thanks in large part to President Obama's persistent support of the LGBT community, we now live in a country where everyone—regardless of sexual orientation or gender—is free to marry the person they love. So, it's no surprise that OUT Magazine wanted to honor the president by making him their Ally of the Year.

POTUS is the first president to pose for an LGBT publication, which OUT notes is "a historic moment in itself, and a statement on how much his administration has done to advance a singularly volatile issue that tarnished the reputations of both President Clinton and President Bush."

[instagram ]https://instagram.com/p/96W6S7yF_t/[/instagram]

In his interview with the magazine, Obama talked candidly about why equal rights is so important to him. "This really goes back to when I was a kid, because my mom instilled in me the strong belief that every person is of equal worth," he said. "At the same time, growing up as a black guy with a funny name, I was often reminded of exactly what it felt like to be on the outside. One of the reasons I got involved in politics was to help deliver on our promise that we're all created equal, and that no one should be excluded from the American dream just because of who they are."

Obama also said that his daughters, Malia and Sasha, live in a reality where "discrimination in any form against anyone doesn't make sense," and that he hopes their generation will spur change for future generations.

"I was honored to stand in the Rose Garden and reiterate for every American that we are strongest, that we are most free, when all of us are treated equally," Obama said in regard to his now-famous speech about SCOTUS's ruling. "I was proud to say that love is love."

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Something happened last night besides a surprisingly speedy Barack Obama victory: The war on women suffered major setbacks. Between the record numbers of female candidates elected, the widening gender gap, and the smackdown of "Team Rape" (as Jezebel's Erin Ryan lovingly calls the long list of politicians who ran their mouth about ladyparts this year), voters roundly rejected the strong anti-women undercurrent that permeated the 2012 election.

Let's review what went down. Election-wise, progressive women fared very well: Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin both won their highly contested Senate races; Tammy Duckworth, Cheri Bustos, and Tulsi Gabbard won their House races; and Maggie Hassan became the country's only Democratic governor. (Conservative women weren't as fortunate; Michele Bachmann barely squeaked out a victory in Minnesota while Utah's Mia Love lost to her congressional challenger, Jim Matheson.)

This year also proved that a politician can't just say whatever he wants about rape, pregnancy, or abortion, and get away with it. Todd Akin, who held a comfortable lead in his Senate race until his infamous "legitimate rape" comments, was defeated by Democrat Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Richard Mourdock, who said during a debate that rape pregnancies are "something God intended," lost his Indiana Senate race to Democrat Joe Donnelly. A couple of other losers: Pennsylvania senate candidate Tom Smith, who equated getting pregnant from a rape with having a baby out of wedlock. Roger Rivard, who told a Wisconsin newspaper that "some girls rape easy." America — thankfully — was just not feelin' the rapey language this election season.

And then there was the gender gap. According to exit polls, it was 18 percent, an even bigger margin than the 12 percent gender gap in 2008. In crucial swing states like Ohio, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, Obama's lead with the ladies helped tip the scale in his favor.

Pundits on both sides of the political spectrum declared last night that this election was about the economy, plain and simple. But clearly it was also a referendum on retrograde ideas about women — whether it was an individual politician's offensive comments, a state's anti-choice legislation, or an entire party's rejection of things like equal pay or Planned Parenthood funding. And as we've pointed out before, women's health issues directly affect the pocketbook, too. This election cycle proved that while the country is still deeply culturally divided, most of us have no desire to turn back the clock on long-settled rights like access to contraception or abortions for rape survivors. But there are still many more Akins and Mourdocks who weren't up for re-election. There are dozens more abortion restrictions pending in state legislatures. We have to keep paying attention during the downtime, when these battles will be fought not under the white-hot light of a national election, but in our own backyards.

Last night during the debate, I found myself yelling at the television screen—"Obama! Look us in the eye! Call him out on his lies! Finish your goddamn sentence! At least fact-check him on Medicare!"

Mitt Romney was aiming for the swing vote last night, taking every opportunity to gravitate toward the middle. He crumpled up his campaign talking points and threw them in the trash, spinning a dreamworld where his Obamacare alternative suddenly covered people with pre-existing conditions, his tax plan suddenly didn't cost five trillion dollars, his budget wouldn't touch Medicare, and his education policy showered teachers with love. As Mother Jones reporter Adam Serwer quipped on Twitter, his plan for the nation had "all of the candy and none of the broccoli." It was one big—dare I say it?—flip-flop.

This didn't bother me. The man had seen his sagging poll numbers and knew he needed to make nice with that 47 percent, even if it meant Etch-a-sketching his entire collection of campaign promises. What pissed me off was that Obama laid down and took it.

His strategy clearly was to not make things worse—to not render himself vulnerable to sound bites no matter what. If a remark made Obama look like the slightest bit of a jerk, his people reasoned, that was worse than Romney getting in a few attacks. It explains why the phrase "47 percent" wasn't uttered the entire night. The Obama campaign figures it's already doing its damage without the president playing bad cop.

Intellectually I understood this, but I still felt irrationally angry at Obama. I'm progressive and planning on voting for him, but obsessive Obama-lover I'm not. I knew four years ago that I was voting for a charismatic centrist who wouldn't transform the country as we knew it. Yet here I was again, wishing my president would go on the attack and call his opponent out, even though there's nothing in his record that intimates he's willing to do that. Here I was again, projecting my fantasies onto someone who couldn't make them true.

Liberals have been doing this to themselves ever since they wiped their tears at Obama's Grant Park speech on election night—they've concocted an ally that'll swoop in and defend our honor. Conservatives, meanwhile, have contorted Obama into a radical bogeyman on a socialist crusade. Last night, both of those inventions were shattered. The reality had never been clearer: Mitt Romney will fight dirty, and Obama will not.