Trouble in Paradise: Biden-Obama Bromance Hides Layers of ‘Jealousy, Resentment,’ Report Claims

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama returned to the White House on Wednesday to unveil their official portraits. Under long-held custom, the Obamas were supposed to return for the unveiling some time during the presidency of Donald Trump. However, Trump blocked the ceremony.

Beneath an exterior of smiles, hearty laughs, and a warm personal friendship between Joe Biden and his former boss Barack Obama lie a series of negative emotions between their closest supporters, ranging from “jealousy” and “resentment” to “arrogance,” The Washington Post has reported, citing current and former officials said to be familiar with the matter.

The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper noted that while Wednesday’s official White House portrait unveiling ceremony would be held in an atmosphere akin to a family reunion, “filled with stories, jokes and affection," scratching below the exterior of the hollow, surface-level cheer is a “long-simmering tension, and even some jealously” between aides.

Biden loyalists are reportedly “resentful” over Obama’s perceived failure to offer more full-throated support for his former underling during Biden’s 2020 presidential run, and even believe that the Obama team doesn’t “fully respect” the current president. Some are said to still remember the calls made by some Obama staffers to boot Biden as veep during the 2012 election.

Members of the Obama camp are said to be “frustrated,” meanwhile, over the Biden team’s talk about how they have avoided making the same mistakes the Obama White House did, like listing the president’s “accomplishments.”

The thinly-veiled tension between Biden and Obama is not exactly a breaking news story, and was put on public display this past April during the Obamas’ last visit to the White House. A cringeworthy, pity-inducing video recorded at the gathering shows guests at the event fawning over the former president, leaving Biden all alone. Later in the clip, Biden was seen calling out to Obama, with the latter seemingly deliberately ignoring him point blank even after being grabbed by the shoulder.

WaPo says that the strain in the relationship between the two men’s aides comes at a difficult time for the Democrats, as they prepare for November’s midterm elections, with party leaders emphasizing an “urgent” need for both Obama and Biden to get out there to encourage turnout amid fears that the party could lose one or both houses of Congress to the Republicans.

The newspaper’s report challenges the long-held image painted by the media and by both men’s handlers of the “bromance” between Barack and Joe.

David Axelrod, a former senior aide to Obama, assured that the pair enjoyed “a very rich partnership” during the Obama presidency, and insisted that any suggestion to the contrary would be “a mistake.” However, aides cited by the newspaper said the “bromance” image was always an exaggeration, and that the men’s different generations, backgrounds, and personal styles precluded their friendship and close working relationship from budding into anything more.

A large number of officials in the current White House are holdovers from the Obama era, and their appointments (either promotions or perceived demotions) have also played a role in stimulating tensions, according to the outlet, particularly amid the perceived skipping over people who had been Biden loyalists.

“All of a sudden the people who were nowhere to be found for Biden in 2015 and 2016 found their way to the front of the line when he made it over the finish line in 2020,” one disgruntled anonymous official said.