Barack Obama has been relatively removed from the political spotlight since president Trump was sworn in on January 20, but he has been making moves behind the scenes it appears.
“I promise you that next year Michelle and I are going to be right there with you, and the clouds are going to start parting, and we’re going to be busy. I’ve got all kinds of thoughts and ideas about it, but this isn’t the best time to share them,” Obama said in January.
“Point is, I’m still fired up and ready to go, and I hope that all of you are, as well.”
In his first political appearance alongside a foreign leader, Obama will be joining German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a forum in Berlin in April.
The forum, “Being Involved in Democracy: Taking on Responsibility Locally and Globally,” honors the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which began in Germany in 1517.
“President Barack Obama’s attending the Kirchentag in Berlin, which will ring in the Reformation Summer, underlines the international character of our 500th anniversary celebrations,” Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the Evangelical Church in Germany Council chair, said in a statement.
“Anyone who is pious also has to be politically minded,” he added. “I am looking forward to enthusiastic debates during the Reformation Summer 2017.”
It should be pointed out that Obama was invited to this event in May of 2016, but the timing of everything is intriguing.
Behind the scenes, Obama has been involved with Organizing for Action (OFA), the leftist group training tens of thousands of organizers to engage in protests designed to amplify the size of resistance to Trump’s policies.
Organizers have focused on disrupting town halls hosted by Republican lawmakers speaking about repealing Obamacare, restricting immigration from terror-ridden nations and building a border wall.
While he is becoming more involved with pushing the resistance against Trump with grassroots organizations, it is also notable that Obama’s first public appearance happens to be with a foreign leader that isn’t very fond of president Trump.
Trump met with Merkel for the first time at the White House last month, but tensions surrounding their opposing views could make things tough long term if they want to work together.
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