According to a new book, President Trump extended an invitation to President Obama for a game of golf at one of his numerous courses during their unexpected interaction at President Carter’s funeral in January.
The president-elect at the time asked his former opponent to join him for a round on the golf course as they surprised many with their cordial exchange during the state funeral of Jimmy Carter, which took place inside the Washington National Cathedral on January 9, 2025.
As noted in the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” Trump engaged in conversation with Barack Obama, offering an invitation by highlighting the features of his worldwide golf courses, according to Axios.
The book highlights Trump’s return to the White House in 2024 and the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, written by political reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf who worked at the Washington Post during the 2024 presidential campaign.
It wasn’t known when Obama was invited to one of the 17 Trump-owned courses during the funeral, or whether the Democrat accepted the invitation.
The two were photographed grinning and laughing before the start of Carter’s service.
The two men are believed to have used their light-hearted facial expressions to mask a more serious conversation from prying eyes.
At one point, Trump told Obama they had to “find a quiet place” later in the day to discuss a “matter of importance,” forensic lip reader Jeremy Freeman told The Post.
Later, the then-former and future president leaned over to Obama, telling his counterpart, “I’ve pulled out of that. It’s the conditions. Can you imagine that?”
Trump withdrew from Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement in his first term, though it’s unclear if those pacts were what was being discussed.
“Call me at the foy after, yep,” Trump told Obama, possibly referring to the National Cathedral’s foyer.
Obama responded, “can you just … it should be good.”
“I can’t talk, we have to find a quiet place sometime. This is a matter of importance and we need to do this outside so that we can deal with it, certainly, today,” Trump said, as Obama nodded.
Trump later said he “didn’t realize how friendly” Obama was until their exchange.
“I said, ‘Boy, they look like two people that like each other.’ And we probably do,” Trump told NBC News from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida following the funeral.
Trump was seated beside Obama in the second row of the National Cathedral because former first lady Michelle Obama was in Hawaii and didn’t attend the funeral because of “scheduling conflicts.”
The 61-year-old refused to attend Trump’s second inauguration inside the Capitol on Jan. 20.
She later claimed, part of the reason for not flying to Washington, DC, for the festivities was that she didn’t have the correct wardrobe.
“It started with not having anything to wear,” Obama said in an April episode of her podcast, “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson.”
“I mean, I had affirmatively, cause I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything,” Obama added. “I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off. So I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I got to tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say, let me do the right thing.”
President Obama attended the indoor ceremony by himself.
He has been outspoken on Trump’s policies, making rare public remarks, including after the commander in chief shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,” Obama said in a video that was shown to departing USAID employees on June 30. “Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.”
