Although the president has said his family will stay in our nation’s capital after he finishes his term in office, he seems done with the whole D.C. scene.
During a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday, Obama told DeGeneres, that “Washington can be a little depressing.” This was not his first negative comment about his adopted city at-large.
Last time Obama appeared on DeGeneres’s show—via satellite in 2014—he gave a similar review of D.C. “I have to tell ya, life in Washington is a little more boring than displayed on the screen,” he said. “If you followed me, most of my day is sitting in a room listening to a bunch of folks in gray suits talking about a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn’t make very good television.”
While appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in March 2009, only months after moving to the District, the president compared the city to everyone’s least favorite reality show. “In Washington, it’s a little bit like American Idol except everyone is Simon Cowell,” he said. “Everybody’s got an opinion.”
Obama will be in California for the next few days, where he’ll spend part of his time playing golf in Palm Springs. Enjoy it while you can, Mr. President.