The then-US president weighed in on the Brexit debate in the buildup to the 2016 referendum, warning that the consequences would be negative for the UK. He said the UK would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the US if the country chose to leave the EU. Mr Obama added: “This is a decision for the people of the United Kingdom to make. I’m not coming here to fix any votes. “I’m not casting a vote myself. I am offering my opinion, and in democracies, everybody should want more information, not less, and you shouldn’t be afraid to hear an argument being made.”
But Mr Johnson, then Mayor of London, attracted criticism for his column in the Sun responding to the former US President.
In his article, the Brexiteer said the removal of a bust of Winston Churchill from Mr Obama’s office was seen by some as a sign of an “ancestral dislike of the British Empire”, referring to Mr Obama’s “part-Kenyan” ancestry.
The comments were branded “idiotic” and “deeply offensive” by Mr Churchill’s grandson.
Mr Obama made clear his admiration for Britain’s wartime leader in thinly veiled remarks at a press conference.
He did not mention Mr Johnson by name but said he had a bust of Mr Churchill outside the Treaty Room – his private office on the second floor of his official residence.
The former president said: “Right outside the door of the Treaty Room, so that I see it every day – including on weekends when I’m going into that office to watch a basketball game – the primary image I see is a bust of Winston Churchill.”
In Ben Rhodes’ (speechwriter for Mr Obama) book ‘The World As It Is’, Mr Obama’s bemused initial reaction to Mr Johnson’s article is described.
According to the book, the then President read Mr Johnson’s comments, and said: “Really? The black guy doesn’t like the British?”
Rhodes, the author of the book, said that critics were “more subtle back home”.
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The former UK ambassador to the US said last month: “I hesitate to say this, but there will be some Obama people in a Biden administration and they remember some of the things that the current Prime Minister said about Obama whether as a newspaper columnist or whether it was Mayor of London.
“I promise you there is still some resentment and unhappiness over that. I’m not sure there will be, you know, quite the warm, welcoming embrace from Mr Biden as it would from Mr Trump.
“I think there are some question marks if Mr Biden wins.”
