Josh Earnest, Barack Obama's former press secretary, has described the sombre mood in the White House following Donald Trump's 2016 election victory. Speaking at the 2025 National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference in Chicago, Earnest said the realisation that the administration would have to hand over power to Trump was the hardest day of his tenure.
Earnest said the Obama team had spent the campaign warning of the dangers of a Trump presidency, including intelligence assessments that Russia had interfered in the race. After the election, they faced the difficult task of defending those assessments while committing to a peaceful transfer of power. 'It was a tough message,' he said, recalling questions about whether Obama had meant his warnings.
Many communications staff were visibly demoralised, and Earnest convened them to discuss the result. During that conversation, Obama summoned Earnest to discuss a nationally televised speech. When Earnest told the president the staff were 'emotional', Obama asked them into the Oval Office, where he stood with Vice-President Joe Biden and delivered an early version of the speech he later gave in the Rose Garden.
Among the lines Obama shared was: 'We have to remember that we're actually all on one team. We are Americans first. We're patriots first.' Earnest noted that White House photographer Pete Souza captured the moment, and that many staff had never been inside the Oval Office before. 'It was very poignant,' he said.
Trump later criticised Earnest, calling him a 'foolish guy' at a December 2016 rally. Earnest, who now works for United Airlines in Chicago, said he briefly worked as a media pundit after leaving the White House but found it unfulfilling because it involved simply agreeing that Trump's actions were outrageous.
