Barack Obama just used Stephen Colbert's couch to attack Donald Trump while hawking his presidential center.
Bill O'Reilly spotted the bigger game behind the former President's maneuvering.
And what Obama is actually plotting will leave every 2028 Democrat looking over their shoulder.
Obama Is Already Picking the 2028 Democrat Presidential Nominee
Bill O'Reilly went on Newsmax and laid out what was going on with Barack Obama.
Obama isn't running a "full-fledged jihad against Trump" – and he's doing it on purpose.
The strategy is something else entirely.
"I think Barack Obama has got a purpose in mind here other than sniping," O'Reilly said. "I think he wants to be the kingmaker in 2028."
Every governor quietly pitching donors, every senator testing the waters – all of them are going to need one man's blessing before this is over.
And that man is Barack Obama.
O'Reilly was unequivocal on Obama's standing: "Oh, yeah. There's nobody close to him," adding that "behind the scenes, he's going to be deeply involved in who the nominee is in '28."
How Obama Destroyed the Democrat Party and Still Controls It
Here's the part Democrats don't want to talk about.
When Obama left the White House in January 2017, his party was in ruins.
The Senate caucus had been cut from 60 seats to 46. The House lost nearly 70 members. Nine governorships and 14 state legislatures flipped out of Democrat hands during his two terms – a record-setting collapse that no amount of Obama nostalgia can paper over.
His own DNC was so deeply in debt that Donna Brazile later wrote a book describing it as functionally bankrupt.
But the rank and file adored him anyway – and by 2020, two dozen Democrats were falling over each other to claim his legacy, even as his former staffers steered the Biden campaign into the same coastal dead zone that already cost the party the working class.
David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign architect, ran point on Harris's 2024 strategy.
Harris lost to Trump by millions of votes, got crushed in every battleground state, and was reportedly blindsided on election night – asking staffers whether they were certain of the results and whether a recount was possible.
DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge had a verdict for Plouffe and the Obama alumni class: "The old Obama playbook no longer works."
Obama Kingmaker Strategy Has Every 2028 Democrat Running Scared
Obama watched his party get wiped out in 2024 and knows he has to get involved – and O'Reilly's read is that he's positioning himself to drag it back toward the center before 2028.
"He understands that his party has succumbed to radical progressive pressure, and he doesn't see that as a winner," O'Reilly said. "So he's trying to impose – in a way – his authority."
That's a telling phrase: impose his authority.
Not offer guidance. Not make suggestions. Impose.
O'Reilly also made clear that Obama's first order of business is closing the door on Kamala Harris before she can drag the party into another disaster.
"I don't think Mr. Obama respects the campaign that … Harris ran," he said. "Harris' campaign was one of the worst in history."
The 2028 Democrat field will be enormous – Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, AOC, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and a dozen more names circulating in every direction.
Every one of them needs money, institutional support, and endorsements from the right people at the right moment.
Obama controls all three levers – and he didn't build that position by accident.
Obama won in 2008 and 2012. He watched his party lose the White House in 2016 and again in 2024 – both times with his fingerprints all over the strategy. He still commands more loyalty inside the Democrat Party than anyone else alive.
The 2028 primary hasn't started yet.
But Obama's already running it.
Sources:
- Newsmax Wires, "Bill O'Reilly to Newsmax: Obama Wants to Be 2028 'Kingmaker' for Dems," Newsmax, May 5, 2026.
- Natasha Korecki and Jonathan Allen, "Obama World Loses Its Shine in a Changing, Hurting Democratic Party," NBC News, May 28, 2025.
- Julia R. Azari and Seth Masket, "Obama's Party? An Examination of Whether a Reluctant Party Leader Transformed the Democratic Party in his Favor," Marquette University Political Science Faculty Research, 2022.