WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump had what appeared to be a warm conversation Thursday ahead of former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, but a professional lip reader told The Post their smiles and laughter belied more serious substance.
Trump, 78, possibly wary of cameras facing the pair as they sat shoulder to shoulder, cautioned Obama, 63, that they would have to “find a quiet place” later in the day to discuss a “matter of importance,” according to forensic lip reader Jeremy Freeman.
It’s unclear what precisely that conversation would entail, but Freeman’s translation indicated that Obama and Trump may have been discussing international agreements.
At one point, Trump leaned toward Obama and said, “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.
Obama laughed as Trump added, “and after, I will,” before the pooled TV camera feed cut away from the men, who were bracketed by former first lady Laura Bush and Trump’s wife Melania.
“Call me at the foy after, yep,” Trump replied to Obama during their exchange, possibly referring to the National Cathedral’s foyer.
Obama then said, “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.
The lip reader also interpreted Obama as saying “listen to me, it’s a chore, a chore” — though the context didn’t make clear what he was referencing — and Trump replying, “Yeah, right. I can’t think of anything that’s a chore.”
Spokespeople for Obama and Trump did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Freeman, who is based in London, was born deaf and for 16 years has served as a University College London-certified expert witness for litigants, the police and journalists.
Trump and Obama have had tense relations for more than a decade, resulting in widespread surprise at their seemingly cordial interaction.
The 45th president was a leading figure in the “birther” movement questioning whether the 44th president secretly was born in Kenya. The rumors led to Obama releasing the long-form version of his Hawaiian birth certificate in 2011.
After the 2016 election, Trump accused Obama of ordering the feds to “spy” on his campaign over alleged ties to Russia.
He typically uses Obama’s full legal name and emphasizes the middle name, Hussein.
Obama, meanwhile, stunned viewers by appearing to make a lewd joke about his successor’s manhood by mocking his “weird obsession with crowd sizes” while holding his hands about four inches apart at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The first black president also mocked Trump in October for delivering lengthy speeches “like Fidel Castro — just on and on” and his “constant attempts to sell you stuff,” such as golden sneakers and Trump-branded Bibles.
