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"I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it," Obama told his former senior adviser David Axelrod in an interview for the "The Axe Files" podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.

"I know that in conversations that I've had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one," Obama said in the interview, which aired Monday.

"In the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that somehow, it really was a fantasy," Obama said of the hope-and-change vision he heralded in 2008. "What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism."

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton won a majority of the vote in the 2016 contest. Clinton beat Trump in the popular vote by almost 2.9 million ballots, though Trump won more electoral votes and thus the presidency.

In the 50-minute session, Obama repeated his suggestion Democrats had ignored entire segments of the voting population, leading to Donald Trump's win. He implied that Hillary Clinton's campaign hadn't made a vocal enough argument directed toward Americans who haven't felt the benefits of the economic recovery.

"If you think you're winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer," he said, adding later he believed Clinton "performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances" and was mistreated by the media.

Trump on Monday afternoon responded to the President's assertion that he could have won a third term. Though the President-elect framed Obama's comments as describing a head-to-head matchup between the pair, which Obama did not say in his interview with Axelrod.

"President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! - jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.," Trump tweeted.

Trump hit Obama again on Tuesday, tweeting, "President Obama campaigned hard (and personally) in the very important swing states, and lost. The voters wanted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Trump and Obama have largely steered clear of direct criticism of each other since the election. They met in the White House two days after Election Day and according to both parties, have talked by phone several times since.

The podcast interview was Obama's latest post-election analysis, which has focused on Democrats' failure to convince non-urban voters and a media preoccupied with negative stories about Clinton. Obama said his party this year hadn't made an emotional connection to voters in hard-hit communities, relying instead on policy points he said didn't make enough of an impact.

"We're not there on the ground communicating not only the dry policy aspects of this, but that we care about these communities, that we're bleeding for these communities," he said. "It means caring about local races, state boards or school boards and city councils and state legislative races and not thinking that somehow, just a great set of progressive policies that we present to the New York Times editorial board will win the day."

Obama cited an unlikely model for future Democratic success: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he said had executed an effective -- if obstructionist -- strategy.

"Mitch McConnell's insight, just from a pure tactical perspective, was pretty smart and well executed, the degree of discipline that he was able to impose on his caucus was impressive. His insight was that we just have to say no to that," Obama said.

He said part of his post-presidential strategy would be developing young Democratic leaders -- including organizers, journalists and politicians -- who could galvanize voters behind a progressive agenda. He won't hesitate to weigh in on important political debates after he leaves office, he told Axelrod.

Following a period of introspection after he departs the White House, Obama said he would feel a responsibility as a citizen to voice his opinions on major issues gripping the country during Trump's administration though he would not necessarily weigh in on day-to-day activities.

"At a certain point, you make room for new voices and fresh legs," Obama said.

"That doesn't mean that if a year from now, or a year-and-a-half from now, or two years from now, there is an issue of such moment, such import, that isn't just a debate about a particular tax bill or, you know, a particular policy, but goes to some foundational issues about our democracy that I might not weigh in," Obama went on. "You know, I'm still a citizen and that carries with it duties and obligations."

Obama's first acts out of office, however, will be lower-profile. He said he'll focus on writing a book and self-analyzing his time in office. Obama and his family plan to live in Washington while his younger daughter finishes high school.

"I have to be quiet for a while. And I don't mean politically, I mean internally. I have to still myself," he said. "You have to get back in tune with your center and process what's happened before you make a bunch of good decisions."

As he concludes his term, Obama is growing sentimental about his time at the White House. He said he grew misty in a meeting of senior aides recently thinking about the end of the Obama era.

"I got through about four minutes of the thing and then started, you know, getting the hanky out," Obama said. "It feels like the band is breaking up a little bit."

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Obama's exit interview: I could've won again - CNNPolitics.com

President Obama said in an interview released Monday that he could have beaten Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump if I had run again. In his most pointed critique yet, Obama said Hillary Clinton's campaign acted too cautiously out of a mistaken belief that victory was all but certain.

If you think you're winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer, Obama said in the interview with former adviser and longtime friend David Axelrod, a CNN analyst, for his The Axe Files podcast. The president said Clinton understandably ... looked and said, well, given my opponent and the things he's saying and what he's doing, we should focus on that.

Trump took exception to this critique, tweeting out later in the day that President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.

Obama stressed his admiration for Clinton and said she had been the victim of unfair attacks. But, as he has in other exit interviews, Obamainsisted that her defeat was not a rejection of the eight years of his presidency. To the contrary, he argued that he had put together a winning coalition that stretched across the country but that the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign had failed to follow through on it.

I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I if I had run again and articulated it I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it, the president said.

See, I think the issue was less that Democrats have somehow abandoned the white working class, I think that's nonsense, Obama said. Look, the Affordable Care Act benefits a huge number of Trump voters. There are a lot of folks in places like West Virginia or Kentucky who didn't vote for Hillary, didn't vote for me, but are being helped by this ... The problem is, is that we're not there on the ground communicating not only the dry policy aspects of this, but that we care about these communities, that we're bleeding for these communities.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said via email that the campaign declined to comment.

Axelrod, in an interview with The Washington Post, said he believed Obama went further than he had before in critiquing Clinton's campaign.

This was all in service of making the point that he believes that his progressive vision and the vision he ran on is still a majority view in this country, Axelrod said. He chooses to be hopeful about the future.

[Michelle Obama gave a somber exit interview to Oprah Winfrey]

Obama could not have run again; the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution states that No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Still, Obamas suggestion that he could have won if he ran stoked debate Monday among political observers.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican who has been an adviser to Trump, said in an interview that Obama doesnt know and neither does anyone else. Obama would have increased the turnout in the African American community, but he also might have increased the repudiation of him among those who felt they were betrayed.

All of the lies he told about Obamacare, keeping your doctor ... would have come back to haunt him. It would have been a totally different race.

Steve Hildebrand, a Democrat who oversaw Obamas 2008 campaign in battleground states, said the president had an ability to communicate with lower-income workers that Clinton lacked. He said he sent the Clinton campaign 15 emails in which he said he told them you are not communicating with lower-income workers, you are not connecting with them.

In the podcast interview, Axelrod did not press Obama on many of the most controversial parts of his presidency, such as not taking action to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Syria. The president, who has done relatively few interviews with mainstream media organizations, repeated his long-stated complaint that the media has filtered his message and that he is subject to unfair criticism by outlets such as Fox News.

Obama also blamed some of his problems during his presidency on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime adversary who famously said in 2010: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. McConnell failed in that goal, but Obama said the senator was successful in blocking many of his initiatives and setting the groundwork for Trumps victory.

McConnells strategy from a tactical perspective was pretty smart and well executed, the president said. The Republican leader found ways to just throw sand in the gears in a manner that fed into peoples beliefs that things were going badly. Obama said that, as a result, Republicans blocked action that could have helped more people recover from the Great Recession. The strategy, Obama maintained, was that if we just say no, then that will puncture the balloon, that all this talk about hope and change and no red state and blue state is is proven to be a mirage, a fantasy. And if we can if we can puncture that vision, then we have a chance to win back seats in the House.

A McConnell spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Obama stressed that he doesn't plan to get involved in day-to-day responses to a Trump presidency, just as former president George W. Bush has remained mostly on the sidelines during the Obama years. But Obama made it clear that he will be more of an activist in the long run. He said he plans to help mobilize and train a younger generation of Democratic leaders and will speak out if his core beliefs are challenged. He also said he is working on writing a book.

At a news conference at the White House, Dec. 16, President Obama shared his advice to Democrats following their defeat in the 2016 election. (Reuters)

His post-presidential long-term interest, Obama said, is to build that next generation of leadership; organizers, journalists, politicians. I see them in America, I see them around the world 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds who are just full of talent, full of idealism. And the question is how do we link them up? How do we give them the tools for them to bring about progressive change? And I want to use my presidential center as a mechanism for developing that next generation of talent. He said he didn't want to be someone who's just hanging around reliving old glories.

Obama in the interview also reflected on his years at college, particularly Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1983. He said he was rereading old journals and letters to girls that he was courting, and found them unreadable. He found himself to be wildly pretentious, recalling how he begged off going to parties so he could read the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The women on campus found him too intense, he said.

Looking back, said the president of the United States, I shouldve tried, like, you know, Wanna go to a movie?

Excerpt from:
President Obama says he could have beaten Trump Trump says ...

The Obama administration is close to announcing a series of measures to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election, including economic sanctions and diplomatic censure, according to U.S. officials.

The administration is finalizing the details, which also are expected to include covert action that will probably involve cyber-operations, the officials said. An announcement on the public elements of the response could come as early as this week.

The sanctions portion of the package culminates weeks of debate in the White House on how to revise a 2015 executive order that was meant to give the president authority to respond to cyberattacks from overseas but that did not cover efforts to influence the electoral system.

The Obama administration rolled the executive order out to great fanfare as a way to punish and deter foreign hackers who harm U.S. economic or national security.

The threat to use it last year helped wring a pledge out of Chinas president that his country would cease hacking U.S. companies secrets to benefit Chinese firms.

(Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

[Treasury, Justice officials pushed for economic sanctions on China over cybertheft]

But officials concluded this fall that the order could not, as written, be used to punish the most significant cyber-provocation in recent memory against the United States Russias hacking of Democratic organizations, targeting of state election systems and meddling in the presidential election.

With the clock ticking, the White House is working on adapting the authority to punish the Russians, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. President Obama pledged this month that there would be a response to Moscows interference in the U.S. elections.

Russia had denied involvement in the hacking.

One clear way to use the order against the Russian suspects would be to declare the electoral systems part of the critical infrastructure of the United States. Or the order could be amended to clearly apply to the new threat interfering in elections.

Administration officials would also like to make it difficult for President-elect Donald Trump to roll back any action they take.

Part of the goal here is to make sure that we have as much of the record public or communicated to Congress in a form that would be difficult to simply walk back, said one senior administration official.

Obama issued the executive order in April 2015, creating the sanctions tool as a way to hold accountable people who harm computer systems related to critical functions such as electricity generation or transportation, or who gain a competitive advantage through the cybertheft of commercial secrets.

The order allows the government to freeze the assets in the United States of people overseas who have engaged in cyber-acts that have threatened U.S. national security or financial stability. The sanctions would also block commercial transactions with the designated individuals and bar their entry into the country.

But just a year later, a Russian military spy agency would hack into the Democratic National Committee and steal a trove of emails that were released a few months later on WikiLeaks, U.S. officials said. Other releases followed, including the hacked emails of Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta.

Fundamentally, it was a low-tech, high-impact event, said Zachary Goldman, a sanctions and national security expert at New York University School of Law. And the 2015 executive order was not crafted to target hackers who steal emails and dump them on WikiLeaks or seek to disrupt an election. It was an authority published at a particular time to address a particular set of problems, he said.

So officials need to engage in some legal acrobatics to fit the DNC hack into an existing authority, or they need to write a new authority, Goldman said.

Administration officials would like Obama to use the power before leaving office to demonstrate its utility.

When the president came into office, he didnt have that many tools out there to use as a response to malicious cyber-acts, said Ari Schwartz, a former senior director for cybersecurity on the National Security Council. Having the sanctions tool is really a big one. It can make a very strong statement in a way that is less drastic than bombing a country and more impactful than sending out a cable from the State Department.

The National Security Council concluded that it would not be able to use the authority against Russian hackers because their malicious activity did not clearly fit under its terms, which require harm to critical infrastructure or the theft of commercial secrets.

You would (a) have to be able to say that the actual electoral infrastructure, such as state databases, was critical infrastructure, and (b) that what the Russians did actually harmed it, said the administration official. Those are two high bars.

Although Russian government hackers are believed to have penetrated at least one state voter-registration database, they did not tamper with the data, officials said.

Some analysts believe that state election systems would fit under government facilities, which is one of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors designated by the Department of Homeland Security.

Another option is to use the executive order against other Russian targets say, hackers who stole commercial secrets and then, in either a public message or a private one, make clear that the United States considers its electoral systems to be critical infrastructure.

The idea is not only to punish but also to deter.

As much as I am concerned about what happened to us in the election, I am also concerned about what will happen to us in the future, a second administration official said. I am firmly convinced that the Russians and others will say, That worked pretty well in 2016, so lets keep going. We have elections every two years in this country.

Even the threat of sanctions can have deterrent value. Officials and experts point to Chinese President Xi Jinpings agreement with Obama last year that his country would stop commercial cyberspying. Xi came to the table after news reports that summer that the administration was preparing to sanction Chinese companies.

Complicating matters, the Trump transition team has not yet had extensive briefings with the White House on cybersecurity issues, including the potential use of the cyber sanctions order. The slow pace has caused consternation among officials, who fear that the administrations accomplishments in cybersecurity could languish if the next administration fails to understand their value.

[Trump turning away intelligence briefers since election win]

Sanctions are not a silver bullet. Obama noted that we already have enormous numbers of sanctions against the Russians for their activities in Ukraine. So it is questionable, some experts say, whether adding new ones would have a meaningful effect in changing the Kremlins behavior. But in combination with other measures, they could be effective.

Criminal indictments of Russians might become an option, officials said, but the FBI has so far not gathered enough evidence that could be introduced in a criminal case. At one point, federal prosecutors and FBI agents in San Francisco considered indicting Guccifer 2.0, a nickname for a person or people believed to be affiliated with the Russian influence operation and whose true identity was unknown.

Before the election, the administration used diplomatic channels to warn Russia. Obama spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Group of 20 summit in China in September. About a week before the election, the United States sent a hotline-style message to Moscow using a special channel for crisis communication created in 2013 as part of the State Departments Nuclear Risk Reduction Center. As part of that message, the officials said, the administration asked Russia to stop targeting state voter registration and election systems. It was the first use of that system. The Russians, officials said, appeared to comply.

Read more:

Heres what you need to know about Russias election hacking

Obama says we will retaliate against Russia for election hacking

Moscow has the worlds attention. For Putin, thats a win.

Excerpt from:
Obama administration is close to announcing measures to ...

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The Obamas share a moment on a freight elevator as they head to one of the inaugural balls on January 20, 2009. "It was quite chilly, so the President removed his tuxedo jacket and put it over the shoulders of his wife," White House photographer Pete Souza said. "Then they had a semi-private moment as staff members and Secret Service agents tried not to look."

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama wears 3-D glasses during a Super Bowl viewing at the White House on February 1, 2009.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama speaks with aides in the White House Oval Office on February 4, 2009. From left are Senior Advisor Pete Rouse, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

A boy touches Obama's hair in the Oval Office on May 8, 2009. "A temporary White House staffer, Carlton Philadelphia, brought his family to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama," White House photographer Pete Souza said. "Carlton's son softly told the President he had just gotten a haircut like President Obama, and asked if he could feel the President's head to see if it felt the same as his."

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The President returns to the Oval Office after going on a hamburger run for West Wing staffers and aides on May 29, 2009.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama closes his eyes before taping his weekly radio address at the White House on June 2, 2009.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama places a flower at the Buchenwald Memorial as he visits the former concentration camp in Germany on June 5, 2009.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama stands on stage before delivering remarks to service members in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 26, 2009. "Of all the privileges I have as President, I have no greater honor than serving as your commander in chief," Obama said in his speech.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama salutes during the dignified transfer of Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin on October 29, 2009. The President traveled to an Air Force base in Dover, Delaware, to meet a plane carrying the bodies of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The President fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on December 3, 2009.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The President talks on a cell phone as he steps off Marine One in Baltimore on January 29, 2010.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama plays with his daughters in the White House Rose Garden during a snowstorm on February 6, 2010.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama calls a member of Congress to discuss health care reform on March 19, 2010. A bill passed the Senate in December 2009, but there were intense negotiations before it could pass the House. The bill passed 219-212 after more than a year of bitter partisan debate. All 178 Republicans opposed it, along with 34 Democrats.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama takes the stage on a rainy day outside of Chicago on May 31, 2010. He was scheduled to give a Memorial Day speech. "When the lightning began, the Secret Service told the President that it was too dangerous to proceed," White House photographer Pete Souza said. "He took the stage by himself and informed the audience that his speech was canceled and that for everyone's safety, they should return to their buses. Later, he boarded a few of the buses to thank them for attending and apologized for not being able to speak."

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama takes questions at the G-20 Summit in Toronto on June 27, 2010. "We came to Toronto with three specific goals: to make sure the global (economic) recovery is strong and durable; to continue reforming the financial system; and to address the range of global issues that affect our prosperity and security. And we made progress in each of these areas," Obama said.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The President puts his toe on a scale as White House travel director Marvin Nicholson tries to weigh himself in Austin, Texas, on August 8, 2010.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama shoots baskets before speaking at Cleveland State University on October 31, 2010.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama prays in the Oval Office with co-chairs of the National Prayer Breakfast on January 27, 2011. From left are U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, U.S. Rep. Tom Coburn, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, Obama, former Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The first family tours the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro on March 19, 2011. Obama visited Brazil, Chile and El Salvador during his trip to Latin America.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron play table tennis with students in London on May 24, 2011.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama talks backstage with Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett before a reception in Philadelphia on June 30, 2011.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama does pushups on the White House basketball court after a member of the Harlem Globetrotters made a shot on April 9, 2012.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

During an event on April 18, 2012, Obama looks out of the famous Rosa Parks bus that was restored by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. "I just sat in there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history but is also part of that long line of folks who sometimes are nameless, oftentimes didn't make the history books, but who constantly insisted on their dignity, their share of the American dream," the President said.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama congratulates cadets as they receive their diplomas from the U.S. Air Force Academy on May 23, 2012.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

The Obamas take in the Chicago skyline on June 15, 2012. The Obamas lived in Chicago before he was President, and they still own a home there.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he interacts with Nicholas Tamarin, 3, just outside the Oval Office on October 26, 2012. Nicholas, son of White House aide Nate Tamarin, had been out trick-or-treating. "The President told me that this was his favorite picture of the year when he saw it hanging in the West Wing a couple of weeks later," White House photographer Pete Souza said.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama takes the oath of office during his swearing-in ceremony on January 21, 2013. He is the 17th President to win a second term.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama kisses his wife during the inaugural parade in Washington. Sasha, left, takes a photo of her sister, Malia.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama and four former U.S. Presidents attend the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Museum on April 25, 2013. From left are Obama, Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama looks to see if it's still raining at a White House news conference on May 16, 2013.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama takes a photo with a sleeping boy at the White House during a Father's Day ice cream social on June 14, 2013.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Bo, one of the Obamas' dogs, hangs out in the Outer Oval Office as the President begins his day on November 6, 2013. "Each morning, the President always enters through this door rather than the direct outside door to the Oval Office," White House photographer Pete Souza said.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama tosses a football in the Oval Office on January 6, 2014.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama greets locals in Phoenix after touring a model home of a nonprofit's housing development on January 8, 2014.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama works on his computer aboard Air Force One on February 19, 2014.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Aides laugh as the President swats a fly in the Oval Office on May 6, 2014.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama slides across a counter to pose with staff members at a Shake Shack restaurant in Washington on May 16, 2014. Vice President Joe Biden, lower right, also did the same. "The President normally does a group photo with restaurant staff when he stops for lunch or dinner," White House Photographer Pete Souza said.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

100 moments from Obama's presidency

Obama tries out a driving simulator July 15, 2014, as he tours the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia. The simulator was meant to demonstrate the types of "smart" vehicles being developed at the center.

100 moments from Obama's presidency

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Obama explains why his mom's parenting style worked ...

Donald Trump cant decide whether he thinks the transition of power is going well or not.

But he knows he doesnt like how much attention Barack Obama is getting and is also bothered by what Trump and his closest advisers see as an active effort to poke the president-elect and undermine the incoming administration with last-minute policy changes on his way out of office, according to two people close to the transition.

Story Continued Below

And the relationship is likely to get worse in the three weeks until the inauguration: Obama is scheduled to give a farewell address Jan. 10 that is expected to be a recounting of his successes and an inherent contrast with Trump and the administration is rushing to make public a report on Russian hacking during the election that intelligence officials say was done to help Trump, though the president-elect has disputed that entirely.

The president-elects latest Twitter attack on Wednesday morning Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT! was followed, true to Trump form, six hours later by Trump telling reporters who asked whether the transition was going smoothly, Oh, I think very, very smoothly. Very good. You don't think so?"

In between, Trump had a phone call with Obama. The word of the day was smooth, with White House spokesman Eric Schultz saying that this conversation, like the others since the election, was positive and focused on continuing a smooth and effective transition.

Wednesday night, in response to a question from a reporter, Trump went even further to move past the situation.

"Our staffs have been getting along very well, and I'm getting along very well with him," he said, "other than a couple of statements that I responded to and we talked about it and smiled about it and nobody is ever going to know because we are never going to be going against each other."

Behind the theater is bubbling frustration for many involved.

Trump leapt right into the middle of what has been Obamas most troubled relationship with a foreign leader, eagerly taking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus side against the administrations abstention from a United Nations vote condemning the construction of Israeli settlements.

Trump also has been irked, according to transition officials, by other recent moves by the outgoing president. Obamas decisions to permanently ban oil and gas drilling in portions of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, to eliminate dormant regulations requiring males from certain largely-Muslim countries to register with immigration authorities, and to issue pardons and commutations have also raised eyebrows around the president-elect.

The spite is being churned by an Israeli prime minister who has long proved to be one of the most adept players of American politics and who leapt on Twitter himself Wednesday, pre-butting Secretary of State John Kerrys speech criticizing his government with a thank you message to Trump for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support.

Trump is frustrated by the president's public comments" on the Russian hacking and "the whole Israel situation," according to one person who has spoken to the president-elect, referring to the ongoing drama around last weeks U.N. vote. Trump aides and Obama administration officials talked little in the run-up to the vote, leading to a sharp and public divergence between the current administration and the transition on foreign policy, unlike anything in modern American history.

Most of all, though, Trump is frustrated with how Obama has poked him, by claiming in a podcast interview with former adviser David Axelrod that he could have beaten Trump had he been eligible to run again. (The president made that claim as part of an insistence that his kind of positive, hopeful campaign would have resonated with Americans, despite what Trump successfully tapped into.)

Trump was also irritated by Obamas comments at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday afternoon in which he said, even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward. We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different. These felt to Trump like direct criticism of the president-elect, according to two people close to Trump.

Obama administration aides deny that the president was talking about Trump. And the White House is pointedly not responding to Trumps tweets.

A senior administration official said Trump is wrong if he thinks Obamas aim is to disrupt the transition by highlighting Russias role in the campaign, ordering the abstention on the Security Council vote on the Israel resolution and laying out his more globalist worldview as part of a speech at Pearl Harbor that was meant to address the right-wing nationalism going on all over the world.

That is not evidence of a flawed transition, the official said Wednesday afternoon. That is evidence that we have starkly different opinions.

Though Obama and Trump spent an hour and a half together in the Oval Office two days after the election the first time they had ever actually met and continue to talk on the phone, no one is under the impression that theyve become friends, or actually like each other.

Nonetheless, neither Obama nor Trump aides appear to know what the president-elect means by roadblocks.

Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough has been in regular touch with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, Earnest has been talking with incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer, outgoing and incoming national security advisers Susan Rice and Michael Flynn have continued to be engaged, and other senior aides throughout the White House have been in touch with their transition counterparts, both White House and transition aides confirm.

A Trump transition aide described the relationship as friendly, with lots of logistical help through top-level meetings and phone calls.

Obama White House aides make the case that despite their differences, they have been focused on getting the new administration up to speed, which makes the president-elects comments over the smoothness of the transition more confounding.

The White House team is also frustrated with Trumps policy statements not just over what he did in regard to Israel, but by his hosting of a meeting with the Japanese prime minister in November, speaking by phone with the Taiwanese president despite the objections of China and beginning to map out a new framework of a relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Not only were these arranged without first informing the current administration, but theyve created a level of confusion about American policy appearing to be driven by two different leaders at once.

Still, asked Wednesday during the daily transition-briefing call whether Trump and Obama will continue to speak regularly in the run-up to the inauguration, despite the president-elects recent barrage, Spicer said he expects them to, and that those conversations are part of a transition that sounded notably smooth in his telling.

As the inauguration gets closer, both the current president and his team have been very helpful and generous with their time as far as the actual transition, the mechanics of the transition, have gone, and I expect them to continue to speak fairly regularly, Spicer said.

The transition aide did cite some tension within the agencies without getting into specifics, citing incoming Cabinet secretaries whove been complaining that the outgoing teams are not being helpful, despite Obamas direction from the West Wing.

Not everyones been keeping quiet about dismay with Trump. Obamas Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julin Castro has been firing off his own attacks on Twitter, writing from his personal account, So Trumpthe shadiest, most corrupt guy to take the Oval Office, will have no strong federal checks and balances. Has to change #2018, and Trump is so corrupt that if Democrats controlled even one chamber of Congress, hed be done before he even started. #2018.

Castro is seen as a potential 2018 challenger to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

None of that, however, has likely been raised with the president-elect himself, according to people familiar with the transition.

In the meantime, Trump continues to tweet about how much hes going to upend Obama, writing: We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!

Norm Eisen, the former ethics czar for the Obama White House and a member of Obamas 2008 transition team, put the blame on Trump, whom he said seemed to be reacting in part to the new sanctions that the administration is aiming at Russia in response to the hack.

The Obama team has bent over backward to be accommodating, exceeding even the high standard set by Bush 43 in 08, Eisen wrote in an email. Trump, he added, is creating friction by forgetting the first principle of transitions: there is only one president at a time.

Andrew Restuccia contributed to this report.

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What's really bugging Trump about Obama - Politico