How can Obama smile at a time like this? I think he knows something | Jonathan Jones

What sticks in the craw with this photo isn’t the knowledge that Richard Branson is just out of shot, it’s the elated grin. Perhaps Obama is relaxed about Trump

Does Barack Obama know something we don’t? While much of the world has eyes wide in horror at his successor, the man who was until recently president of the United States looks like he hasn’t a care in the world. If he is worried about Donald Trump dismantling his legacy, reversing his values and setting history alight, he has certainly forgotten those cares for sea, sun and mirrored shades as he radiates a happiness bordering on ecstasy in this holiday photograph.

While staying with Richard Branson recently in the British Virgin Islands, Obama learned to kitesurf, and the thrill of rediscovering his beloved watersports after eight years when he was kept out of the waves for security reasons glows in his face and relaxed body language. Yet for anyone who has woken up in the early hours worried and scared by Trump, this gleeful display of sheer satisfaction with life may seem a bit rich. Good vibrations are all very well but what about the future of the world?

Yet everything we know about Obama suggests he is far too good a person to simply surf while America burns

Related: Obama and Branson kitesurfing trip branded huge publicity stunt

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