Barack Obama opens up on decision to speak out against Trump after leaving the Oval Office

Barack Obama has explained why he decided to speak out about Donald Trump and his administration after leaving the White House following his second term in 2017.

The 44th POTUS had planned to fall into the shadows after his presidency came to an end, but he has been a vocal critic of Trump in his first term, as well as his second in the Oval Office.

While Obama was relatively quiet after Trump's first inauguration in January 2017, he called out the Republican president for how he handled the Covid-19 pandemic, and has been full throttle on his criticism during the second term.

The former president seemingly has no plans to return to politics, though he revealed recently how he thought he had no choice but to return due to a lack of leading figures in the Democratic party that could challenge Trump on a range of issues.

Obama has been hugely critical of Trump in recent months (Ricky Carioti - Pool/Getty Images)

Speaking to Marc Maron on the WTF Podcast, Obama said: "I actually found myself drawn back in to day-to-day politics or commentary more than I wanted to.

"There were a lot of terrific people who were doing good work, but, you know, we have this weird situation where you don’t have a designated person who’s speaking on behalf of the whole party."

Obama continued: "I thought I was going to be able to remove myself more from being out there in public and was going to be able to concentrate on what I really wanted to do, which was coach the next generation of leadership, [but] I kept on being asked to comment on news of the day.

The 64-year-old originally planned to go into the shadows (Melina Mara - Pool/Getty Images)

"That’s flattering and it’s an indication you’ve made a connection with people, but I tried to be a little bit disciplined about recognising I had to move onto a new phase."

Most recently, Obama has been critical of Trump's handling of the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination.

Kirk was killed while speaking at an event organized by his company, Turning Point USA, at Utah Valley University on September 10.

Speaking at an event in Pennsylvania shortly after, Obama admitted the US faces a 'political crisis' after the assassination of Kirk.

According to a transcript released via CNN, the former president added: "Look, obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk. I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong, but that doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family."