QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: Barack Obama at the O2 review — If he doesn’t have the answers, who does?

The rock star president came out on the O2 stage to a rock star welcome. There was a standing ovation, a 14,000-strong wall of smartphones and, eventually, a “Hello London”, which London truly loved.

Once upon a time, Obama’s fans lined up in their hundreds of thousands, in Grant Park, Chicago, or all the way down the Tiergarten in Berlin, for a sprinkling of the most glittering political stardust around.

Is it possible that one of the world’s many problems is that these days it costs you anywhere from £86 all the way up to £1,799 for the privilege of being near him? That very highest price, by the way, gets you a signed photo with the 44th president of the United States, plus an unlimited drinks package.

No one looked quite as pleased to be near him as his host for the evening, David Olusoga, but who can blame him? He was so thrilled that for extremely long periods of time he appeared to forget he was meant to say anything at all.

Dare one say that, over more than an hour’s genteel conversation, Obama’s analysis of a world he didn’t change as much as we all thought he might was rather simplistic?

Yes, one may most assuredly dare say that, old chap!

Before Obama’s presideny. The following didnt exist.

There was no ISIS.

There was no caliphate.

There was no Black Lives Matter.

There was no Antifa.

There was no war on police.

All of that chaos started under his watch. He didn’t stop it, he started it. Obama is the real… pic.twitter.com/ay28VbElMV

— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) September 25, 2025