At the Democratic National Convention, which will take place in Chicago in August, former President Barack Obama will represent the state of Illinois as a delegate.

There are 147 delegates from Illinois who will be supporting President Joe Biden. The current president's former running mate will be one of them, according to a report by POLITICO.

In other political news, former President Obama criticized former President Trump in a new podcast for not being considered a "serious guy" in New York City. Trump spent the most of his time in New York City before he became president, establishing his celebrity and enterprises.

Questions About Trump

A question was posed to President Obama by co-host Jason Bateman on the podcast titled "SmartLess" on whether or not he was surprised by the rapidity with which the "protection and passion for democracy was diluted" in recent years, as The Hill reported.

The response that Obama provided was that he pointed out that the pattern started during the time that former President Bill Clinton was in the White House and then picked up speed during his presidency.

“I have been surprised that there haven’t been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn’t surprise me,” he said, before taking aim at Trump.

“I mean, he comes from New York. There’s nobody in New York who does business with him or lend him money. He’s not considered a serious guy here,” Obama added.

The Star-Studded Podcast

The most recent installment of the "SmartLess" podcast had an appearance from President Obama, as well as Clinton and President Biden. On March 28th, the podcast was recorded in New York City by the three presidents simultaneously.

Then, Obama went on to explain that he believed a greater number of Republicans would agree that certain aspects of Trump's behavior went too far.

“But, so I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you’d agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can’t go that far.

"You can’t start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies,” he said.

Trump's Legal Woes

At the moment, Donald Trump is embroiled in a number of court challenges, two of which are originating from the state of New York.

The hush money trial, in which he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying company records, is taking place in a courtroom in Manhattan, and he will spend the majority of the next two weeks sitting before a judge and jury.

In recent years, Trump has been vocal in his criticism of New York City, his hometown, despite the fact that it was in this city that he initially established his enterprises and attained his level of renown. In 2019, he relocated his residence from New York to Florida, which he had previously used.