President Barack Obama meets David Cameron for bi-lateral talks at Downing Street on April 22, 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
President Barack Obama meets David Cameron for bi-lateral talks at Downing Street on April 22, 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
David Cameron thought Barack Obama was one of the 'most narcissistic, self-absorbed people' he had ever dealt with, his former strategy guru has claimed.
While in office the two leaders had a cosy bromance and were pictured high-fiving and playing rounds of golf and ping pong together.
But former strategist to Cameron, Steve Hilton, has torn into Obama for thinking he was "smarter" than everyone else in the room.
And he claimed that his old boss Cameron would get wound up by the ex President's self absorption.
Hilton, who was Cameron's adviser when he entered Downing Street but later parted ways with him and moved to Silicon Valley where his wife, Rachel Whetstone was working first for Google, then Uber, and now Facebook as a communications executive.
Hilton is also hosting a Fox News show on Sundays called The Next Revolution and used it to jump into the aftermath of the publication of the explosive book Fire and Fury, on Donald Trump's time in the White House.
The former Downing Street adviser was highly critical of Obama and said: "My old boss, former British prime minister David Cameron, thought Obama was one of the most narcissistic, self-absorbed people he'd ever dealt with.
"Obama never listened to anyone, always thought he was smarter than every expert in the room, and treated every meeting as an opportunity to lecture everyone else.
"This led to real-world disasters, like Syria and the rise of Isis."
President Barack Obama meets David Cameron for bi-lateral talks at Downing Street on April 22, 2016 in London. Photo / Getty Images
But the claims were immediately slapped down by a spokesman for the former Prime Minister who said they do not reflect his views.
Hilton made the shocking claim as he railed against "elitists" for criticising Donald Trump and claiming he is unfit to hold office.
He said: "For them, it's all about style and tone, not substance and results. Donald Trump offends the elites aesthetically, like a piece of art that's not to their taste.
"They can afford to do that because they live in a world of booming neighbourhoods, delightful hipster eateries and everyone they know employed in the virtual world of the knowledge economy.
"They don't see what's going on in the actual economy. Whatever his mental state, [Trump] has achieved more for working Americans in one year than his predecessors did in eight, or 16, frankly."
The viewpoint pushed by Hilton on Sunday (UK time) is one he has been aggressively putting forward for months.
On Sunday he said: "Every supporter of President Trump should understand one thing about this book, the argument that Donald Trump is mentally unfit is not Michael Wolff's opinion, it's the opinion of some of the people closest to the president.
"I said back in the summer when I first learned what these aides and hangers-on were saying to Wolff, that the president is surrounded by too many two-faced self-serving muppets who say one thing in public and another behind the president's back."
That was an apparent dig at Steve Bannon, who until the publication of the book in which he openly attacked the White House, had been close to Trump - rather similar to Hilton's relationship to Cameron.
Cameron and Obama had been understood to get on well together while in office, and were pictured together playing ping-pong and watching a basketball game.
The former Tory leader once said of the the President: "Yes, he sometimes calls me bro."
But their special relationship deteriorated and Obama later criticised Cameron for failing to do enough to intervene in Libya saying he had been "distracted by a range of other things".
Hilton fell out with Cameron during the EU referendum campaign after the strategist announced he was backing Brexit.
A spokesman for Cameron said: "This does not represent David Cameron's opinion at all and could not be further from the truth.
"David Cameron's views on President Obama – whether in public or in private – are the same: he considers Barack Obama a hugely accomplished president, a great partner for Britain and a good friend to our country and to him personally."
