Obama accuses Donald Trump of campaigning by ‘scapegoating’

Building upon his “Hard Work” video from last month, Kendrick Lamar has released “Pay It Forward”, a short clip that pairs scenes from “Hard Work” with images of Lamar with President Barack Obama in the White House Oval Office to make a case for the power of mentorship.

“He feels an obligation to his successor to close that, and that’s why we’re going to do it”, the chief of staff said on “Fox News Sunday”. “That isn’t looking for simplistic solutions and scapegoating, but looks for us, you know, buckling down and figuring out how do we make things work for the next generation?”

He recalled his memories of his first State of the Union address, when the Sergeant at Arms prepared to announce him to the House chamber and millions of people were watching on television. Because this place has a tendency to isolate you. It’s a sense of a celebration of democracy, and certainly the first time I did it, along with inauguration, it signifies that we can have peaceful transfers of power.

The narration is vaguely reminiscent of a refrain used on Lamar’s 2015 To Pimp a Butterfly which goes, “I remember you was conflicted/Misusing your influence/Sometimes I did the same”.

Lamar said he and President Obama talked about some of the issues that face his Compton, Calif. neighborhood, and other places around the country that have similar challenges.

Obama, who has weathered a steady barrage of criticism from Trump, allowed that he has some regrets about the politically divided state of the nation as he nears the end of his second term.

“I sat down with President Barack Obama”, he said.

“It is sometimes important for us to step back and take measure of how far we’ve come”, he said. “[But] I hope [he] doesn’t because I have fundamentally different views than he does”.