Former US first lady Michelle Obama expressed confidence on Monday that the social progress made by having the first black couple in the White House could not be overturned.
Without directly addressing her husband’s successor, Donald Trump, Obama said change was “not a straight line” but the election of Barack Obama to the White House showed people were open to change.
Earlier in the day she encouraged some London schoolgirls to ensure they played a role in tackling the “the bitterness, the nastiness that we see in politics” by never wasting their vote.
Obama, 54, said she was surprised as anyone when her husband was elected the first black president, taking office in 2009 – especially because when “he was elected he looked like he was 12” – and hopes were high.