Michelle Obama's 2024 Election Comments Go Viral

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has admitted she's "terrified" about the potential outcome of the 2024 election.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is leading Joe Biden in five out of the six key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, according to a poll by The New York Times and Siena College that was published in November. Multiple national polls also show the former president leading Biden despite Trump's legal troubles, as he faces a wave of indictments at both the state and federal levels. Trump has maintained his innocence in all cases against him.

Appearing on an episode of the On Purposewith Jay Shetty podcast released Monday, Obama listed November's presidential contest among the fears that keep her awake at night.

Newsweek reached out to a representative for Obama via email for comment Tuesday.

"What's going to happen in this next election? I'm terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted," she told Shetty.

"The fact that people think that government—'eh, does it really even do anything?'—and I'm like 'Oh my God, does government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted.' And I worry sometimes that we do. Those are the things that keep me up."

During the wide-ranging conversation, Obama said she found injustice, ego, greed, racism and ignorance offensive, and condemned childish leadership.

"The tone and tenor of the message matters. We can't just say what the first thing that comes to our minds," she said.

"That is not authenticity to me. That's childish, and we see childish leadership right before us—what that looks like and how that feels, where somebody is just base, and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position."

While she didn't mention anyone by name, conservative voters believe her comments are referring to Trump. This has resulted in backlash on X, formerly Twitter.

A snippet of the podcast was shared on the social media platform by Collin Rugg, a conservative internet personality."NEW: Michelle Obama insinuates that Donald Trump keeps her up at night and says she is 'terrified' of what could happen in the next election," he captioned the post. "Michelle Obama and her husband are worth $70 million, live in Martha's Vineyard yet Donald Trump has found a way to keep her up at night. Remarkable."

He also said it was "good" that the former first lady was terrified. At the time of writing his post had been viewed 2.4 million times and people have taken to the comment section to echo Rugg's sentiment.

"Trump will put them both in jail that's why she can't sleep at night!" one person wrote.

"Let me reword this for you: 'Michelle Obama is terrified of Donald Trump holding her and Barack Obama accountable for their crimes when he retakes office' let's be real people the only reason they are afraid of him is because they know he will hold them all accountable. Follow me if you agree," said another.

"It could not get much worse than the current guy. But Michelle knows that, she is part of the evil duo setting the agenda. Joe [Biden] is the vegetable placeholder," conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren wrote.

A fourth person added: "She is terrified that her corruption will be revealed to the world. He was the only President that had no war during his term, denied his salary, built one of the strongest economies, new jobs for minorities, justice reform, border control to name a few so what exactly would she be terrified of?"

Others theorized that Obama would be running for president herself.

"If you think they're not gonna run Michelle, you're kidding yourself. Obama Shadow Presidency 2.0 incoming!" said one X user.

"Biden will not be the Democrat nominee in 2024. My prediction is Gavin Newsom, but I could see Michelle Obama making a run for the presidency," said another.

While there has been backlash on X, people have taken to the comment section of the podcast episode on YouTube to sing Obama's praises.

"What an incredibly inspiring interview, loved every minute of it. Phenomenally eloquent also. Thank you Jay for getting Michelle onto your podcast," one viewer commented.

"I enjoyed this interview so much. Thank you Jay. I'll watch this multiple times until I am able to break it down and get the most of it. There's no simplicity in Michelle's words, she is deep," someone else wrote.

A third person added: "We need more people like her."