Obama lackey and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been criticizing the Democratic Party as he weighs a 2028 run.

Emanuel, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Joe Biden, has launched a crusade against his party, which he believes has drifted too far left in recent years, abandoning once sought-after voters: the white working class. In recent weeks, he has toured several Rustbelt states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, attended town halls, and had off-the-record conversations with local reporters. (RELATED: Democrats’ Newest Potential Savior: A Former Cutthroat Mayor, Obama Lackey With Mile-Deep History Of Scandals)

“The party lost focus, thought demographics was destiny, became intellectually flabby,” Emanuel told Politico.

WASHINGTON – JUNE 25: In this photo provided by The White House, President Barack Obama (L) talks with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (R) during a phone call in the Oval Office of the White House June 25, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images)

Although Emanuel is by all definitions a career-climbing liberal elite, he is going to great lengths to win over the trust of the Bill Clinton-era white working-class voters who have ditched the Democratic Party in favor of a GOP led by President Trump. It’s hard to imagine his strategy will work perfectly, but at least he is somewhat serious about it and is making efforts to visit the states whose residents he’d like to court in a 2028 primary.

“I’m not into Democrats sitting on the 30th floor of a Manhattan high-rise in their Lululemon outfit with their Yeti cup, talking about, ‘We should go to places that we don’t go’ and then never go,” Emanuel told Politico before his Rustbelt trip. “So I don’t talk about it, and I’m just gonna go.”

Emanuel previously launched some culture war broadsides against his own party during an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s show in July 2025.

CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 18: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (R) and Rahm Emanuel (L), former White House Chief of Staff for U.S. President Barack Obama, wave during a campaign rally on January 18, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Emanuel is considered the front-runner in the race to replace Richard Daley as mayor of Chicago. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“Do you believe boys should be able to play girls’ sports?” Kelly asked.

“Do you believe that kids under the age of 18 should be able to be put on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones?” Kelly followed up.