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Jeff Hardy believes he was more popular than Barack Obama at his peak
Former WWE wrestler Jeff Hardy was one of the most popular wrestlers in the promotion’s iconic “Attitude Era.” Hardy even believes he was more popular than President Barack Obama during his peak.
Jeff Hardy, now 48 years old and wrestling for TNA (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling), helped revive tag team wrestling alongside his brother Matt during WWE’s Attitude Era in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In addition to his status as an iconic tag team partner alongside Matt, Hardy also had success as an individual wrestler, capturing the WWE Championship in 2008 (defeating Edge and Triple H at the Armageddon 2008 pay-per-view) and holding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on two separate occasions.
Jeff Hardy’s claim that he was more popular than President Barack Obama sparked viral memes on social media
Despite Hardy’s accolades and the regard wrestling fans have for him, he was never able to become a mainstream pop culture star like The Rock, John Cena, or Dave Bautista, or even a crossover star like Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Undertaker.
Still, he believes he was more popular than the most powerful man in the world at his peak.
“I think they’re from Jupiter, I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty sure. They certainly may not exist here on Earth and I mean, I’m sure there’s a few,” Hardy joked when asked about where his ‘haters’ come from on SiriusXM’s Busted Open show.
“Back when Matt (Hardy) was a very, very bad brother when he was very envious of me, just for the fact that I was bigger than (Barack) Obama, during my run in WWE, and he had to turn on me and hit me with a chair and take me out. Just a terrible brother at that point and he just couldn’t take it so he had to try to get rid of me once again but, I’m sure there’s a few out there.”
Hardy’s comments were picked up by the X/Twitter account for the podcast No Jumper, which prompted them to going viral on social media.
All imma say is Obama never had me doin dis in the living room at age 10 https://t.co/lu0qdivUjw pic.twitter.com/UIW22D4DY3
— vids that go hard (@vidsthatgohard) August 2, 2026
bra he ain’t lying, mf was ran 2008-2009 more over then Obama & Lil Wayne https://t.co/Tdy4XXh6TX pic.twitter.com/36xHuZPeS3
— ✮ (@altAVjy) July 31, 2026
“Barack ain’t have n—– hitting the Swanton Bomb off the couch,” the most viral reply to the original post read.
“Never seen Obama do s— like this,” the viral video below was captioned.
never seen obama do shit like this pic.twitter.com/8wLMznFCUI https://t.co/PNihRRWPKn
— asc 🦥 (@ascinhiding) July 31, 2026
During their time as a professional tag team wrestling duo, Matt and Jeff Hardy have held 21 world tag team championships between WWE (six times), TNA, ROH, and other promotions.