Would you base anything about Stephen Colbert, the real person, on Stephen Colbert, the TV pundit?

Well then you probably shouldn't base much on what ANY US president says in public, versus what they say in private.

If you listened to Obama, you would have thought he hated Elon Musk, and Loved Nasa.

In Private, he worked with Elon, crushed Nasa's Rocket and Deep Space Programs, and paved the way for Space-X(a private corp) to be the world leader in rockets(and even sell rockets to Nasa, who can no longer leave the upper atmosphere without Elon Musk).

So, often, listening to what a president SAYS in public will only give you the EXACT opposite of what's really going on.

Another is that Obama heavily campaigned on being "the most transparent administration in History". Then, he started a war on whistle-blowers(the worst in US, or Global History), and Mass Surveillance, Secret Drone Killings, etc. Of all Presidents in History, Obama's administration was arguably the LEAST transparent.

My point here isn't that one side, or president is better than the other(I don't believe that's the case). My point is the presidents often lie, and VERY often what they say is the exact opposite of what's really going on.

Remember Bush's "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!". It was followed by years of more war. Doesn't matter if it's Bush, Trump, Clinton, Obama, they all lied, and played dumb, and ignorant when it suited them.

Reagan looked presidential, but was nearly braindead, and probably should have been removed from office.

Kennedy looked presidential, but was heavily crippled, and sex addicted.

FDR looked presidential, but in reality(unbeknownst to the nation), he was so crippled from polio that he couldn't walk... but this was kept from the public.

So, often going based on appearances will give you the wrong idea of what is really going on.