Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., detailed a cordial relationship with President Donald Trump in his new book. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"From the start, President Trump had an open line of communication with me," he wrote. "I spoke to him more in the first two years of his presidency than I did to President Obama during all eight years of his time in office."
He noted, "If you want to have influence with Donald Trump, you have to be the last person he talks to about a topic," and said he would jokingly ask that the president ensure he was the last person he called.
"He’d laugh, and we’d talk it out," he said.
He recalled his 2018 election campaign in the wake of Trump’s dominant, 40-point win in the state. Trump told Manchin that he was being pressured to campaign against him and promised he wouldn’t. Ultimately, Trump visited the state five times, but Manchin still came out on top.
JOE MANCHIN TELLS 'THE VIEW' WHY HE COULDN'T ENDORSE KAMALA HARRIS
Former President Barack Obama speaks at the Obama Foundation Democracy Forum on Dec. 5, 2024, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/AP Photo)
"But he didn’t come, and that night belonged to Hillary," he wrote. "She made the most of her visit and won the primary by 41 points."
He said their relationship became even chillier when Obama launched his "war on coal" with a push for green initiatives that targeted fossil fuels and states like West Virginia.
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Manchin argued that the Democratic Party had grown dismissive and lost touch with the working class as a means to reshape their agenda through a progressive lens. That led to a seismic shift in West Virginia’s political alignment, from Democratic to now largely Republican, he said.
And in the process that began when Obama won in 2008, he said that rural states like his felt "overlooked and undervalued."
"But that’s exactly how Democrats handled West Virginia, and no one embodied that disconnect more than President Obama," he wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to Obama's office and the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/manchin-recalls-close-ties-outsider-trump-cold-shoulder-from-obama-new-book