Barack "Barry" Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States in a time of national and global peril. While his predecessor was incumbent, a crisis had exploded with N.B.E. 01's, the loss of the AllSpark, and a swarm of alien combatants waging a clandestine, highly unconventional war in hotspots across the world.
When he was running for election, Obama had blown off a question about alien visitors with a joke. But as President, his fear that the Autobots' presence attracted the Decepticons led him to appoint a National Security Advisor that was a constant thorn in the side of the joint human/Autobot military force, which found itself increasingly hamstrung in direct proportion to the gravity of the Decepticon threat.