Barack Obama is back on the campaign trail, baby

He's back.

After months out of the spotlight, Barack Obama spoke at his first campaign rally, backing New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy in front of a crowd of Democrats on Thursday night.

Following dribs and drabs of commentary online, Obama returned to full voice at the event, where there was plenty of Trump shade — even though the current president's name wasn't mentioned.

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"What we can't have, is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before that dates back centuries," Obama said.

"Some of the politics we see now, we thought we'd put that to bed. I mean, that's folks looking 50 years back. It's the 21st century, not the 19th century."

Obama also added nothing "frustrates" him more when people complain, but didn't vote.

"If you give away your power, and then somebody does things contrary to your interests, that's not that person's fault, that's your fault," he remarked.

At a another campaign rally for Virginian Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam later that day, Obama again reflected on divisive politics.

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"We're at our best not when we're trying to put people down, but when we're trying to lift everybody up," he said.

"You notice I haven't been commenting a lot on politics lately. But here's one thing I know. If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you're not going to be able to govern them. You won't be able to unite them later if that's how you start."

And yes, there's another thinly-veiled swipe at Trump.

"Folks don't feel good right now about what they see. They don't feel as if our public life reflects our best. Instead of politics reflecting our values, we have politics infecting our communities," he said.

Oh he's back, alright.