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Barack Obama hates baby shark. And, mommy shark. And, daddy shark. And, ALL OF THE SHARKS!!! Which is why #44 rocked a shark deterrent anklet while paddleboarding in Hawaii!

Check out the device on Obama's right ankle -- it's called a Sharkbanz and it claims to repel Jaws from snacking on you like a piece of chum!

Look, shark attacks in Hawaii don't happen THAT often -- but they do happen -- and when you're a former President, you don't wanna go out like Samuel L. Jackson in "Deep Blue Sea."

A company spokesperson tells us ... the band uses "patented magnetic technology developed by marine biologists to deter predatory shark species."

In fact, they've got a Navy Seal Diver on record crediting the band for saving him from a potential attack ... and we all know how much Obama respects the Seals!

The good news for Obama ... he didn't get eaten during his paddleboard session, so maybe it worked!

The U.S. drone strike ordered by President Trump in Baghdad -- which killed top Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani -- is captured in new footage from an independent Iraqi television network.

According to Al-Ahed channel ... the blast captured on video is the one that killed General Soleimani along with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, though it's yet to be verified by other major news outlets.

A photo of the aftermath shows a burning vehicle near Baghdad International Airport shortly after the strike, which reportedly included 3 rockets hitting the site. The White House announced the strike had killed Soleimani Thursday night ... 6 people were reportedly killed in total.

The Trump administration viewed the Iranian commander as a ruthless killer, and the President tweeted that Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of millions of people and was plotting to kill more ... but he got caught.

Trump added the general should have been "taken out many years ago."

Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama are equally admired in the eyes of the world ... according to a recent poll that has a lot of people upset for different reasons.

2019 marks Obama's 12th time in the top spot of Gallup's annual men's poll, and he's got some company this year ... Donald Trump is making his first appearance. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.

No surprise ... the results are divided sharply along party lines ... 41% of Democrats name Obama and 45% of Republicans name Trump. According to Gallup, 12% of Independents chose Obama and 10% picked Trump.

As for the rest of the list ... no other man was mentioned by more than 2% of respondents. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 ... President Jimmy Carter, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders, Adam Schiff, the Dalai Lama and Warren Buffett.

You'd think Rudy Giuliani would wanna be as far away from anything Ukrainian right now, but even amid Trump's impeachment ... he's coyzing up with one and talking business.

The President's personal lawyer was spotted Sunday at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, where eyewitnesses saw him chatting it up with a couple dudes in suits who appeared to be pitching him on something, seemingly related to shipping, transportation and logistics.

Rudy and a woman he was with were flipping through literature pertaining to CDL 1000 -- a Chicago-based company that specializes in freight transport and tracking technology.

No biggie, right? Of course not, except for the fact that at one point in the presentation, Rudy was shown a slide that clearly read "Disrupt Global Trading." Nothing fishy about that!

What makes the meeting all the more intriguing is that the guy showing him this stuff comes from Ukrainian heritage himself. His name's Andrew Sobko, and he's the CEO of CDL 1000 -- he's also the son of a former Ukrainian boxing champ ... per past interviews he's done.

We called up Andrew and he said he was simply seeking Mr. Giuliani's legal advice on a business matter. However, it's also no secret Rudy's been traveling to Kyiv recently to drum up intel he hopes will clear his boss's name ahead of a looming impeachment trial.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is playing the waiting game in 2 venues ... Washington D.C., where he and his colleagues are waiting for the Articles of Impeachment, and Miami Beach, where he's waiting for a bike helmet.

One of our producers ran into the Senator from New York Thursday at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, where Schumer planned to jump on a bike and enjoy the 70+ degree weather. The concierge must have been busy, because Chuck waited and waited.

He told our producer he's certain Trump will lose the election, and certainly intimated that 2020 will be a make-or-break time for the United States of America.

It's interesting ... by saying Trump will lose, he seems to be conceding what has become pretty obvious ... that the President will not be removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Adam Carolla resents people telling him what to think and how he should speak his mind, so speak his mind he did on "TMZ Live."

Adam's got a new movie out -- "No Safe Spaces" -- which deals with the intolerance in America and the cancel culture which he says is out of control.

Adam thinks we've gotten soft because we coddle everyone who feels aggrieved. He's especially critical of what goes on on college campuses, where students have a super strong sense of entitlement.

Pete Buttigieg was able to get at least one new Hollywood A-lister to endorse his bid for the presidency -- but his opponent, Bernie Sanders, has him beat in that department.

Kevin Costner showed up to a modest-sized town hall Sunday in Indianola, Iowa and publicly backed the Southbend mayor for Prez ... reportedly telling the crowd of about 1,200 that he didn't wanna tell them who to vote for, but was simply sharing who he supported.

Of course, that's PB. Kevin went on to tout Pete's steady hand among the Democratic contenders, calling him a man of "this moment" and someone who could right the ship.

Kevin then introduced Pete and embraced him in a hug. Pretty cool moment ... but it kinda pales in comparison to the VIP treatment Bernie was met with in L.A. the day before.

Wayne Brady is roasting Sarah Huckabee Sanders for making fun of Joe Biden with a stuttering joke ... calling it alarming, offensive, misinformed and ... not even funny.

We got Wayne -- who has a stutter you might not know about -- at UCB Theatre in L.A. to get his reaction to Sarah's hurtful words ... and he doesn't hold back.

Wayne says Sarah needs to shut the hell up because she has no clue how daunting a stutter can be for people who deal with speech impediments every single day ... and thinks it's disgusting she would even make a crack about it.

As you know, Sarah tried poking fun at Biden after the most recent Democratic debate, when he relayed a story about stuttering young people coming up to him and asking his advice on dealing with a stutter.

Sarah tweeted, "I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about" ... then quickly deleted it after she started catching tons of backlash, including from Joe himself, who pointed out how he's worked his entire life overcoming his stutter.

SHS apologized, saying she didn't know Biden had struggled with stuttering.

Anyway ... Wayne says her apology doesn't mean squat, because even if Biden didn't have a stutter, there are still plenty of people who must cope with the condition and all the difficulties it presents, so best not to go there in the first place.

Pete Buttigieg isn't apologizing for raising some serious cash at a wine cave fundraiser, despite criticism from his Democrat opponents ... because he says it's vital in the fight against Donald Trump.

Mayor Pete appeared on "TMZ Live" Friday and noted the Prez and his allies have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars and in order to keep pace for the 2020 push ... so he's not going to turn down money from ultra-rich donors. Besides ... the max the donors can fork over is $2,800.

Buttigieg says he's proud more than 700,000 people have donated to his campaign, and with big-money donations included ... the average contribution is around 30 bucks.

As for the now-famous wine cave -- which is actually more of a fancy basement -- Buttigieg says it's as remarkable as advertised ... and he's happy to have the support of the billionaires who own it. BTW, many Democrats before him have felt the same.

Andrew Yang's done his research, and knows there's no way to completely stop foreign interference in elections, but says there's still a right way to respond ... and President Trump ain't cutting it.

In the wake of a strong showing in the latest Democratic Presidential debate ... Yang joined us Friday on "TMZ Live" to tell voters why he'll get tough with Vladimir Putin and any other foreign leader who tries to screw with our elections.

Yang said he views Russia's meddling in the 2016 election as an act of hostility and aggression, one he wouldn't take lightly if he's in the Oval.

He's already thinking about who he'll need by his side to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. -- as in, who's gonna be his running mate. It's clear Yang's working on a short list, and gave us the criteria for his Veep.

Best of all, Andrew gave us his best Rocky impression.

Something happened during Thursday night's debate that had him feeling very Stallone-esque.

Robert De Niro has a very interesting item at the top of his holiday wish list -- he'd very much like a bag of poo to hit President Trump right in his face.

He doesn't say what kind, though.

"The Irishman" star revealed his desire on Michael Moore's podcast Friday, telling the documentary filmmaker ... "I'd like to see a bag of s**t right in his face. Hit him right in the face like that and let the picture go all over the world."

De Niro added ... "And, that would be the most humiliating thing because he needs to be humiliated."

The famous actor's overall point, after sifting through all the s**t talk, is he believes whichever Dem ends up taking on the Prez in 2020 needs to stand up to him ... and embarrass him as much as possible.

De Niro says this person has to "confront him and put him in his place, because the people have to see that, to see him be humiliated."

This isn't the first time Robert's gone after Donald in an audacious way ... you'll recall he dropped a "F**k Trump" at the 2018 Tony Awards, ripped him during an American Icon Awards Speech, called him crazy on CNN and has mocked him multiple times on 'SNL.'

Andrew Yang is riding high after getting a big thumbs-up from Donald Glover, using the celeb endorsement to push merchandise and raise funds for his presidential campaign.

This is America as the decade comes to an end.

We got the 2020 candidate Thursday at his Donald Glover X Andrew Yang pop-up merch shop in Hollywood, where Andrew was busy getting mobbed by a huge throng of supporters chanting his name.

The Yang Gang was out in full force, and Andrew says his collab with Glover is doing wonders for his campaign's bottom line and helping spread his message to voters. Ya gotta hear how much Andrew says he's pulling in thanks to his most famous fan.

Donald was there too, hanging out in the back while Andrew schmoozed with shoppers on the store's floor. Yang seems like he's having the most fun of any White House hopeful.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is doubling down on her defiant decision to merely vote "present" to impeach President Trump ... because she firmly believes it was the right call for America.

The Congresswoman from Hawaii tells us she was making a stand by not voting yes or no ... in order to appeal to folks in the center. She says her goal is to bring unity to the country.

Gabbard elaborated though, saying she DOES want Trump out of office and, in her mind, there's a better step Congress can take to rebuke his conduct. As for getting him out of office ... she believes it should be done more conventionally ... by voting him out in 2020.

Keep in mind, Tulsi's still one of the Democratic candidates gunning for the nomination to run against Trump ... so she's taking a big gamble that her stand will pay off.

Donald Trump is making history as far as Presidents go, but it's not the kind of history he probably envisioned when he took office ... because he's just been impeached.

As expected, a majority of the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach the Prez for high crimes and misdemeanors. The vote marks only the 3rd time in U.S. history the House approved articles of impeachment against the President.

Trump now joins Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson way back in 1868 as the only presidents to be impeached.

The impeachment vote, mostly along party lines, is the culmination of a long, three-month investigation from multiple committees in the House, which was faced with stiff opposition by the GOP.

Donald Trump's John Hancock on a White House reprint of his presidential oath of office definitely sends a message ... and it might fetch a big payday for the guy who got it signed.

The story goes that a State Party Campaign Chairman for Trump asked a friend of his working for the administration to print the oath on White House stationery ... and the friend came through.

The chairman then took the letter to Trump's rally Tuesday night in Hershey, Pennsylvania and asked POTUS to add his autograph ... and he obliged.

The rally, by the way, was the one where the Prez chided a security guard for being too "politically correct" while removing a female protester ... roll the tape.

Anyway, the Trump-signed oath of office is now up for sale -- for a whopping $17,500 -- hot on the heels of the House Judiciary Committee approving articles of impeachment against the Prez.

The site hosting the sale, MomentsInTime.com, says the White House memo will be up for grabs Monday.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn't seem to regret leaving Trump's White House one iota -- because she looks as calm and relaxed as we've seen her since stepping into DT's orbit.

We got the former Press Secretary Saturday at the Reagan Airport in D.C. for a quick catch-up on her life since she resigned from her role back in the summer. While it feels like she did that ages ago, it's only been a few short months -- that's how much has happened since.

Our camera guy jokingly asks how she's enjoying her early "retirement," and it sounds like SHS has no plans to hang it up completely just yet. Word around town is she's ramping up for a gubernatorial run in Arkansas -- where her dad was the gov for a long time.

We asked her about that, and Mrs. Sanders gave us a classic political non-answer answer. She didn't say no though ... so the door's certainly there if she wants to open it in a few years.

Sarah also gives us an update on what she's been up to lately, saying she's spent a lot of much-needed time with her family -- and has enjoyed every minute of it. Then, we get into impeachment ... asking if she's happy not to be part of that mess right now.