WASHINGTON – Former President Barack Obama vowed to shy away from directly criticizing his successor and, before he left the presidency to Donald Trump, he professed interest in withdrawing from the limelight he’d stage-managed for eight years.
He claimed he wanted to give Trump the chance to pursue his own agenda and would follow the precedent set by George W. Bush, who seldom made public statements after Obama took office in 2009.
Obama even joked it would be good not hearing himself “talk so darn much.”
But he’s done just the opposite.
His freshest criticisms came Tuesday after President Trump announced the end of Obama’s amnesty program, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, even though Obama himself said it was a temporary program designed to prompt Congress to act.
[jwplayer bXNnbaV3]
During his presidency, Obama stated: “Eligible individuals who do not present a risk to national security of public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization. … Let’s be clear. This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix. This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people. … Precisely because this is temporary, Congress needs to act.”
Trump’s decision was to end the program, with a phase-out period allowing Congress to act.
What do YOU think? Did Trump do right on ‘DREAMers’? Sound off in today’s WND poll!
Further, on several occasions, Obama admitted he never had the constitutional authority to do exactly what he did.
Here’s that confession:
[jwplayer XOAvgYIF]
Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared DACA – which has been protecting illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children, giving them temporary work permits – will end in six months.
President Trump is prolonging the termination of DACAÂ specifically to let Congress decide what to do with the nearly 800,000 illegal aliens now under temporary protection.
Obama immediately blasted Trump for ending the policy.
“Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally,” the former president wrote in a Facebook post. “It’s a political decision, and a moral question.
“Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us,” the post reads.
The most extraordinary political upset in history wasn’t a surprise at all. The whole story is revealed in “The Trump Prophecies,” now available from the WND Superstore.
“They are our kids’ friends and their classmates, and are now entering into community colleges or in some cases serving in our military,” Obama said at the time. “The notion that we would just arbitrarily – or because of politics – punish those kids when they didn’t do anything wrong themselves, I think would be something that would merit me speaking out,” Obama said.
“For me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them someplace else when they love this country,” he said.
It’s just the latest Obama slam against the sitting president.
He criticized Trump on July 1 after the new president announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, contending Trump’s decision would reap economic calamity and vacate America’s global leadership role.
“The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created,” Obama claimed. “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership, even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”
Obama set up a public fight with the current White House occupant when he spoke out in June against Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s 2010 health-care reform law.
Related columns:
There’s no such thing as a ‘deserving Dreamer’ by Michelle Malkin
Ending DACA restores the rule of law by Andy Schlafly
Related stories:
Sessions announces end of special protections for illegal aliens
Trump called ‘racist,’ ‘white supremacist,’ ‘pure evil’ for ending DACA
Obamacare was approved by Congress without a single Republican vote, sharply dividing the two major political parties from the start. The GOP successfully used it as a campaign issue against Democrats in the 2010 midterms, which led to Republicans taking control of the House.
The new plan under consideration in Congress was “not a health care bill,” Obama declared in a June 22 lengthy Facebook message.
“It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.”
Obama didn’t mention Trump by name, but he urged his supporters to repudiate “the fundamental meanness at the core of the legislation” and quickly framed Republican motivations as purely partisan.
“I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party,” Obama wrote, suggesting that the GOP is acting simply to undo “something that Democrats did.”
His mention of “meanness” in the Senate bill was a swipe at Trump having called the House version of the repeal legislation “mean” during a private meeting with Republican senators.
After Trump chided NATO members while in Belgium in May for not living up to agreed-upon defense-spending levels, Obama lashed out again, warning tens of thousands of people in Berlin that the “international order is at a crossroads. We can’t isolate ourselves. We can’t hide behind a wall.”
Obama himself restricted refugees from Iraq in 2011 after two Iraqis were arrested in Kentucky on terrorism charges. Yet, after Trump implemented a travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim nations in January, Obama declared, “American values are at stake.”
Obama’s office released a statement explaining that the former president was encouraged by protesters across the country targeting Trump’s executive order.
“President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as president, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy – not just during an election but every day,” said Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis.
“Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.”
Michelle Obama hasn’t held back from slamming the Trump administration, either.
In May, days after the Trump administration rescinded Michelle Obama’s rules on school lunches and postponed regulations requiring calorie labeling on school menus, Michelle Obama fired back.
In an interview at the Partnership for a Healthier America conference in Washington, she insinuated that Trump is indifferent about students’ well-being.
“The question is, where are we going back to? You know, this is where you really have to look at motives. Every elected official on this planet should understand – don’t play with our children, don’t do it,” the former first lady said.
The Trump administration annulled her calorie-labeling regulations to prevent people from being more aware of what they’re consuming, Obama insisted.
“This is where you got to look yourselves in the eye. We have to look our neighbors in the eye and kind of go, what is going on? ‘Cause this just isn’t that complicated. You know, just tell me what’s in my food,” she said.
Democrats claim Obama is merely defending himself against regular personal attacks by Trump.
“Donald Trump has invited Barack Obama into the arena,” Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, a liberal think tank, told the Washington Post.
“No president has trashed a former president more than Trump has trashed Obama — personally and in terms of his legacy. It’s been direct, persistent and out of bounds.”
He claimed Obama is “obligated” to weigh in.
The most extraordinary political upset in history wasn’t a surprise at all. The whole story is revealed in “The Trump Prophecies,” now available from the WND Superstore.
