Peter Hasson on May 8, 2018
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have bashed his successor, President Donald Trump, a dozen times since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, 2017.
In criticizing his successor — and doing so repeatedly — Obama has abandoned the precedent set by previous presidents. He and his wife have slammed Trump a dozen times since leaving office.
January 2017 — Obama bashes travel ban
Obama was out of the White House just 10 days before he took a shot at his successor. Obama criticized Trump on Jan. 30 over the president’s travel ban targeting seven terror-prone countries. Obama was “heartened” by liberal protests against the travel ban, the former president said through a spokesman.
May 2017 — Michelle returns as school lunch monitor
Michelle Obama took her first shot at President Trump four months into his first term. She bashed the Trump administration on May 12, 2017, for scaling back federal rules aimed at forcing students to eat healthier lunches — a policy she championed as first lady.
May 2017 — Obama knocks the wall in speech to Germans
On May 25, 2017, Obama took a shot at Trump’s signature policy proposal — a wall across the US-Mexico border — while speaking before a crowd of 70,000 in Germany. “In this new world we live in, we can’t isolate ourselves — we can’t hide behind a wall,” the former president said. USA Today described his remarks as a “clear message” to Trump.
June 2017 — Obama criticizes Paris climate withdrawal
Obama slammed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords — a staple of Obama’s climate legacy. Obama released a statement on June 1, 2017, accusing Trump of “rejecting the future” and leaving an “absence of American leadership.”
June 2017 — Obama shreds “fundamental meanness” of GOP health care bill in lengthy Facebook post
The same month he bashed the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement, Obama criticized Republicans for their proposed healthcare legislation, which Trump vocally supported. Obama denounced the “fundamental meanness” of the bill in a June 22, 2017, Facebook post that stretched 954 words.
July 2017 — Obama criticizes Trump to Indonesians
Nine days after bashing the health care legislation, Obama again took a shot at his successor. Obama criticized Trump for withdrawing from the Paris deal in a July 1, 2017, speech before an Indonesian audience. For the second time, Obama not only rebuked his successor but did so on foreign soil.
September 2017 — Obama calls Trump “cruel” in Facebook post
Obama bashed Trump again in a Sept 5, 2017, Facebook post after the president announced he would phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program, which constitutional experts had said was on shaky legal ground. Obama ripped his successor as as “cruel,” lacking “basic decency” and acting “contrary to our spirit, and to common sense.”
September 2017 — Michelle slams Trump and his voters
That same month, Michelle Obama took the unusual step of criticizing the voters who elected her husband’s successor. “As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice,” she said in a Sept. 27, 2017, speech.
October 2017 — Obama delivers ‘withering rebuke’ of Trump
Obama delivered a “withering rebuke” of Trump at an Oct. 5, 2017, campaign rally in Virginia. “You’ll notice I haven’t been commenting a lot on politics lately,” Obama said. “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.”
April 2018 — Michelle says Trump is the bad ‘parent’
Michelle Obama praised her husband as better for the country than President Trump in an April 5 speech where she compared the presidency to parenting. Having Barack Obama as president, Michelle said, was like “having the ‘good parent’ at home. The responsible parent, the one who told you to eat your carrots and go to bed on time. And now we have the other parent. We thought it’d feel fun — maybe it feels fun for now because we can eat candy all day and stay up late and not follow the rules.”
May 2018 — Michelle says women shouldn’t support Trump
Michelle Obama bashed Trump again this month, criticizing any woman who voted for the current president. “In light of this last election, I’m concerned about women, about how we think about ourselves and each other. I think more about what is going on in our heads where we let that happen,” the former first lady said in a May 5 panel at the United State of Women Summit. “So I do wonder what young girls are dreaming about when we’re still there when the most qualified person running was a woman, and look what we did instead.”
May 2018 — Obama tells the world POTUS is making a “major mistake”
Obama ripped into Trump on Tuesday for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement — a pillar of Obama’s foreign policy legacy. Once again, Obama took to social media to criticize his successor’s decision, which he called a “major mistake.”
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