Tag: Barack Obama

Without Saying ‘Trump,’ Bush and Obama Deliver Implicit Rebukes

The following article by Peter Baker was posted on the New York Times website October 19, 2017:

Former President George W. Bush defended free trade and railed against populist rhetoric in an implicit criticism of President Trump. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Photo by Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Neither of them mentioned President Trump by name but two of his predecessors emerged from political seclusion on Thursday to deliver what sounded like pointed rebukes of the current occupant of the Oval Office and the forces of division that propelled him to power.

In separate and unrelated appearances, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both warned that the United States was being torn apart by ancient hatreds that should have been consigned to history long ago and called for addressing economic anxiety through common purpose. While not directly addressing Mr. Trump, neither left much doubt whom and what they had in mind.

Continue reading “Without Saying ‘Trump,’ Bush and Obama Deliver Implicit Rebukes”

Trump’s claim that Obama ‘didn’t make calls’ to families of the fallen

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website October 16, 2017:

During a news conference on Oct. 16, President Trump said he has an “outstanding” relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and defended his handling of the situation in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I am able to do it.”
—President Trump, news conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Oct. 16, 2017

President Trump had an unusually long news conference in the Rose Garden and he was called out by a reporter for this statement, in which he claimed that Barack Obama did not call the families of fallen troops when Obama was president. Trump made this claim while explaining why he had not yet made a statement about the four U.S. Special Forces members who died on Oct. 4 in Niger during a deadly ambush by dozens of Islamist extremists. Continue reading “Trump’s claim that Obama ‘didn’t make calls’ to families of the fallen”

The Memo: Trump tries to turn back clock on Obama era

The following article by Niall Strange was posted on the Hill website October 16, 2017:

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

President Trump is trying to turn back the clock on the Obama era, even as he has been frustrated by the slow pace of progress on his legislative agenda.

In a 24-hour period beginning Thursday evening, Trump took aim at former President Obama’s major domestic and foreign policy achievements — the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, and the nuclear deal with Iran.

In both cases, he began hollowing out his predecessor’s accomplishments — in the first instance by announcing he would end government subsidies for insurers, and in the other by refusing to certify that Iran was in compliance with the terms of the 2015 agreement. Continue reading “The Memo: Trump tries to turn back clock on Obama era”

Obama calls President Trump’s decision to end DACA ‘wrong,’ ‘self-defeating’ and ‘cruel’

The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website September 5, 2017:

Former president Barack Obama said Tuesday that it is “wrong,” “self-defeating” and “cruel” for the Trump administration to end an Obama-era program that allowed younger undocumented immigrants to continue to live in the United States without fear of deportation.

“Let’s be clear: The action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question,” Obama said in a lengthy statement posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon, following an announcement earlier in the day that the Trump administration will unwind the program, pending action from Congress in the next six months. “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. … Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.” Continue reading “Obama calls President Trump’s decision to end DACA ‘wrong,’ ‘self-defeating’ and ‘cruel’”

Trump’s Immigration Pick Attacked Obama Programs In Ghost-Written Senate Letters

The following article by Marcelo Rochabrun was posted on the ProPublica website May 23, 2017:

If letters written by Lee Francis Cissna, the president’s nominee to head U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are any guide, he’s poised to dismantle Obama-era policies like a humanitarian program for Central American children.

Lee Francis Cissna, President Trump’s nominee to head the federal agency that handles applications for visas, refugee status and citizenship, has put little on the public record in his 20 years as a lawyer, government employee, diplomat and Capitol Hill aide.

But it turns out he has left many clues about how he could reverse Obama-era policies if he becomes director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a non-enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Continue reading “Trump’s Immigration Pick Attacked Obama Programs In Ghost-Written Senate Letters”

The Never-Ending Blame Game

The following article by Kenneth T. Wash was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website April 28, 2017:

President Trump’s focus on critiquing his predecessor could hurt him in the end.

(Brett Ziegler for USN&WR)

President Donald Trump is indulging in a favorite pastime that has become an unhealthy preoccupation – blaming his predecessor Barack Obama for what ails the country and for exacerbating problems that Trump has been unable to solve so far.

This week, Obama had a chance to respond but he graciously remained above the fray. The former Democratic president spoke Monday as the media were focusing on Trump’s record during his crucial first 100 days in office. But in an address to students at the University of Chicago, Obama didn’t mention Trump’s name and instead focused more generally on “special interests” that “dominate the debates in Washington.” Obama went on to urge young people to participate in public life and fight for causes they believe in. Continue reading “The Never-Ending Blame Game”

How Trump Embodies The Right-Wing Media’s Caricature Of Obama: Lazy, Secretive, And Corrupt

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the Media Matters website April 18, 2017:

During Barack Obama’s presidency, perhaps no conservative media outlet lamented as loudly about the frequency of the president’s golf games as Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller.

Year after year, a parade of Daily Caller staffers lined up to feed the phony outrage machine by detailing the supposedly mountainous taxpayer costs associated with the excursions. The headlines often stressed that Obama’s golf trips took place against the backdrop of grim news events, suggesting the president was pampered and out of touch: Continue reading “How Trump Embodies The Right-Wing Media’s Caricature Of Obama: Lazy, Secretive, And Corrupt”

Trump keeps blaming Obama. Fresh polls show voters don’t buy it.

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch  was posted on the Washington Post website April 5, 2017:

Barack Obama and Donald Trump arrive for the inauguration ceremony in January. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP/Pool)

THE BIG IDEA: For Donald Trump, the buck stops … with Barack Obama.

As the Western world processed stomach-churning images of dead children, apparently murdered by chemical weapons, the president couldn’t help but take a potshot at his predecessor. “These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution,” Trump said in a statement yesterday afternoon. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing. The United States stands with our allies across the globe to condemn this intolerable attack.” Continue reading “Trump keeps blaming Obama. Fresh polls show voters don’t buy it.”

The truth about Obama’s economic legacy and Trump’s inheritance

The following article by Christian Weller was posted on the Conversation website March 1, 2017:

Then-President Barack Obama holds a year-end news conference in Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2016. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has been trashing the economy and his predecessor’s legacy lately.

For example, in his free-wheeling Feb. 16 press conference, Trump said he “inherited a mess” from President Barack Obama. His newly minted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin followed suit a week later by telling the Wall Street Journal that Obama’s policies are to blame for the slower-than-normal growth the U.S. has experienced since the financial crisis in 2008.

While you wouldn’t know it from the way the Trump team has been talking about it, the economy is actually in pretty good shape. The current economic expansion just became the third-longest on record. The economy has been adding jobs every month for more than six years, the longest winning streak since World War II. And the federal budget deficit has sharply declined from a high of 9.8 percent of GDP in the middle of the Great Recession to a manageable 3.2 percent last year. Continue reading “The truth about Obama’s economic legacy and Trump’s inheritance”