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.
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.
This has been Obama’s pattern since the election – largely staying mum on how his successor is doing. His sharpest comments came weeks ago when Obama denied through a spokesman that he had ordered wiretaps of Trump at his penthouse in New York during the campaign, which Trump had alleged without citing any evidence. Since then, Obama hasn’t gotten into public spats with Trump despite the incumbent’s regularly expressed hostility toward Obama and his policies.
This is unfortunate because former presidents have a lot to offer their successors. But the anti-Obama drumbeat from Trumpworld never ceases. On Wednesday, Trump condemned Obama for abuse of power because his predecessor declared large tracts of federal land off limits to development under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Other presidents have used the same law to protect federal land, but Trump aides say he is particularly upset that Obama locked up more than a million acres at the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah over the objections of local and state officials.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer blamed Obama for the furor over Michael Flynn, the former White House national security adviser whom Trump fired shortly after giving Flynn the job. Spicer said the Obama administration had cleared Flynn for service in a different intelligence job in 2012 (Obama forced Flynn’s resignation two years later) and Flynn renewed his clearance in 2016. Spicer argued that the Trump White House had no obligation to clear Flynn again in January 2017 when he took over as national security adviser. Flynn is under investigation because of his alleged ties to foreign governments, including Russia.
During a reception for conservative journalists at the White House this week, Trump said Obama was “duped” by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad into thinking Assad had disposed of his chemical weapons. Trump said this was proven untrue when the Syrian government recently used nerve gas against civilians. But looking backward and pointing fingers in such a personal way isn’t going to help solve the ongoing problem of how to end the violence in Syria and promote stability in the Middle East.
It was only a small part of a continuing screed. After bashing Obama repeatedly during the campaign, Trump used a speech to a joint session of Congress several weeks ago to declare that “we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited,” including what he called high unemployment, soaring national debt, a huge trade deficit, and “a series of tragic foreign policy disasters.” Specifically, Trump has blamed Obama for being a bad negotiator and getting poor deals on trade with many nations and for being outfoxed by Iran in a nuclear agreement. This pact was supposed to reduce Iran’s potential for developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the United States lifting many sanctions against Tehran. Trump has argued for months that the U.S. got the worst of the bargain but he hasn’t so far come up with anything better. Trump says Obama was so inept that he emboldened North Korean to develop its nuclear capacity and Obama’s weakness has forced Trump to get tough to throw the Pyongyang regime back on its heels. “The first 90 days of my presidency,” he wrote on Twitter last week, “has exposed the total failure of the last eight years of foreign policy! So true.”
On domestic issues, Trump says Obama over-regulated the economy, resulting in minimal growth. He says Obama didn’t side strongly enough with law enforcement, resulting in crime problems. He says Obama was lax in reducing illegal immigration. And in one of his strongest and most sustained attacks, he says the health-care law enacted under Obama has been a disaster that has increased premiums and made coverage worse for millions of people. This week, Trump wrote on Twitter that Obamacare is about to disintegrate, and Democrats need to work with Trump’s Republican allies in Congress to create a health insurance system that Americans can rely on.
This strategy of constantly and harshly blaming Obama is a dangerous ploy for Trump politically. He is taking on a former Democratic leader whose approval ratings far exceed his own and who is a hero to many Democrats. This makes it more difficult to get support and cooperation from Obama admirers and Democrats in general or to expand Trump’s base.
Blaming a predecessor has been done before, of course. Obama criticized his Republican predecessor George W. Bush for throwing the economy into a ditch and getting the United States into a “dumb” war in Iraq. Earlier, the Republicans had delighted in mocking Democrat Jimmy Carter for being weak and out of touch on both domestic and foreign policy. And Democrats for many years pilloried Republican Herbert Hoover, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt’s predecessor, for a poor response to the Depression.
But with Trump the hostility seems to be more personal, sustained and harsh. Perhaps he attacks Obama to energize die-hard conservatives who hate Obama and condemn his policies as too left-wing. The problem is that former presidents can be helpful to incumbents if they are on good terms, and Trump seems to be cutting off this possibility. Former President Richard Nixon, though condemned by Democrats, secretly advised Bill Clinton on foreign policy, and Clinton found the counsel to be very helpful. George H.W. Bush and Clinton helped to raise money for victims of natural disasters around the world at the request of President George W. Bush.
The point is that former presidents possess a wealth of knowledge and talent, and they have cultivated relationships with other leaders at home and abroad. All of this can be invaluable to an incumbent. But first they have to get along and develop mutual respect. That hasn’t happened between Trump and Obama, and it doesn’t seem likely any time soon.
View the post here.