Former President Barack Obama emerges to defend his administration’s performance and attack the current president, Donald Trump.

In my long memory, going back to the Eisenhower years, only one other former president has been so publicly critical of a successor. Jimmy Carter’s plea to the Soviet ambassador in 1984, that derailing Ronald Reagan’s re-election would be important to both American and Soviet interests, was at least partially prophetic, if not treasonous. And in comparison to Mr. Carter’s own performance, his characterization of the administration of George W. Bush as “the worst in history” was simply laughable.

Reprising his 2012 jibe “you didn’t build that,” Mr. Obama takes credit for the economic strength the nation is seeing, claiming that the recent jobs report matches those in 2015 and 2016.

However, the strength we began to see in those two years was driven by industry optimism that the Republican majority that swept into both houses of Congress in 2014 would reverse the stranglehold of regulations that had been imposed over the previous six years. That the strength has continued is due in large part to the tax and regulatory reforms implemented by the Trump administration.

It would be unfair to saddle Mr. Obama with the 2.8 percent decline in gross domestic product during his first year in office, but in the following five years of his administration, annual growth of real GDP ranged from 1.6 percent to 2.5 percent. President Trump’s first year saw a growth rate of 2.3 percent, followed by 4.2 percent this year. Mr. Obama, you did not build that!

Finally, Mr. Obama takes issue with Mr. Trump for “capitalizing on resentment.” Are we to forget Mr. Obama’s own practices, which encouraged divisiveness of all sorts, especially racial? Should we ignore the divisiveness that has infected all of Washington since 2000, when President Bush was inappropriately accused of stealing the election?

Michael A. Smith

Wells

Related Stories