Separated by the entire North American continent and half the Pacific Ocean, the incoming and outgoing presidents are trading barbs — both veiled and overt — from their respective holiday vacations, souring a once a collegial public relationship.
Marked by insults on Twitter, perceived public slights and foreign policy disputes, the ties between President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama have significantly frayed less than a month before Trump is sworn into office.
Both sides say the actual mechanics of transferring power from one administration to another are proceeding smoothly. And Trump’s spokesman said Wednesday he expected more conversations between the two men before Inauguration Day on January 20.
Trump, however, has become more open in his criticism of the President since he won last month, arguing on Twitter that Obama misjudged the election and lost badly. He scaled up his disparagement on Wednesday, writing that “inflammatory” statements from Obama were hampering a smooth transition.
Obama has also offered criticism of his successor, albeit more tacitly. During a historic speech Tuesday in Pearl Harbor alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Obama cautioned against tribalism and isolationism — warnings that, during the campaign, he used to argue against Trump’s candidacy.
The latest back-and-forth comes after two weeks of open sparring between the White House and Trump’s transition team over Russia and Israel. Once contained to sniping between aides, the squabbles have escalated to Obama and Trump themselves.
The result is an openly antagonistic relationship between the commander in chief and the man who’s about to replace him, a dynamic that both men explicitly worked to avoid in the days immediately following the election.
