President Donald Trump’s toxicity won’t be tolerated in the East Room of the White House during the unveiling of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama later this year because the ceremony is not going to happen as long as Trump is in office.
For decades now, sitting presidents have hosted their predecessor for a ceremony in the East Room to officially unveil their White House portraits that will hang on the walls for posterity so that generations of Americans can enjoy them and so that future presidents can gaze upon them and even take solace with them in times of crisis.
But because of Trump’s vicious attacks against Obama in recent weeks, including accusing him of an unspecified crime and calling for him to be prosecuted and referring to him as “incompetent” in response to his commencement address, the ceremony won’t be happening this year because Obama is reportedly not going to attend.
According to NBC News:
[T]his modern ritual won’t be taking place between Obama and President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. And if Trump wins a second term in November, it could be 2025 before Obama returns to the White House to see his portrait displayed among every U.S. president from George Washington to Bush.
Obama, for his part, has no interest in participating in the post-presidency rite of passage so long as Trump is in office, the people familiar with the matter said.”
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It’s just further proof of how much Trump has poisoned the political climate in this country as yet another tradition is tossed aside due to his vitriol.
“You’ve got a president who’s talking about putting the previous one in legal jeopardy, to put it nicely. We have not seen a situation like that in history,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss told NBC. “It takes antipathy of a new president for a predecessor to a new level.”
Indeed, Trump was also the de facto leader of the “birther” movement who repeatedly claimed Obama was not born in the United States and demanded to see his birth certificate. Trump has repeatedly attacked Obama ever since for every little thing, including golf outings — even though Trump has played more golf during his presidency than Obama ever did.
Of course, conservatives will likely attack Obama and call him petty, which is ironic considering how petty Trump is. But why would Obama want to spend any time with Trump pretending to be chummy with him after everything Trump has said and done? And that’s the whole point. If anything, Trump should be barred from the event like he was barred from attending former First Lady Barbara Bush’s funeral. And he sure as hell doesn’t deserve to have his own portrait hung in the White House.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
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