Like his predecessors before him, then-President Barack Obama left a hand-written letter to then-President-Elect Trump inside the Resolute Desk.
President Obama's letter to trump https://t.co/YMCYBYyNlh
And Pete Souza's photo of President Obama placing in top drawer
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/m8bjGwX1Pe
— ᎠᏌNᎬᎷYᎢᎻᎪNᏩ™️ (@Kris_Sacrebleu) September 3, 2017
When Trump saw the letter after his inauguration, he showed the envelope to the press but declined to reveal the specifics.
Trump called it a “beautiful letter” which was “so well-written, so thoughtful” in an interview with ABC News at the time, but again parried any attempt to divulge the contents.
Since then, however, Trump has reportedly shown the letter to several White House visitors and staff, one of whom was apparently left with it long enough to snap a picture and send it to, who else, CNN – which published the letter’s contents on Sunday.
"We are just temporary occupants of this office."
Read the letter Obama left for Trump on Inauguration Day. https://t.co/fe8uTBrTvj pic.twitter.com/Q1nzKBuroc
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 3, 2017
Trump was right – it was indeed a beautiful, thoughtful, well-written letter. In fact, one would even argue that this piece of news shouldn’t reek of partisanship and the ‘leaker’ who divulged it might have done so with the purest of intentions.
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But leave it to CNN to turn anything into an anti-Trump moment, and writer Kevin Liptak was no different in his treatment of Obama’s letter.
Regarding Obama’s call to “leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them,” Liptak wrote, “That passage, read seven months after Trump took office, appears prescient. Trump has been accused of flouting rule of law in his broadsides against federal judges and his own attorney general. His verbal assaults on Congress have led to charges that he’s disregarding the constitutionally enshrined separate but equal branches of government.”
“Since reading the letter for the first time,” Liptak continued. “Trump hasn’t spoken or seen Obama. Instead he’s frequently criticized the former president, rolled back significant elements of Obama’s agenda, and privately obsessed about comparisons between himself and the man he replaced.”
Obama, of course, has been the far bigger person, from Liptak’s perspective, criticizing “decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and repeal Obamacare,” but declining to pile on Trump for his Charlottesville statements.
Liberals were quick to weigh in:
What wise and eloquent advice from one president to another. Sad how thoroughly @POTUS has disregarded it! https://t.co/35QSADOxm2
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/Impeach_D_Trump/status/904423753530171392
Pres. Obama's transition letter to Trump is a classy, eloquent, and generous "fuck you", and I am absolutely here for it.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) September 3, 2017
The advice letter Obama wrote to Trump, his slanderer and harasser, was much more gracious than he deserved. https://t.co/ANGlYNcHT4
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) September 3, 2017
Houston rapper Lil’ Flip defends Trump’s visit and has a message for president’s critics
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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