In a rare public appearance eight months after leaving office, former President Barack Obama took shots at his successor’s plans on health care and foreign policy but didn’t criticize him by name.
In a speech and question-and-answer session that closely resembled the types of appearances he favored as president, Obama called repeated efforts to repeal his signature health care law “frustrating.” He defended institutions like the United Nations as essential to collective diplomacy. And he warned against nationalism and xenophobia, saying they threaten to stymie progress that has made the world more livable.
“It may be frustrating that we have to mobilize every couple months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on their constituents,” Obama said of the health care battle. “But typically, that’s how progress is won.”
Obama’s speech at an event sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came during Trump’s first trip to the UN General Assembly, the yearly gathering of diplomats in New York. As Obama spoke, Trump was shuttling between meetings with the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and various countries in Africa.
If Trump’s campaign message and governing philosophy has been focused on repairing a damaged country, Obama offered a starkly different view on Wednesday, focusing instead on the advantages Americans currently enjoy compared to moments in the past.
“We just have to reject the notion that we are suddenly gripped by forces that we can’t control, and embrace the longer, more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it,” he said. “I know that statement doesn’t seem to jibe with the steady stream of bad news and cynicism we’re fed on television and Twitter,” he said.
Obama has largely avoided criticizing his Trump since the handoff of power in January, though he has released statements on Facebook decrying decisions Trump has made over the course of his presidency.
He was sharply critical of Trump’s plan to end a program shielding certain young immigrants from deportation, and he has been critical of attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
In other areas, however, Obama has expressed more veiled displeasure. He didn’t respond directly to Trump’s equivocal comments about white supremacist violence in Virginia, instead tweeting a quote from Nelson Mandela (the tweet became the most liked of all time).
The two men have not spoken since January, and their relationship is marked more by animosity than a shared respect at having both held the same office.
On Wednesday, Obama followed the classic post-presidential etiquette of not directly criticizing the sitting president – even as he offered an example of praise for George W. Bush.
In a friendly question-and-answer session led by Bill and Melinda Gates, Obama argued that Americans should be willing to acknowledge when “someone from a different political persuasion has done something really good.”
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