Since President Trump took office on January 20th, former President Obama took some well deserved time to vacation with his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama. While the Obama’s were gone, President Trump was busy signing thirteen executive orders in his first week as President. Some of these executive orders included taking away federal funding for abortion services, approving permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline, and banning entry to the US from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Trump has also signed executive orders to increase deportations and begin the process of building a wall on the southern border.
Many US citizens have taken to activism in order to protest Trump’s executive orders. While citizens were protesting, little was heard from the Obama’s until recently. On Monday, Obama’s spokesperson Kevin Lewis released a statement on behalf of the former President.
“President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.
Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake. With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”
While Obama has strived for a peaceful transfer of power, he has also stated that he would speak out in the Trump era if he felt “our core values are at stake.” He then described the threats to those values as “systematic discrimination,” voter suppression, “institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press” and the deportation of children who immigrated into the country illegally with their parents.
