The Ex-Presidents' Club

Yesterday marked the eighteen-month anniversary of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, which means that President Obama has now held the title of Former President for a year and a half.  As President Trump wrapped up his trip in Europe, Former President Obama took a trip to Africa, which included his first trip to his father’s home country of Kenya since he left office.  He spoke in South Africa Tuesday in honor of Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s 100^th Birthday.  During the speech, he took quite a few veiled shots at President Trump.  President Obama echoed the left-wing talking point that President Trump has dictatorial tendencies, complaining that “strongman politics are ascendant suddenly.”  Laura Ingraham pointed out that “Trump was elected in part because many Americans were fed up with the ‘weak-man’ leadership of Barack Obama.”

President Obama railed against the horrors of “closed borders” and “protectionism” while complaining that “those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning.”  The distrust of these “institutions” did not come out of nowhere.  Many of the heads of these institutions appointed by President Obama have done more damage to these institutions than any “strongman” ever could have.  Obama’s Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied about spying on Americans.  Today, the supposedly nonpartisan Clapper, Former FBI Director James Comey and Former CIA Director John Brennan frequently spend time on the airwaves doing everything they can to attack the Trump Administration; effectively shaking the faith of many Americans that these intelligence agencies maintain independence from political prejudice when making decisions that affect the lives of millions of Americans.  The unearthing of text messages between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his lover lawyer Lisa Page suggesting they would use the power gifted to them by the American people “stop” the election of Trump has only further enhanced the distrust of the intelligence agencies.  Liberals themselves blasted the intelligence agencies for incorrectly concluding that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a finding that ultimately led to the War in Iraq.  Two journalists at The New York Times actively worked to undermine the work of the intelligence agencies when they tipped off two Muslim charities, the Global Relief Foundation and the Holy Land Foundation, about impending raids. But liberals all of a sudden have a newfound respect for intelligence agencies (as well as free trade) because they hate President Trump so much.  This phenomenon definitely deserves an honorable mention in Ann Coulter’s upcoming book The Resistance is Futile!  How The Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind.            

The Former President also slammed the “right wing billionaires” who lead populist movements, apparently forgetting that the Koch Brothers, who Republicans normally rely on for their campaign cash, decided to sit out the last Presidential election and ignoring the role that left-wing billionaires such as George Soros play a major role in supporting globalist and left-wing candidates like himself.  President Obama could not have picked a better place to address  the “politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment” and “barely hidden racial nationalism” than South Africa, which has seen an upsurge in Marxism where a group of black South Africans feel perfectly justified in seizing lands owned by white farmers and in some cases, even resorting to murder.  In their “revolutionary call” the group “Blacks First Land First” describes themselves as “a people crying out for stolen land!  Now we have decided to get it back by any means necessary!”   Lauren Southern highlights the farm murders extensively in her new documentary “Farmlands” in addition to showing many white South African farmers who have basically turned their homes into prisons in an effort to prevent the same tragedy from happening to them.

Unfortunately, the South African government seems to have jumped on board with the policies of “Blacks First Land First,” passing a law that allows the government to seize land from white farmers without compensating them.  While advocates of the policy point to the injustices of Apartheid when justifying their actions, it does not seem like they fulfill the goal of the “Rainbow nation” of multiracial peace and harmony envisioned by Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  President Obama said in his speech that “we’ve got to constantly be on the lookout for people who seek to elevate themselves by putting somebody else down.”  He also shared a quote from Mandela: “I detest racialism, whether it comes from a white man or a black man.”  The people carrying out the farm murders definitely need to hear that message. 
  While President Obama did give some nuggets of good advice in his speech, don’t expect him to practice what he preaches.  After he told the crowd that they should not dismiss people “because they’re white, or because they’re male,” he basically turned his back on his own advice during another appearance in South Africa the following day when he complained that “men have been getting on my nerves lately,” describing them as “violent” and “bullying.”     
Believe it or not, President Obama’s two immediate predecessors have also taken thinly veiled shots at President Trump.  Presidents Clinton and Bush made an appearance in Arkansas at a graduation ceremony for Presidential Leadership Scholars.  Keep in mind that if not for his accent, many people under the age of 25 would easily say New York when asked to name Clinton’s home state.  While the younger Bush could not bring himself to vote for Clinton’s wife, he also could not vote for Trump; unlike his father, who voted for the wife of the man who defeated his bid for a second term in the White House less than 25 years earlier.  Both men had hoped that the American people would have their individual family members the 45^th President of the United States. Both Bush and Clinton did not appear to approve of President Trump’s strategy when it comes to NATO. Laura Ingraham put it this way: “That’s right, the new best buds George W. Bush and Bill Clinton scolded the current president for essentially doing what they could not, or did not, would not, take NATO to task for their decades of free riding on the United States.”

Finally, 93-year-old Jimmy Carter recently said that Jesus would approve of some abortion and gay marriage while promoting his book in a recent appearance on  Huffpost Live.  Carter has spent his post-Presidency teaching Sunday school.  Franklin Graham wrote a Facebook post declaring Carter “absolutely wrong” on the issue of same-sex marriage, citing the Bible passages Romans 1:24-27 and arguing “The bible is very clear.  God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality.”  Unlike people who subscribe to the most extreme elements of what Pat Buchanan refers to as “homofascism,” Carter does not wish to force Christian churches to perform same-sex ceremonies.  Of all of the members of the “Ex-Presidents’ Club,” Carter has actually treated President Trump the best, even suggesting the President should get a Nobel Peace Prize should he manage to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.        

President Trump, meanwhile, has spent his entire Presidency trying to clean up the messes of his predecessors.  While President Reagan mopped up most of Carter’s mistakes, especially on the world stage, President Obama made a whole new set of foreign policy blunders, especially the Iran nuclear deal.  President Trump has angered the left most of all by trying to do something no President for the past three decades has been able to do: secure the border and enforce immigration laws.  Presidents in both parties have obsessed over giving amnesty to illegal immigrants, while doing little to curb the incentives that cause people to cross the border illegally in the first place, such as the “catch and release” policy.  Presidents in both parties have also touted the benefits of adding China into the World Trade Organization.  The American people now realize the “benefits,” which include the closure of 60,000 factories, the loss of more than two million manufacturing jobs and currency manipulation at the hands of the Chinese government that effectively gives the world’s most populous nation an unfair advantage in international trade. President Trump’s insistence on “fair trade” allowed him to carry three “rust belt” states Republican Presidential candidates had not carried for three decades; Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.  President Trump has also had to deal with problems on the world stage that Presidents on both sides of the aisle have found themselves unable to solve; namely North Korea and Russia. 

Speaking of Ex-Presidents, it looks like Ex-Vice President Joe Biden would like to throw his hat into the ring for the 2020 Presidential Election.  During a recent appearance on “CBS Evening News,” President Trump said that he considered running against Biden “a dream,” mentioning how “he never got more than 1 percent” in his previous Presidential bids and arguing that “Biden never by himself could never do anything.” Former First Lady Michelle Obama has made quite a few public appearances as well, most recently by appearing in an ad with celebrites such as Tom Hanks and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in an effort to get young people out to vote. 

Referring to Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio announced his unsuccessful Presidential campaign by saying “just yesterday, a leader from yesterday, began a Presidential campaign by promising to take us back to yesterday.”  President Trump could easily announce his 2020 re-election campaign by saying the exact thing, especially if he ends up facing off against Biden, Michelle Obama, Eric Holder, or any other Obama Administration official.  All of the individuals planning to run against him hope to give President Trump an early spot in the “Ex-Presidents’ Club.”  The unelected leaders of the “Ex-Presidents’ Club” will probably not give him the same rights and privileges afforded to other ex-Presidents.   

President Trump has spent his Presidency undoing (or attempting to undo) the worst parts of the legacies of the men who make up the Ex-Presidents’ Club.  That alone may explain their animus towards the 45^th President of the United States.