WASHINGTON — George H.W. Bush stayed mum when Bill Clinton took over. Clinton held his tongue once George W. Bush held the reins. And the younger Bush remained silent after Barack Obama moved into the West Wing.
There’s a longstanding practice among the fraternity of former US presidents: Don’t publicly criticize your successor, but if you must, do it only in the most oblique way possible.
But just as President Trump has smashed political traditions with gusto, Obama is casting aside the presidential courtesy: Obama has taken some swipes at Trump’s actions, most recently on Thursday, when he issued a statement criticizing the 45th president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
“I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack,’’ Obama said, adding that pulling out of the treaty put the United States in a small group of countries that “reject the future.’’
The statement didn’t mention Trump by name. It wasn’t filled with fiery rhetoric. But the timing was clear: Obama’s statement came while Trump was still standing in the Rose Garden and in the midst of explaining his decision to end US participation in the accord.
Previously, Obama released a statement praising his landmark Affordable Care Act on the seventh anniversary of the passing of the law, timing that coincided with the day House Republicans planned to repeal it. During a separate speech in Boston, Obama also offered a moral case for keeping the law. He didn’t mention Trump either time, but the context was clear: He was defending a program under attack by the new president and his allies.
“Presidents have given their successors wide latitude to do and say things without getting second-guessed by their predecessors,’’ said Michael Duffy, coauthor of “The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity.’’ “There aren’t many examples of one president issuing a statement while the other is speaking.’’
A reason for this courtesy is empathy.
“Very few people know what it’s like to have sat in that chair,’’ Duffy said. “They come out of office with a similar set of scars and bruises for having sat there. They know how impossible that job is. When they see a successor struggling, they tend to say: ‘Yes, it is hard. I know how hard that is.’ ’’
But these are different times. Trump broke precedent when he accused Obama of illegally wiretapping him, an act that would be a felony and one for which Trump has offered not a scintilla of proof. This is just one of the justifications Obama’s allies give for his departure from the norm.
“Donald Trump has respected no institutions in American life,’’ said Bill Burton, who was a White House spokesman during Obama’s first term. “There’s no reason to think he should be protected by the tradition that he shouldn’t be criticized by former presidents or anyone else in this country.’’
Moreover, Obama is not the only member of the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. alumni club to turn on Trump: Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both have been critical of the new president.
Even George W. Bush, who is seen by experts as setting the gold standard of post-presidential silence, hasn’t been pleased with the current social climate. His remarks were widely interpreted as criticism of the Trump era.
“I don’t like the racism, and I don’t like the name-calling, and I don’t like the people feeling alienated,’’ Bush said in an interview with People magazine that was published in February.
The 43rd president has also said “we need answers’’ to questions about whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians during the election.
Bush built his reputation for silence because he outlined his intention to hold his tongue about Obama in a March 2009 speech.
“It’s a hard job. He’s got plenty on his agenda. It’s difficult,’’ Bush said in March 2009. “A former president doesn’t need to make it any harder. Other presidents have taken different decisions; that’s mine.’’
It’s a promise he didn’t completely keep. During a June 2009 speech, Bush offered several criticisms of Obama’s agenda without naming him, including swipes at Obama’s ambition to close a prison at Guantánamo Bay, a proposal for federal health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act overhaul, and Obama’s stimulus package.
Those close to Obama say he initially hoped he could kite-surf into the sunset and largely follow the example of other former presidents. Obama met with Trump during the transition, an encounter that seemed to go well.
Obama resisted responding to Trump’s wiretapping accusation despite many opportunities from the media to do so.
But fairly quickly into Trump’s tumultuous tenure, it became clear that Obama would play a different sort of role. “President Obama said from the beginning that he reserved his right as a citizen to comment on matters that rose to this magnitude,’’ said Eric Schultz, a former Obama spokesman.
On March 23, the day the House Republicans hoped to vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, Obama released a long statement praising his law. “After a century of talk, decades of trying, and a year of bipartisan debate, our generation was the one that succeeded,’’ Obama said. “We finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody.’’
The House didn’t end up voting that day — or the following day. But several weeks later, the House voted to repeal the health law. The effort is now languishing in the Senate where there’s not a consensus for how to move forward.
Combating climate change is an issue that Obama is particularly sensitive to out of concern for what shape the planet will be in for his children, and perhaps one day, grandchildren.
But others in Washington have noticed Obama’s break with tradition, and they aren’t happy with it — and that includes folks who aren’t typically in Trump’s corner.
“I don’t think past presidents should criticize current presidents. I think it diminishes them and diminishes the presidency,’’ said Katie Packer, who served as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s deputy campaign manager and was a leading voice in the Never Trump movement during the 2016 campaign.
“There was nothing that President Obama could say that could change the situation, and there are plenty of voices to speak out on their side.’’
And Obama’s outspokenness — while probably welcomed by his supporters, who reflexively look to the gifted communicator to crystallize the progressive message — carries a long-term strategic risk for Democrats, said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Romney.
“They need new leaders to emerge and help transition the party to the future. When you have Clinton and Obama taking up some of the spotlight, it has the potential to stifle some of the growth of new Democratic leaders,’’ he said, referring to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s recent reemergence in public, along with Obama’s comments.
It’s a point former Obama staff members acknowledge.
“President Obama has spoken out as a citizen, and I’m sure he will from time to time, but it’s a mistake for Democrats to continue to look to him as our salvation,’’ said Dan Pfeiffer, a former White House strategist for the 44th president.
Another problem: Obama ignites Trump’s base every time he opens his mouth. “These Trump supporters are just animated by what they see as this chance to really contrast Trump’s action with the last eight years,’’ Madden said. “For them, [Obama’s criticism] is the reason to support Trump.’’
Ohio Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Youngstown, the former steel-making powerhouse among those Rust Belt icons Trump mentioned in his Rose Garden speech, said he thought it was appropriate Obama spoke out.
Trump “is really taking the country in a complete other direction than ever before, and disengaging us from the world in so many ways,’’ Ryan said. “I think it’s really hard for a president like Obama, who worked so hard to rebuild American leadership in the world after the Iraq war. . . . I think President Obama feels compelled to say something about it, and I think it’s appropriate.’’
Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @annielinskey. Victoria McGrane can be reached at victoria.mcgrane@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @vgmac.
