Fact check: Obama is latest ex-president to criticize a successor, not close to the first

Camille Caldera, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Barack Obama is the first former president to publicly criticize a successor.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden recently told reporters that former President Barack Obama was about to hit the trail on his behalf, per CNN.

As the former commander-in-chief prepares to stump for his former vice president, a meme has resurfaced that claims Obama is the first ex-president to criticize his successor.

"Traitor," a post on Facebook reads. "This American Imposter Is Pushing The New World Order! FIRST EX PRESIDENT TO PUBLICLY SPEAK AGAINST A SUCCESSOR."

The successor himself — President Donald Trump — also shared the claim.

In May, he retweeted a user who wrote, "Barack Hussain Obama is the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor, which was long tradition of decorum and decency."

Neither the user behind the post on Facebook nor the White House has responded to requests from USA TODAY for comment.

Obama has criticized Trump. But he isn't the first to do so, per historians.

It's true that Obama has criticized Trump — first in 2018 ahead of the midterm elections, and more frequently in 2020 ahead of the presidential contest.

In 2018, he accused Trump of cozying up to Russia, emboldening white supremacists and polarizing the nation, called the administration "radical," per the New York Times.

In May, Obama termed the administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak an "absolute chaotic disaster," according to the Associated Press.

And at the Democratic National Convention in August, he made his most searing remarks yet, per USA TODAY.

Fact check: Viral post is fake Trump quote about Amy Coney Barrett

Reflecting on his last day in the Oval Office, Obama said he hoped Trump "might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care."

"But he never did," Obama said. "For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't," Obama added.

But Obama is not the first to make critical remarks about his successor, per multiple historians who spoke with FactCheck.org in May.

“By no means is this behavior something that is ‘unprecedented’ or has ‘never happened’ before,” Lara Brown, the director of the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, wrote in an email.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian, also wrote that former presidents have at times been more insulting than Obama.

“President Theodore Roosevelt called his successor President William Howard Taft a fathead, a puzzle-wit with the brain of a guinea pig,” Goodwin said. “President Herbert Hoover claimed the despotism of President Franklin Roosevelt was poisoning America."

Former President Jimmy Carter “criticized President Bill Clinton’s morals after the Monica Lewinsky scandal and criticized President Ronald Reagan for a perceived failure to accept his responsibilities as president,” per Goodwin.

In 2007, Carter also called President George W. Bush’s administration the “worst in history” on international relations, per the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

President Donald Trump talks with former President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill in Washington, prior to Obama's departure to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on Jan. 20, 2017.
President Donald Trump talks with former President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill in Washington, prior to Obama's departure to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on Jan. 20, 2017.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, the claim that Obama is the first president to publicly criticize a successor is FALSE. Though it's true that Obama has criticized Trump, multiple historians confirmed that other former presidents — including Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter — also criticized the individuals who occupied the Oval Office after them.

Our fact-check sources:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Barack Obama isn't only ex-president to critique successor