Trump has changed Obama's post-presidency plans
WASHINGTON — Whatever President Obama had planned for life after the presidency, the election of Donald Trump will likely change those plans.
Instead of building on his legacy, he'll be defending it. Instead of helping to nurture his Democratic Party as an elder statesman, he'll be helping to rebuild it — finding new generational leaders who can carry the banner in future elections.
And instead of providing friendly counsel to President Hillary Clinton, he'll have a more complicated relationship with President Donald Trump.
"Obama's post-presidency just got exponentially more interesting," said Cody Foster, a University of Kentucky historian who has studied the post-presidential lives of former presidents.
"Whereas he might have focused on building upon policies created during his administration, he must now defend his administration's legacy," Foster said. "Every policy, every veto, every word must now be carefully defended against an incoming leader eager to blindly press 'undo' on everything that Obama created. And President Trump can do that because he has a Republican Congress and is likely to have a more conservative Supreme Court."
It's Obama's relationship with Trump that will likely be most scrutinized. Presidents have often relied on their predecessors for advice, support and even some sensitive diplomacy. In return, modern presidents have avoided public criticism of their successors — although they've sometimes conducted freelance foreign policy in a way that's flummoxed the incumbent, as with Jimmy Carter's outspoken work on human rights.
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