President Obama said on Sunday that while he will respect Donald Trump when he takes office, but he suggested that if Trump’s plans or actions go against certain “values” and “ideals,” he may speak up.
“I want to be respectful of the office and give the President-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off in every instance,” Obama said at a press conference in Lima, Peru, talking about his post-presidency plans.
“As an American citizen who cares deeply about our country, if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle but go to core questions about our values and our ideals, and if I think that it is necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals, I’ll examine it when it comes,” the President added.
He also said that first and foremost he will “take Michelle on vacation, get some rest, spend time with my girls and do some writing, do some thinking.”
The President also offered some advice to Democrats in Congress when asked if Democrats should treat Trump the same way Republicans approached Obama’s proposals.
“I certainly don’t want them to do what Mitch McConnell did when I was elected — meet the day of and say our sole objective is to not cooperate with him on anything even if the country is about to go into a depression so that we can gain seats in the mid-terms and ultimately defeat him,” Obama said. “That’s not my advice to Democrats.”
Obama told Democrats to “fight for your principles even if it’s a hard fight” but said that if they have areas of agreement with Trump, Democrats should “find a way to work with him.”
