President Barack Obama has vowed not to criticize President-elect Donald Trump during the transition of power, but he told friends and supporters at a private meeting last week he might change that tone after Trump is inaugurated.
"I'm going to be constrained in what I do with all of you until I am again a private citizen," Obama told a meeting of the liberal group Organizing for Action, according to The New York Times. "But," he noted. "that's not so far off."
Obama hands over the reins when Trump is inaugurated the nation's 45 president on January 20.
Liberal advocacy groups are encouraging Obama to break from tradition, and oppose Trump when needed – and that's something they believe will be often.
Obama will be nearby to do so. He's also breaking tradition and not leaving Washington immediately after leaving office. He has purchased a D.C. home so his youngest daughter, Sasha, can finish high school with her friends.
Center for American Progress President and Hillary Clinton adviser Neera Tanden told the Times that Trump's early appointments of people liberals view as extreme conservatives have strengthened their resolve to fight.
"I think the issue is, we do have the makings of an administration that could do more damage to democratic norms than any presidency in my lifetime," Tanden said.
Obama reasserted his private vow to Organizing for Action on the public stage during a press conference in Lima, Peru on Sunday.
"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 ideals, and if I think it's necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals, then I’ll examine it when it comes," Obama said after a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
If Obama remains involved in the political sphere, it would mark a departure from his recent predecessors. Republican George W. Bush has never commented on his successor's policies. Democrat Bill Clinton was equally silent on Bush after leaving the White House, though he actively campaigned for his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her bids for the White House.
Obama leaves office in January. He faces extraordinary pressure from fellow Democrats, many of whom are protesting Trump's election and are concerned that his Republican successor will implement promises from his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants en masse, bar immigration from Muslim countries and encourage aggressive policing and intelligence activities.
"President Bush could not have been more gracious to me when I came in," Obama said. "My intention is to certainly for the next two months, just finish my job and then after that to take Michelle on vacation, get some rest, spend time with my girls and do some writing, do some thinking."
"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 the conclusion of what is likely his last foreign trip as president.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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