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| Don't make me come back here. |
Former President Barack Obama plans to speak out if President Donald Trump declares his intention to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a person close to Obama.
Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday that in six months, he will terminate the Obama-era DACA initiative, which grants two-year work permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and stayed out of trouble. POLITICO first reported the news.
Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers. In his final presidential press availability, he suggested that he would speak out if Trump went after the Dreamers — and that it was one of the few issues where he would feel morally compelled to do so. He said he would not remain silent in the face of “efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country.”
Yes my headline is a little hyperbolic, as it really reflects how I wish Obama would respond, rather than the measured and careful statement that he is certain to issue.
I know who Obama is, and I admire him immensely for the fact that he is forever the grownup in the room, the steadying presence, the man who keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs. (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)
And we will welcome his words, share them with others, and cling to them for the wisdom that they hold.
But they will change absolutely nothing, and Trump will keep right on taking a sledgehammer to everything that President Obama worked so hard to build.
That makes me incredibly sad, and almost uncontrollably angry.
Donald Trump is a bully.
I remember bullies from my years in public school.
Everybody always told me to take the high road, to not get down on their level.
But nothing made it stop, nothing made me feel safe, until I finally had enough and knocked them on their ass.
I guess in some ways I just want Barack Obama to knock Donald Trump on his ass.
Verbally of course, I would never suggest a physical confrontation. (Though I have every confidence 44 could beat 45's big orange ass with little effort.)
Is it wrong? Probably.
Will Obama ever do anything like that? Probably not.
But that does not stop me from wanting it.
And it does not keep me from thinking that ultimately Barack Obama may be left with no choice.
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