Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:59 pm
After Donald Trump spent the weekend proving he can’t responsibly handle national security intelligence, Barack Obama’s White House photographer, Pete Souza, took to social media to take a not-so-subtle swipe at the new president.
In a picture posted to his Instagram account, Souza didn’t explicitly name Trump, but he did explain how a real president handles classified material when he’s not physically standing in the White House.
Picture:
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The Obama photographer wrote, “When we were on the road, national security discussions and head of state phone calls were conducted in a private, secure location set up onsite.”
Souza’s caption could also read: This is how real presidents handle important national security matters.
The post from the ex-Obama photograph offered a stark contrast to the Trump team, which spent the weekend at the president’s Mar-A-Lago Estate compromising America’s safety by turning an unexpected national security crisis into “dinner theater,” as Nancy Pelosi pointed out earlier today.
During a dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when a call came in notifying Trump that North Korea launched a ballistic missile, the president remained seated and essentially turned his table – in full view of the club’s members – into a national security “strategy session.”
It may have been exciting for those in the room, but it’s hardly the appropriate location for key national security operations to unfold.
Souza wasn’t the only Obama official that used images to attack Trump’s national security fiasco. Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Obama, shot this tweet out last night:
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) February 13, 2017
The new president seems to believe that being the commander-in-chief isn’t so different from hosting a game show or starring in a reality TV program – nothing matters as long as people are entertained and he’s getting attention.
But even someone as unfit as Trump to hold this office should understand that America’s national security is nothing to toy with over dinner. It’s not about getting publicity or scoring ratings; lives are quite literally at risk.
After spending an entire presidential campaign attacking Hillary Clinton for not knowing how to handle national security, Donald Trump is proving that it’s he who doesn’t have a clue.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
