Bitterness Against Donald Trump Explodes — Barack Obama And Senators Defying Incoming President

Donald Trump will become president on January 20, and it looks like several factions in the Washington establishment would like to give him a big “up yours” as they leave the building and make way for president Trump.

Both Obama and a cohort of intelligence officers are causing Trump trouble, defying his wishes to delay the release of prisoners and questioning his remarks that Russia did not have a hand in skewing the election result, according to The Australian and the New York Times.

“[Trump believes] that inept, politicized American spies have gotten the perpetrator of the hacking wrong [and Putin was not the one responsible].”

Many people had been hopeful about a peaceful transition after Donald Trump praised Hillary Clinton and spoke respectfully about Obama during his victory speech and victory tour.

Some people had expected Trump to strut out and make inflammatory remarks about his opponents during his acceptance speech, “thank you” tour, and victory consultations. The civil, even rather gracious acceptance speech took many Trump critics by surprise. The President-elect promised to work constructively with those who have not supported him in the past.

“There have been a few,” Donald Trump said wryly, drawing laughs.

Trump was so courteous a few people even started to worry that he was yielding to his opponents.

In November, shortly after the acceptance speech, there was talk that Trump had decided to reverse his decision to repeal Obamacare. Trump reportedly changed his mind following a discussion with Obama, who also gave a gracious speech following the news of the Donald Trump win.

The Independent reported that after talking to Obama, Trump had decided to “amend” Obama’s Affordable Care Act rather than getting rid of it completely, as he had promised during his election campaign.

This angered many Trump supporters, who wondered what other decisions Trump would now reverse, under pressure from his predecessors.

Many imagined that the smooth-talking Obama had managed to convince Trump of the merits of Obamacare during the private consultation and that Barack’s decrees would now be shaping American policy even after Obama was officially out the door.

This week, it looks like bitterness between the incomers and outgoers has finally erupted.

The Australian reports that Barack Obama has ignored Donald Trump’s request to halt the transfer of 59 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

Trump and Obama clash deeply on their approach to Guantanamo and issues like terrorism and treatment of prisoners.

Donald Trump is known for his tough-on-terrorism stance, and he has expressed pro-torture sentiments.

Obama campaigned to close Guantanamo completely back in 2008. Trump takes the opposite stance, vowing to keep the prison open and “load it up with some bad dudes.”

Trump recently tweeted, “There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back on to the battlefield.”

Obama is reportedly scrambling to organize the release of a third of these people before Trump enters office on January 20 and implements his hard-line approach.

The Australian reports that the release of Saudi prisoners may be especially concerning. The Saudi government apparently encourages prisoners who come home to “return to extremism.”

“One prisoner, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, testified before a prison review board that Saudi Arabia was secretly encouraging detainees released into its authority to return to extremism.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that intelligence officials are defying Trump by banding together and re-stating their belief that Russia manipulated the U.S. election outcome.

The officials reportedly plan to confront Trump during an “extraordinary meeting” scheduled for tomorrow.

By saying that Putin skewed the election in Trump’s favor, the officials are questioning Trump’s very right to hold the presidency,

“In effect, they will be telling the president-elect that the spy agencies believe that he won the presidency with an assist from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.”

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]