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George W. Bush and Barack Obama are missing in action

It made headlines last week when former President Barack Obama broke his silence to utter muted criticism of the ICE occupation of Minneapolis. 

In an interview with podcaster host Brian Tyler Cohen — but without mentioning Trump by name — Obama said, “The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous.”

That’s true, and thank you for saying so. But really? Is that all you have to say about an out-of-control siege that pulled legal citizens out of their homes, stopped people on the street and demanded their papers, and resulted in killing two American citizens? Your comment is, sadly, “too little, too late.” Where have you been for the last 13 months? 

And, for that matter, where have George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden been?  

In the wake of Presidents’ Day, when we reflect on the good or bad actions taken by all 47 presidents, it is only fair to reflect also on the lack of action taken by some. Maybe we give Bill Clinton and Joe Biden a pass — Clinton because he’s dealing with the Epstein files, and Biden because he just left the White House. But there’s no excuse for Bush or Obama not to speak out and condemn so many of the outrageous, unconstitutional, and dangerous actions taken by President Trump in his second term. 

Their silence is deafening, especially on matters that defined their own presidencies. 

Take the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump shut down in July 2025 after six decades of funding humanitarian, health, education, and development programs in over 100 countries. According to the State Department, USAID programs were credited with saving between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives per year, or an estimated 92 million people.  

At the heart of USAID was The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, created by Bush in 2003 and credited with saving 26 million lives. That program, which always enjoyed bipartisan support, is barely alive today due to the shutdown of USAID and severe budget cuts. In some counties, 100 percent of PEPFAR programs have been eliminated. Yet Bush’s response to Trump’s gutting of what many historians consider the single greatest achievement of his administration has been crickets. Bush has not uttered one public word of criticism.

If PEPFAR is Bush’s biggest accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act is Obama’s. This, too, has been trashed by Trump. Although having failed for almost ten years to “repeal” ObamaCare and “replace” it with a better alternative (which he has yet to deliver), Trump did succeed, with the help of Republican senators, in gutting the ACA by refusing to extend subsidies created in 2021, upon which 22 million Americans relied in 2025. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, that loss of subsidies will result in higher premiums or loss of health care for more than 20 million Americans. Yet Obama’s response to Trump gutting of his signature success has also been crickets. 

Nor did Obama speak out last week when Trump axed yet another historic Obama achievement by rolling back a scientific finding, adopted under Obama, that climate change endangers human health and the environment and empowering the Environmental Protection Agency to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. 

Perhaps most surprisingly, not until the Cohen interview did Obama comment on Trump’s posting of a now-infamous racist meme depicting himself and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys. Even then, he merely dismissed it as “this sort of clown show.” 

How much more powerful would it be if Bush and Obama were to hold a joint news conference to condemn Trump’s action? “This is not about politics,” they could and should tell the public. “This is about decency. Trump’s posting of a disgusting racist stereotype is unworthy of the office of the presidency.” 

Of course, there is a long tradition that former presidents refrain from criticizing their successors. That tradition has served us well. But surely it no longer applies when the sitting president has broken almost every other tradition there is, starting by not attending Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration. When Trump is breaking all the rules, it would be naive to demand that Bush and Obama remain silent. 

There is too much at stake today for Bush and Obama to sit on the sidelines. To save our democracy, they have a moral obligation to speak out. 

Bill Press is host of “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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