Former presidents keep their counsel over Trump 2.0

The stadium announcer called on the crowd to give a warm welcome to “a very special guest”.

- By David Smith WASHINGTON

A cheer went up as basketball fans realised that Barack Obama was in their midst. The former US president rose to his feet, smiled and waved before watching the Los Angeles Clippers take on the Detroit Pistons last week.

It was a jarringly normal scene at a profoundly abnormal time. The previous evening, Donald Trump had delivered the longest-ever presidential address to Congress, a dark, divisive tirade strewn with lies and insults - he called Joe Biden the “worst president in American history”. Yet Biden did not respond and Obama remained silent. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush were similarly mute. Six weeks into a Trump second term that has shattered democratic norms and ruptured diplomatic alliances, it remains unclear what - if anything - might prompt the former presidents to speak out.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: "Let’s look only at Clinton and Obama: it’s almost as though they’ve washed their hands of it.

"You can understand why because when you challenge Trump, he goes after you and never lets up. It’s hell every single day, multiple times a day.”