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In a report demonstrating the collapse in diplomatic relations between the current and previous president, the WSJ wrote overnight that rapport between Barack Obama and Donald Trump has "unraveled" with Trump "convinced that Mr. Obama is undermining his nascent administration" while Obama is "furious" over Trump tweets accusing him of illegal wiretapping. The WSJ notes that after shaking hands on Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, the two presidents havent spoken since, "although Trump tried to call Obama to thank him for the traditional letter that one president leaves for his successor in the Oval Office." The reason: Obama was traveling at the time and the two never connected.

As an amusing aside, the WSJ adds that the rift is distancing Mr. Trump from a former two-term president "who had offered to give private advice and counsel as the onetime businessman settles into his first job in public office." Of course, if Trump is correct and Obama did in fact order a wiretap of the Trump Tower, Obama was actively seeking to impair the Trump campaign and chances for presidency, so that statement may seem a little suspect in retrospect.

Accuracy of the report notwithstanding, it is obvious that the bad blood between the two people has grown to unprecedented levels: Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the open friction has upended tradition, an almost unwritten rule that you treat your predecessor with a degree of grace and decorum.

There are these kinds of things that have happened in the past, but nothing to the degree where a sitting president would charge his predecessor with a felony, Mr. Brinkley said. It creates a feeling of instability in the United States.

Whether real or imagine, Trump and other White House officials believe that Obama loyalists sprinkled throughout the federal bureaucracy are behind leaks that are damaging his personnel, White House officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Obama wouldnt comment to the WSJ on the claim. In fact, as NewsMax CEO Christopher Ruddy, a friend of Mr. Trump who sees him on weekends at the presidents Mar-a-Lago, said in an interview: From what Im hearing, Trumps people think Obama is at war with them.

This president has been under siege since Day One from both the press and Obama loyalists and hes reacting to it, Mr. Ruddy said. I dont think theres any doubt that Obama loyalists inside the administration and outside are giving Donald Trump a lot of grief and a lot of problems.

As is well-known by now, the animosity between Trump and Obama hit a climax last weekend, when Trump responded to recent allegations of ties to Russia by tweeting How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

Keeping a low profile in post-presidency, Obama - who is currently writing a book for which he will receive tens of millions in proceeds - had decided he wouldnt respond to every intemperate Trump tweet, an aide said. "But he was livid over the accusation that he bugged the Republican campaign offices, believing that Mr. Trump was questioning both the integrity of the office of the president and Mr. Obama himself, people familiar with his thinking said."

Ironically, as the WSJ adds, Obama had been critical of leaks when he was president, specifically those related to the Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into the email use of Mrs. Clinton, his former secretary of state. He was very quick to condemn it then and obviously his silence now is notable, one White House official said Tuesday. Obama, in an interview with the mobile news outlet NowThis News just days before the November election, said that when it comes to investigations we dont operate on innuendo, we dont operate on incomplete information, we dont operate on leakswe operate based on concrete decisions that are made.

For now, Trump's attacks on Obama continue, first responding to a Fox News report yesterday when he claimed incorrectly that a number of Guantanamo Bay detainees who returned to the battlefield were released under Mr. Obamas watch (most were released under President Bush), followed by calling Obamacare a total disaster and said Mr. Obama had allowed Russia to grow stronger and stronger over eight years in office.

So far, Obama and his spokesman have not responded to those tweets; it is unclear how long the former president can hold his silence.

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Obama "Furious" With Trump Over Wiretapping Allegations ...

At a candidates forum in early 2015, then presidential candidate Trump without a blink said, I dont know if he loves America. The he Trump referred to was, of course, former President Obama. The slap at Obama was simply the latest in Trumps by then three-year campaign to vilify, impugn, slander, and harass Obama as not only not an American citizen, but as an illegitimate President. Trumps ruthless, near obsessive, vendetta of lies against Obama paid big dividends early on. It got him briefly in the hunt for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. That made him a political household name. Three years later, in 2015, it got him to the top of the GOP presidential pack and kept him there during the primaries. It then got him the biggest prize of all, the White House.

Obama from the start was Trumps political meal ticket. When things got dull or there was a momentary rough patch on the campaign trial, Trump had Obama as his ready-made whipping boy. Nothing has changed. With Democrats screaming for answers about Trumps relations with Russia and Putin, and even some GOP leaders feeling the heat and making weak soundings about a probe or two here and there, Trump quickly trotted out his Obama meal ticket. This time its the ludicrous claim that Obama wiretapped him during the campaign, complete with the demand that Congress investigate Obama. Its tempting to simply chalk this up as yet another Trump ploy to deflect attention from his Russia connection, and in part it is. But theres more, much more to this.

Trumps persistent use of Obama as his foil isnt just to slander his presidency. Its to slander him. It isnt just political, it is personal. The two cant be separated. Trump repeatedly made clear during the early stages of his campaign that if he got in the White House hed sign any and every executive order he could to try and halt, gut, or obliterate every initiative that Obama had ever put in place. Hes been as good as his word.

Trumps assault on Obamas initiatives normally would have been the end of it. Presidents from an opposing party to varying degrees quickly sign executive orders to roll back some of their predecessors initiatives and actions when they take office. However, Trumps obsessive attacks on Obama have another aim beyond mere personal vindictiveness and deflecting attention from his disastrous administration. It sends the strong signal to his base that he will try and demolish everything that they loathed about Obama; not just his policies, but what he personally stood for.

Obama was an eight-year embarrassment to the chronic Obama haters. He was liberal. He was a Democratic. And most odious to them, he was black. Tea Party demonstrators greeted Obama at many stops during his first two years in office with placards, signs and pictures that depicted him in the most lewd, grotesque and often animal-like characterizations. This went way beyond the bounds of normal political attacks and criticism of a president. It was blatantly personal, and showed the depth of the personal distaste many had for Obama and they were not shy about showing it.

Trump at points during his campaign made no effort to correct or reprimand anyone at his townhalls and rallies who got up and vilified Obama in personal terms. This reinforced the point that Trump would make again and again that Obama was not fit from a political or personal standpoint to occupy the White House.

Even Trumps very belated acknowledgement that Obama was an American citizen was said matter of factly. There was absolutely no elaboration, let alone showing any sign of contrition for waging his ruthless and prolonged campaign to slur him as an alien.

Trump set the template early in his political game about how to go after Obama. That was to pithily toss out a sensational, outrageous accusation against or about Obama without a shred of evidence to back it up and then sit back and watch the media plaster it out as a headline or top headline news feature. The damage was done and the mission of getting tongues wagging about Obama and legions believing there must be some truth to it was accomplished.

The wiretapping charge fits the pattern to the letter. Trump doubled down on that by demanding a Congressional probe into it. The hope is that the more who believe theres any truth to this will serve to whittle away yet another tiny chunk from Obamas well-established legacy of personal honor and integrity.

The charge will, of course, go nowhere because its another Trump lie. But thats less important than making the accusation, and getting the media and public headline hit on Obama. This wont be the end. We can be sure that Trump wont rest until hes destroyed Obamas political legacy, and Obama as well.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of In Scalias Shadow: The Trump Supreme Court ( Amazon Kindle). He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

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Trump Aims To Destroy Obama Politically And Personally

By Elura Nanos, Law Newz

Remember when Donald Trump threatened to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault for defamation? Or when he threatened to sue the New York Times? Or when he filed that ridiculous lawsuit against Bill Maher for joking that hed been the result of orangutan sex? Were used to Trumps crying slander! at every turn but what about former President Obama? Could he sue Donald Trump for accusing him of having wiretapped Trump Tower?

Lets face it, the idea of Barack Obama squaring off against Donald Trump in a courtroom would be nothing short of show-stopping, even if its just a civil courtroom, and even if its not for impeachment purposes. By now, Obama must have had his fill of unfounded Trump-inspired accusations about everything from his citizenship to his religion; he would hardly appear thin-skinned if he attempted to hold Trumps feet to the fire over claims of campaign corruption and misuse of power. Likely, though, even assuming Trump is lying about the wiretapping in the tweet below, theres not much of a case.

Defamation (libel, for anything written, such as Trumps tweet, and slander for anything spoken) has several requirements beyond simply proving that someone told a lie. For one, Plaintiff Obama would need to prove that the lie damaged his reputation. In many cases, the making of a negative false statement clearly damages the victims reputation; but when it comes to President Trump, things are markedly different. The combination of Trumps serious credibility problem with Obamas ever-skyward popularity simply does not add up to an obvious damage to reputation. Those who love Obama probably wouldnt be swayed by anything President Trump says, and the haters would surely remain haters. Kind of a net-zero on the whole reputation thing.

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Could Obama Sue Trump for Libel Over Wiretapping Accusation ...

Former Obama White House press secretary Josh Earnest participates in a forum called The Press & the Presidency, Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.

Steven Senne, AP

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Former Obama administration spokesman Josh Earnest says Republican President Donald Trump is cynically using the press while also relying on it to boost his image and appeal to the public.

Earnest said Mr. Trump has a complicated relationship with the media. He said he doesnt believe Mr. Trump has any grand ambitions to do away with the First Amendment but lashes out when reporters dont echo his version of events.

He doesnt want the news media to just go away. He just wants them to be nice to him. But thats not their job, Earnest said Tuesday during a Harvard University John. F. Kennedy School of Government forum on the press and the presidency.

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Press Secretary Josh Earnest held his final White House press briefing on Tuesday morning with a surprise appearance by President Barack Obama. S...

Earnest said a stark difference between Mr. Trump and Democratic former President Barack Obama is Obama relished the opportunity to marshal facts to make an argument.

In contrast, when Mr. Trump is under pressure, Earnest said, his instinct is to create a distraction. He said thats what Mr. Trump did by accusing Obama of wiretapping his campaign while offering no proof. Earnest said no president has the authority to unilaterally wiretap someone.

Earnest also described the institution of the press as remarkably thin skinned.

Trump has used the tendency of the press to defend themselves to try to distract from the tough questions, he said.

Earnest said one reaction hes seen to the Trump presidency is a renewed interest in newspapers, television news and other news outlets.

He also said that the election of Mr. Trump is a reminder that elections matter -- a message he said he sometimes had trouble impressing on younger voters.

Somehow, I think Im going to have a little easier time making that case before the next election, he said.

Play Video

Josh Earnest took over as President Obama's White House press secretary in 2014. He's delivered more than 350 briefings in that role and has conf...

He said one of the biggest changes he has seen in the relationship between the White House and the press corps is new technology. He said cellphones combined with social media platforms puts intense pressure on reporters to push out every new tidbit of information instantly.

Despite the online technology, Earnest said, he still believes its important to have a daily White House press briefing to let reporters press the administration on the issues of the day.

Theres something thats symbolically important about the briefing -- the idea that there is a senior member of the White House staff who the president designates as the person who will every day prepare himself or herself to go out and speak on camera, on the record, and answer any question that any journalist can come up with, he said.

Earnest was White House press secretary under Obama from 2014 until Mr.Trump took office in January.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ex-Obama spokesman believes Trump wants media to "be nice to ...

WASHINGTON Former President Barack Obama has a simple rule about engaging politically in the age of Donald Trump: Ignore the noise, respect the space, but dont let the direct mischaracterizations go unanswered.

Over the weekend, President 44 weighed in for the second time on his successors tenure, in this instance refuting the charge, leveled in the most Trumpian of fashions a pre-7 a.m. tweet that he had wiretapped Trump Tower prior to the election.

As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen, Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, said in a statement. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.

Though Obama has long touted the virtues of former presidents remaining on the sidelines as current presidencies unfold, aides and associates said there wasnt much hesitation about issuing the statement. As one adviser said, there will be pushback when Trump is hitting at the integrity of the office of the presidency.

But those aides and associates also recognize that battles with Trump must be strategically chosen, because excessive engagement carries a price. Its not just about extending the courtesy of distance that President George W. Bush and much of his team showed back in 2009. Obama also is wary of suffocating the next generation of Democratic leaders by remaining personally involved.

In his mind, it is more about being strategic in the sense that it is hard to see how it is in anyones interests for him to become the face of the resistance or to be narrating the Trump presidency, said a source close to the former president. He knows he sucks up all the oxygen when he speaks. The lights are on us and the extent we take up the oxygen it affects the next generation of leaders rising.

From his preferred distance, however, Obama remains engaged. Though his public appearances suggest a former president blissfully enjoying his time away from politics kite surfing with Richard Branson or taking in a Broadway play aides said he has followed the developments of the Trump presidency closely, reading newspapers and occasionally watching news on TV.

Print more than broadcast, said the source close to Obama. He is not an avid Twitter user like his successor. But he is aware when a Trump flourish blossoms into a full-blown controversy on the social media platform, the source said. He occasionally follows, but never directs, the pushback that his former top staffers offer on Twitter.

Obamas also dispatched his team more than a dozen strong, working out of an office in the West End neighborhood of Washington to keep tabs on the unreported stories. There is a regular conference call for the Obama network, a meeting the ex-president attended with former aides a few weeks back, and ad hoc calls to Senate and House Democrats, state-based groups and grassroots organizations.

Jack Brockway/Handout . / Reuters

To these constituencies, Obama staff members have repeated the mantra that they feel obliged to give Trump some space to operate, even as the central legislative achievements of the Obama era come under threat. That both of Obamas interjections have come in the form of an emailed statement under a spokesmans name speaks to that.

For President Obama, this next chapter of his public service will focus on his core principle of grassroots engagement. This was previewed in his farewell address to the country, and has animated in his entire career in public life, said his spokesman, Eric Schultz.

What this means, in practical terms, is no overt policy criticisms. When Obama spoke out for the first time during the Trump era just 10 days into the new presidency the main thrust was to express solidarity with those protesting the first version of Trumps Muslim ban. But the impetus for the statement, as an aide explained, was that Trumps team had erroneously stated that the Obama administration had provided the logistical template for the ban itself.

The question Democrats are asking is whether such an approach is sustainable. While Obama may be invested in upholding norms, his former aides argue that those norms tend to be overstated. While Bush stayed mum during the Obama presidency, for example, many of his top aides were far from reserved, criticizing things both superficialand substantive. Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned just weeks into Obamas presidency that the new president was inviting a nuclear or biological attack on America.

Obamas inclination would be to follow the Bush model as a person, said Jen Psaki, Obamas former communications director. But, I think people are forgetting that there were a number of people on the Bush team who criticized Obama.

And then there is the issue of Trump, who shares no apparent commitment to the preservation of norms, and who has lashed out against his predecessor in ways that Obama for all his bemoaning of inheriting Bushs soured economy never did. Before Trump took office, Obamas main approach to his successor was that it made strategic sense to act diplomatically and maintain an open channel of communication in case one was needed. And for that, Trump routinely praised Obama for his temperament and counsel. He even seemed open to keeping elements of Obamas agenda, including health care.

But circumstances have changed since then, in ways that have forced Obama and his aides like the rest of the political universe to reconsider their posture. Trump himself has turned on Obama in recent days, with a series of attacks on his policy record, accusations of wiretapping, and an insistence that Obama, not he, is responsible for souring their relationship.

It is disappointing that [Obama] isnt affording President Trump the same courtesy that his predecessor showed toward him, Michael Short, a White House spokesman, said in a statement to The Huffington Post.

Obamas aides and allies, for their part, have certainly noticed that for all the care they put into their approach to Trump, the result hasnt exactly been cordiality. As one former aide noted, during his first few weeks in office, Obama steadfastly refused to investigate Bushs authorization of torture, even under immense pressure from his base, while Trump called for a congressional investigation of Obama apparently based on a Breitbart article.

Look, Obama started with the attitude of, I care about the country and it is the patriotic duty to help my successor. And in the face of difficult circumstances hes maintained it as long as he can, said Steve Elmendorf, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist. Trump this weekend was provocative in the extreme, and even then Obama hasnt really responded. He gave a written statement off camera that was purely factual.

At some point, does he say, I have to talk directly to the American people and tell my story? History would tell you no, presidents dont do that. But we are in a place that is totally unique to American history.

This story has been updated with the White Houses statement.

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