Former White House photographer Pete Souza shared a Presidents Day photo of the four living US presidents who didn’t try to overthrow American democracy.
“On Presidents Day, here are the current members of the Presidents Club,” Souza, who was the official photographer during the administrations of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, wrote on Instagram Monday.
“It is a very exclusive club. It includes all living former US presidents except those who incited an insurrection and abused their powers to try to overturn an election.”
The caption accompanied a photo of former Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Now he pointed to the only other living former president, Donald Trump.
via the Associated Press
It is traditional for former presidents to put aside political differences and even come together to support common causes after they leave office, and for sitting presidents to consult and compare notes with their predecessors on such little-understood activity.
Like many other regulations, that effectively went out the window with Trump, who showed little interest in joining the alliance during and after his tenure.
After President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Obama, Bush and Clinton recorded a joint video speech praising peaceful presidential succession as key to American democracy. While they did not mention Trump by name, the message directly rejected his efforts to undermine the democratic process after he lost the 2020 election.
Since taking office, Biden has resumed the practice, calling on those who served before him for their guidance and expertise. He told CNN in 2021 that speaking with former presidents has given work that might otherwise be overwhelming in its burdens.
Souza often takes on Trump, sharing photos and stories he documented during the Obama presidency. He contrasted the vast differences between the two administrations in his 2018 book “Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents” and the 2020 documentary “The Way I See It.”
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