There’s only 1 U.S. President, I am till Jan. 20, 2017, Obama warns Trump

Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has told
incoming President Donald Trump to accept the
fact that there is only one U.S. President at a
time.
Obama also told the president-elect that he
remains the U.S. President till Jan. 20, 2017,
when he would complete his two-term presidency
of the U.S. and handover to Trump.
Obama’s remarks followed what the White House
termed as Trump’s undue interference in U.S.
policies since his election.
Also ther president-elect had on Thursday,
directed the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Ms
Samantha Power, to veto the Security Council’s
Resolution on Israeli settlements in Palestinian
territory.
However, the Obama’s administration disregarded
Trump’s directive and had gone ahead to abstain
from voting on the resolution when it finally came
up on Friday, drawing criticisms from the
president-elect and his team.
The White House, in a response by Obama’s
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic
Communications, Mr Ben Rhodes, obtained by
NAN, said the UN Security Council’s Resolution
was a policy issue that Trump should not meddle
in.
“On the President-elect, the first thing I’d just say
is that there’s one President at a time.
“President Obama is the President of the United
States until January 20th, and we are taking this
action (abstention), of course, as U.S. policy,” he
said.
Rhodes explained that there was no any
communication between the White House and the
President-elect or his staff between when Obama
made his decision and when the vote took place.
“So I’m not aware that President Obama and the
President-elect spoke about this, but again, I’m
not — President Obama definitely made no
reference to that, so I can’t confirm that this
hasn’t come up at all, but I’m not aware of any
particular conversation they had about this.
“We did hear from the President-elect’s team.
Again, our position has been there’s one
President at a time.
“We’re going to make our decision on this and,
frankly, believe that it’s important that there’s a
principle here that the world understands who is
speaking on behalf of the United States until
January 20th and who is speaking on behalf of
the United States after January 20th.
“And look, the new team will have every
opportunity after January 20th to pursue their
own policies, to take different approaches.
“I’m certain that they will on any number of
issues.
“We’re just reflecting the simple principle that I
think has guided the President-elect transitions
historically.
“Which is that there is one President at a time
and we’re going to execute our duties until the
new team is in place and the new President is
inaugurated,” the Obama’s aide said.
Recalled that following the pressure that Trump
reportedly put on Egypt, the sponsor of the
resolution, Egypt withdrew it on Thursday and the
vote was consequently delayed till Friday.
However, the resolution was put forward on
Friday by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and
Venezuela and the 15-member Council adopted
the resolution by a vote of 14 in favour and with
one abstention – the U.S., which abstained from
voting rather than veto the resolution.