Obama will ask Trump to keep executive orders in place

President Obama has described Donald Trump as ignorant, dangerous and unfit to lead the nation, but he’ll ask the Republican president-elect Thursday not to wipe out his cherished, legacy-making executive actions on everything from the Iranian nuclear deal to Obamacare.

In a meeting at the White House to prepare Mr. Trump for taking office, Mr. Obama will try to persuade the president-elect to honor what his aides call a “tradition” of preserving executive actions implemented by the departing chief executive.

“There is a tradition, particularly with regard to executive agreements of successive presidents preserving some element of continuity,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “I don’t know whether or not that will apply in this case. But as a part of this effective, smooth transition, President Obama will have an opportunity to talk to President-elect Trump about some of the benefits of these policies.”

Mr. Trump campaigned on promises of repealing the Affordable Care Act, ripping up Mr. Obama’s international climate change agreement to curb carbon emissions and tossing out his free trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations and scaling back the executive order granting deportation amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, among others. He has said his top priority is “to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran” that lifted international economic sanctions in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear programs.

The meeting will be Mr. Trump’s first visit to the White House since defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton early Wednesday in a bitterly fought campaign. After attacking Mr. Trump repeatedly as an intellectually lazy liar who wasn’t qualified to work at a 7-Eleven, Mr. Obama now finds himself in the position of seeking the Republican’s consent to protect many of the president’s achievements that were implemented unilaterally, without the approval of Congress.

Mr. Obama sought to extend an olive branch to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, first calling to congratulate the president-elect around 3:30 a.m. when the election results were finally clear, and later issuing a public call in the White House Rose Garden for national unity.

From: Washigton Times