The former president will not criticize their successors in public.

Or are they?

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have criticized President Donald Trump in recent months.

For example, in April 2025, Obama talked about the importance of maintaining the international order, which means rules, norms and institutional systems that have been active since World War II. "It's a big moment because over the past two months we've seen the U.S. government actively trying to destroy the order and discredit it. I think the idea is that since we are the strongest, we're going to be better if we can bully people to do whatever we want."

Biden made his own negative comment on April 15: "In less than 100 days, this new administration has caused great damage," he said in his first public remarks since leaving the office.

Some commentators called the former president’s remarks “unprecedented.”

Many Americans are used to the former president who has not talked about - let alone criticize the current president.

As a presidential scholar, I know that most presidents remain silent about their successors regardless of the actions or what they say. They do this to avoid damaging their reputation and the stability of the presidency itself.

But I am also shocked by the fact that this tradition is not as entrenched as the former president has advocated or many Americans believe.

The president who exaggerates the norm

President George Washington sets a precedent for the president to retire after two terms and avoids public statements. John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, established another model.

After Adams lost Andrew Jackson's campaign in 1828, he served in the House from 1831 to 1848. Congress is an unusual habitat for the former president, but here, criticizing the current president and his policies is part of the work. Adams was there to receive a lot of criticism for his successors, including Jackson and James K. Polk.

Nearly half a century later, President Teddy Roosevelt was disappointed that his successor, William Howard Taft, failed to live up to Roosevelt's vision of reform. Roosevelt has been privately criticizing Taft for his publicly opposed campaign in 1912, aiming to win a discontinuous second term. Democrat Woodrow Wilson eventually won the election, beating Taft and Roosevelt.

Richard Nixon became the only president to resign in 1974, writing a series of books in the 1980s and 1990s, trying to redeem his own dull image by abandoning himself as a visionary politician. Nixon's books also include many suggestions for Democratic and Republican presidents, as well as implicit criticism.

Jimmy Carter angered his successor for his outspokenness before becoming a beloved old politician at the former presidential club in 1980. He said President Ronald Reagan's administration was "a distortion on the political stage" and said one of Clinton's political pardons was "shameful."

Except for Roosevelt, these former presidents criticized their successors for thinking they had something to prove. They were eager to redeem their estate, and they did not retire quietly.

Healthy retirement business

So why don’t we know these stories, but believe that the past presidents just shut up?

Americans have long regarded presidential retirement as a symbol of healthy democracy. That retirement story highlights how the former president often leaves politics behind them.

The president finds a trajectory of peace and satisfaction in retirement surrounded by friends and family, an attractive way for the president’s biographer to end the story. These stories include narratives about Harry Truman leaving the White House in 1953 for only a few months and George W. Bush painted.

In fact, the former president lives a complex life of happiness and loss, withdrawal and participation. The energy and ambition to bring them to the White House often make retirement difficult. Moreover, in the long history of the presidency, the former president has become an increasingly public figure.

Transferred roles

Another important factor in the growing standout of former presidents is how their roles have changed recently.

Starting in the 1990s, the former president and the First Lady tried to publicly show friendship and agreement with their peers.

For example, George HW Bush and Clinton teamed up to raise disaster relief after the 2004 South Asian Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2017, Bush's son George W. Bush (George W.

Former first ladies Michelle Obama and Barack Obama publicly thanked George W. Bush and Laura Bush for helping their families adapt to White House life. Michelle Obama is also known for her personal friendship with George W. Bush.

As medical advances have made former presidents live longer than ever, relationships within the growing former president’s club have become the subject of books, movies and TV shows.

All of these stories have the same message - all presidents are committed to their country. Similarly, the affable relationship between the previous and the current president shows that if the party leaders can overcome the party in the name of solidarity and friendship, so will the other Americans.

For example, at a great moment, three presidents from Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama called for unity in a time of crisis, calling for unity in a time of crisis.

They tell the national story as president after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. As Bush said, “Well, I think the fact that the three of us are talking about peaceful transfers here shows the institutional integrity of our country.”

Bush continued: "The United States is a generous country with great people. All three of us are lucky to be presidents of this country."

The former Republican president looked at the Democrats on both sides of him and smiled.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdlfnf3bule[/embed]

A new presidential relationship

Although friendships between presidents became increasingly common in the 1990s and 2000s, Clinton, especially Trump, did something different in the 2016 election.

In 2016, Clinton became an active party supporting his wife, Hillary Clinton, during a failed bid for the president.

The two Clintonians have been serving as public criticism of Trump for a long time since taking office in 2017.

Trump as a politician, then the president immediately refuted the concept of friendship with his ex and former rivals. He quickly condemned Hillary Clinton, especially Obama, early in his first presidency.

Trump quickly lost the 2020 election, with an energy that only increased Biden's public ridicule after Trump competed in the 2024 game.

Trump’s criticism of Biden did not stop after the victory in 2024, with the White House making statements such as “withdrawing the economic plague released by the Biden administration.”

Trump escalated his attacks on other presidents. But he is not the first to criticize his successor or ex.