A former US President, Barack Obama, has criticised President Donald Trump’s executive order to curb immigration, backing protesters who have taken to the nation’s airports to express their displeasure.
Obama, in a statement on Monday by his spokesperson, Kevin Lewis, said Trump’s immigration policy was discriminatory.
“The (former) President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,” CNN quoted Lewis as saying.
Lewis added that Obama perceived the protests as “exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.”
This is the first time Obama, who ceded power to Trump 10 days ago, would criticise the current President, breaking an unwritten rule that former presidents should refrain from criticising the current White House occupant.
Trump had on Friday banned seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspended the admission of all refugees.
Trump’s order temporarily banned immigration from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia and indefinitely stopped Syrian refugees from coming to the United States.
