Former President Barack Obama was irked and exasperated in response to his successor's uncorroborated wiretapping accusation, sources close to the former president tell CNN, though these sources say Obama's reaction stopped short of outright fury.
Obama and his aides responded with disbelief when they learned of President Trump's Saturday morning tweets laying out the charges. Later in the day, an Obama spokesman said "neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
The sources provided CNN with slightly different insight into Obama's demeanor than others who told The Wall Street Journal that Obama was "livid."
Obama's loyal army of supporters have been far more active in voicing their dissatisfaction with Trump. On social media and television, former aides have been aggressively pushing back on Trump in the first weeks of his presidency.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Presidents Trump and Obama have not spoken since Inauguration Day, when Obama welcomed Trump for coffee in the White House and accompanied him to the U.S. Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
The two men had developed what Trump termed a "warm" relationship in the run-up to Trump's inauguration, fostered by an in-person meeting in the Oval Office and several phone conversations.
But people close to both men acknowledge that the bitterness of the presidential campaign, paired with Trump's longstanding antagonism toward Obama regarding his birth certificate, would make a close relationship improbable.
On the weekend that Trump levied his explosive charges, Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, were spotted at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on a private tour of artist Theaster Gates' new exhibition. The President was all smiles when he departed the museum, dressed casually and carrying a bag from the gallery's gift shop.
Asked Monday whether Trump's claims would damage the relationship between the 44th and 45th presidents, White House press secretary Sean Spicer downplayed any tensions.
"I think that they'll be just fine," Spicer said.
First Published March 8, 2017, 4:31 p.m.
