2025-04-27 03:38:21
As President Obama prepares to leave office in a little over two weeks, he's been on something of a blitz to cement his legacy before Donald Trump moves in to the White House. And now his farewell tour has received an official farewell address.
SEE ALSO: The Obamas sent out their final White House Christmas card and Twitter is in loveNext Tuesday night, January 10, Obama will give the farewell speech to a packed house at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, the same place he gave his victory speech on Election Night 2012. Tickets for the event will be handed out at the venue on a first-come, first-serve basis this Saturday, January 7.
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In a message attached to the announcement, Obama said the speech is "a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here."
It's the latest move from the outgoing president to set him in clear opposition to Trump, who has already threatened to roll back many of Obama's executive orders and biggest legislative victory, the Affordable Care Act, in his first days in office.
The positive spin of an outgoing president isn't a new tactic but with such a dramatic contrast between the two administrations, the outgoing administration appears to be doing extra leg work to underscore the differences, solidifying the Obama legacy and salvaging what policies he can, especially as the Democratic Party positions itself for four years of sparring with the Trump White House.
On Sunday morning, Obama took his victory tour to Twitter, Trump's favorite mode of communication, where he touted many of his accomplishments like the economic recovery, marriage equality, and moves on clean energy.
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It was a clear outline of his policy successes, highlighting his major achievements just as Trump has threatened to undo many of them once he's in office.
It’s been the privilege of my life to serve as your President. I look forward to standing with you as a citizen. Happy New Year everybody.
— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017
But Obama was also careful to separate his statements from the often combative tweets sent by Trump.
The White House has also been busy touting Obama's successes on other mediums, including, well, blogging site Medium, where there has been no shortage of Obama recaps, putting all your "favorite albums" and "favorite movies" lists to shame.
President Obama also used his weekly address to recap his accomplishments of the last eight years, running through a checklist similar to his tweetstorm, to drive home the successes of his administration and put its failures in the rearview.
Perhaps the most popular recap, though, has been the year-end photo round-up from White House photographer Pete Souza, which has been shared widely across the web since its publishing over the weekend.
In that sense, it's been a huge success for the Obama administration (after all, they know how much the public loves photos of Obama and kids) as it tries its best to control the message and image of Obama in his final weeks before giving way to a president that marks not only a dramatic shift in personality from the current White House, but especially in policy.
But Obama's final rally hasn't been limited to brand messaging; he's also unleashed some powerful moves to keep some of his policies in place once Trump is inaugurated.
Last week, Obama levied heavy sanctions against Russia in response to the allegations that Russian hackers interfered in the United States' presidential election to aid Trump, who has been particularly complimentary to Russian president Vladimir Putin. (The Russians responded with a meme because that's how policy is handled now in 2016.)
In another major international policy development, Secretary of State John Kerry accused Israel of trying to undermine peace with Palestinians by blocking a two-state solution, a move that emphasized rising tensions between the two allies.
Kerry's speech did not go unnoticed by Trump.
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Obama also announced a permanent ban on drilling in most of the country's Arctic waters and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, he designated the Bears Ears and Gold Butte national monuments in Utah and Nevada, respectively. Trump had previously criticized Obama for designating a national monument in Maine.
How much of these new policies Trump will attempt to roll back and which ones succeed won't be known until Trump takes office, but Obama has certainly gotten Trump's attention.
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