Ahead of the weekend’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, President Barack Obama and his outgoing administration took action against Russia for its alleged election hacking. The subsequent news cycle found itself populated by viral rebuttals by Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump, though Obama remained largely silent on the matter. Nor did he publicly say anything noteworthy during the final days leading up to Saturday’s worldwide celebrations.
President-elect Donald Trump, however, not so much. Trump took to Twitter on the morning of New Year’s Eve offer a tongue-in-cheek happy new year to his “enemies” and “those who have fought me.”
All that changed Sunday afternoon when Obama took a page from Trump’s own playbook and took to Twitter to ring in the new year. “As we look ahead to the future,” he tweeted via the official @POTUS account, “I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you made possible these past 8 years.”
As we look ahead to the future, I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you made possible these past 8 years.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) January 1, 2017
Obama and his social media team did just that — citing his administration’s positive work in promoting job growth, passing the Affordable Healthcare Act, overseeing the federal acceptance of same-sex marriage, and several other highlights.
After decades of rising health care costs, today nearly every American now has access to the financial security of affordable health care. pic.twitter.com/5e4nEcCxIM
— President Obama (@POTUS44) January 1, 2017
We brought home more of our troops & strengthened U.S. leadership—leading with diplomacy & partnering with nations to meet global problems.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) January 1, 2017
But the real kicker came in Obama’s final tweet, when he called serving as president for eight years “the privilege of my life” and looked ahead to “standing with [Americans] as a citizen” after January 20th, a message that some are interpreting as a subtle shot at Trump.
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 (@POTUS44) January 1, 2017
While Obama and Trump reportedly maintain a productive line of communication ahead of the coming transition, the outgoing administration has taken steps to limit the president-elect upon taking office, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to interpret Obama’s latest tweets as a shot across Trump’s bow.