7 presidential actions Trump blasted Obama for and then did himself

In comments to the press and in his frequent tweets, President Donald Trump has garnered plenty of attention for lambasting President Barack Obama’s policies and actions.

But since taking office in January, Trump has done many of the things he once criticized Obama for doing.

Here are seven things Trump called Obama out for and then did once he became president.

Trump has posted a tweet from his @realDonaldTrump account mentioning “Obama” 1,464 times — the vast majority of them negative.

Source: Twitter

1. Travel: Trump often vented on Twitter about Obama's taxpayer-funded travel.

Obama's travel cost an estimated $97 million over his eight years in office. Trump has spent $21 million on travel in about three months.

Sources: CNN, Business Insider

2. Golf: Another one of Trump's favorite Obama critiques involved the former president's golf outings. He posted 16 tweets about Obama hitting the golf course.

"We pay for Obama's travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies," Trump tweeted in 2014. "Then we pay for his golf."

He also quoted other users' tweets criticizing Obama's golfing habits.

Eighty-seven days into his presidency, Trump has made 19 trips to the golf course. At the same point in their first terms, Presidents Obama and George W. Bush hadn't made any, and Bill Clinton had made three.

Sources: New York Times, Business Insider

3. Syria: Trump argued extensively against US intervention in Syria, tweeting in July 2013: "WHAT WILL WE GET FOR OUR LIVES AND $ BILLIONS? ZERO."

After a chemical attack killed hundreds in the suburbs of Damascus in August 2013, Trump continued to ridicule the Obama White House's debate over whether to militarily engage Syria.

When a chemical attack killed dozens of Syrian citizens in April 2017, Trump authorized a military strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad's infrastructure and air field. Trump said the strike was in the vital national-security interest of the US.

Source: Business Insider

4. Transparency: Trump also accused the Obama administration of opacity, tweeting in 2012: "Why does Obama believe he shouldn't comply with record releases that his predecessors did of their own volition? Hiding something?"

In 2012, he called Obama the "least transparent president — ever."

The Trump administration said on Friday that it would stop publishing White House visitor logs and that they would be kept secret for five years after Trump leaves office.

Source: Business Insider

5. Experience: Trump also laid into Obama shortly before the 2012 election, saying he was "a disaster at foreign policy. Never had the experience or knowledge."

Trump is the only US president with no military or political experience. Some experts have concluded that his unpredictable actions indicate he has no foreign-policy doctrine.

Sources: Politico, New York Times

6: Diplomacy: Trump said in an April 2016 campaign speech focused on foreign policy that Obama had "picked fights with our oldest friends."

Source: New York Times

In his first calls with foreign leaders, Trump reportedly blasted the prime minister of Australia – a staunch US ally – for his refugee policy and talked to the president of Taiwan, which was the first time a US president directly spoke with Taiwan's leadership in over 30 years.

Sources: Business Insider, Washington Post

7. Executive orders: Trump went after Obama for issuing executive orders, calling them "major power grabs of authority."

In his two terms, Obama signed 277 executive orders, a total on par with his modern predecessors and the lowest yearly average (35) in 120 years. Trump has signed 23 executive orders in 87 days.

Sources: Business Insider, Pew Research Center