Cartoonic depiction of passing of baten in political marathon 2017

President Barack Obama still doesn’t think Donald Trump can handle the nuclear codes or safely protect America from attack — he just doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Asked Tuesday about the president-elect’s tweeting Monday about North Korea’s apparently burgeoning nuclear capacity, White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that Obama had repeatedly raised his concerns about Trump’s capacity for nuclear security during the 2016 campaign. When pressed about whether Obama has confidence in Trump’s abilities now, Earnest instead spoke of the confidence the outgoing president has in the career, non-political members of the intelligence community, military and State Department who are “ultimately responsible for implementing policies.”

“The president has confidence that those patriots, those American men and women, will continue to do their important work with enormous skill and expertise and patriotism to protect the country,” Earnest said.
He didn’t mention Trump at all in his answer about confidence, though spoke at length about how much Americans will in his opinion be “relying on” and “counting on” the rank-and-file in the years ahead.

As for whether there’s been any change over the last two months what Earnest characterized as Obama’s “rather profound concerns” about Trump, given what he’s heard in private discussions with the president-elect that have included covering the North Korean situation, he said no.

“My assessment would be that his opinions have not changed, but the time and place for presenting those opinions has come and gone, and we’re focused on a transition,” Earnest said.