Anderson Cooper: Trump bent on ‘obliterating’ Obama’s legacy

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said Friday that President Trump’s push to rip up his predecessor’s legacy is surprisingly personal.

“Never though have we seen a president so seemingly bent on reversing, negating, even obliterating his predecessor’s signature accomplishments,” Cooper said on his show “Anderson Cooper 360.” 

“If you want to what President Trump is against, you only have to look at what President Obama was for, and in all fairness none of this should be a surprise. He campaigned on much of it, and if nothing else he’s keeping his promises now,” he continued. 

“What may be surprising though, or at least is being widely debated, is how much of this is personal,” he added.

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Cooper’s comments came after Trump pushed to roll back two major parts of Obama’s legacy late this week dealing with health-care and foreign policy. 

The White House announced on Thursday that the administration would be ending key payments to insurers selling ObamaCare plans, widely viewed as one of the most aggressive actions Trump has taken to date to dismantle his predecessor’s signature health-care law. 

Trump also announced on Friday he would not be certifying Iran’s compliance with the international nuclear deal, a major component of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy that his administration helped broker in 2015.

Trump has spent much of his first year working to reverse a number of Obama-era initiatives, including moving to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and scrapping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for young undocumented immigrants.