Last year, as he was preparing to leave office, President Obama gently but firmly dismissed calls for him to serve as a vocal leader of the then-burgeoning #Resistance, explaining that his respect for the office and for the democratic process required that he "be quiet" and allow elected officials to do their jobs without having to account for the meddlesome intrusions of a former chief executive. However, he was quick to add that if the White House were to imperil the country's "core values"—citing the Muslim ban and threats to DACA as specific examples of potentially looming threats—he would think hard about breaking his silence.

Sure enough, President Obama spoke up when the White House rolled out its travel ban, and he chimed in for good measure after President Trump announced the country's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, too. But his full-throated defense of DACA recipients is his most powerful post-presidential statement yet: measured and courteous, yet resolutely unwilling to allow Donald Trump to plunge jobs and families and lives into danger without first asking Americans to ponder the moral consequences of their elected leader's choice.

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