Former President George W. Bush will not be joining former President Barack Obama in commenting on President Donald Trump's controversial travel moratorium, Yahoo News reports.
"The same silence that was afforded to President Obama will be extended to President Trump," Bush's spokesman Freddy Ford said in an emailed statement, according to Yahoo News.
Obama, on the other hand, issued a statement Monday in support of the weekend protests against Trump's 90-day ban on travel from seven countries with known terrorists.
"The president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion," Obama spokesman, Kevin Lewis said. "Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake."
Trump said in response to the protests that his ban is not a "Muslim ban," but intended to keep Islamic terrorists from sneaking into the country and harming Americans. Trump originally used terminology suggesting a Muslim ban in December, but quickly said he was referring to terrorists and would focus only on countries where terrorism is prevalent.
His executive order on Friday bans travel for 90 days for citizens from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also stops admission of all refugees for 120 days.
Traditionally, presidents have not commented on actions taken by their successors, though former President Jimmy Carter, who left office in 1981, was critical of Bush over the Iraq war. Obama waited only 10 days after leaving office to criticize Trump.
"I've been on diets longer than that," Fox News host Neil Cavuto, who often jokes about his weight, said of the short time Obama waited to dump on Trump.
Cavuto noted on his show "Your World" on Monday that former President Dwight Eisenhower personally let President John F. Kennedy know he didn't approve of how he handled the Bay of Pigs invasion, but did not do so publicly.
Cavuto also said that former President Gerald Ford waited three months to criticize Carter over Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT II) and that Carter waited to criticize President Ronald Reagan.
Historian Doug Wead told Cavuto that Obama may be taking Trump's actions on terrorism as a personal insult much the way former President Herbert Hoover's feelings were hurt when he felt President Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed him for the Great Depression.
Though Bush declined to offer an opinion on Trump's travel ban that has been slammed by Democrats — and some Republicans — he is still widely praised by Democrats for stating after the 9/11 attacks that America is not at war with Islam, but only with terrorists.
Trump has responded to critics, saying his order was not a "Muslim ban," but an attempt to prevent Islamic terrorists from sneaking into the United States under the guise of refugees.
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