In the last stop of an international
farewell tour that included visits to Greece and Germany, Obama continued his
efforts to calm anxieties since Republican businessman Trump beat Democratic
rival and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the US presidential
race.
"My main message to you ... and the message
I delivered in Europe is don't just assume the worst," Obama told a group
of young people during a question-and-answer session in Peru on Saturday.
"Wait until the administration is in
place, it's actually putting its policies together, and then you can make your
judgments as to whether or not it's consistent with the international
community's interest in living in peace and prosperity together."
Trump won the election after promising to
build a wall on the US border with Mexico, rip up trade deals and ban Muslims
temporarily from entering the United States.
Obama has sought to soothe fears by
pledging to ensure a smooth transition of power and expressing optimism that
the president-elect would shift away from inflammatory campaign rhetoric once
he faced the realities of the job.
"It will be important for everybody
around the world to not make immediate judgments but give this new
president-elect a chance to put their team together, to examine the issues, to
determine what their policies will be, because as I've always said, how you
campaign isn’t always the same as how you govern," Obama said.
But Obama has couched his assurances
largely in hopeful language that Trump's team would see the merits of policies
that Democrats championed despite Trump's pledged to dismantle them, from the
Iran nuclear deal to an international pact to fight climate change.
And the president, who campaigned
vigorously for Clinton and showed visible disdain for Trump before his victory,
has offset his words of reassurance with subtle digs at his successor by
emphasising themes of democratic values in Europe and Peru that Trump has been
criticised for ignoring.
"You’re seeing some countries that are
going backwards rather than forwards in terms of freedom of the press, in terms
of freedom of the Internet, in terms of respecting political opposition and
civil society," Obama said on Saturday.
Trump barred some news organiations from
covering events during his campaign and threatened during a televised debate to
jail Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Though Obama came on his trip able to
assure European countries that Trump would respect US commitments to NATO, his
other assurances, including for Latin American policy, seemed based more on
optimism than knowledge of Trump's plans.
"With respect to Latin America, I
don't anticipate major changes in policy from the new administration," he
said, citing trade as a key exception.
Trump announced hawkish picks for attorney
general, national security adviser, and CIA director on Friday that suggest he
is setting up his administration to take a hard line confronting Islamist
militancy and curbing illegal immigration.
