Rapport Crumbles between Trump and Obama

Budding feud is new distraction in a Trump presidency that has been struggling to enact its agenda

The rapport between Barack Obama and Donald Trump is unraveling, with the president convinced that Mr. Obama is undermining his nascent administration and the former president furious over Trump tweets accusing him of illegal wiretapping, people close to the two men said.
The budding feud between two men who share the unique bond of membership in the commander-in-chiefs’ club is a fresh red herring in a Trump presidency that has been struggling to enact its agenda.
The rift also is distancing Mr. Trump from a former two-term president who had offered to give private advice and counsel as the onetime businessman settles into his first job in public office.

Mr. Trump clasped Mr. Obama’s shoulder and shook hands before the two parted ways and the former president boarded a helicopter outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20.  Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama have not spoken since the inauguration, but their respective advisers have.  Mr. Trump tried to call Mr. Obama to thank him for the traditional letter that one president leaves for his successor in the Oval Office. Mr. Obama was traveling at the time and the two never connected, people familiar with the matter said.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the open friction has upended tradition, an “almost unwritten rule that you treat your predecessor with a degree of grace and decorum.”
“There are these kinds of things that have happened in the past, but nothing to the degree where a sitting president would charge his predecessor with a felony,” Mr. Brinkley said. “It creates a feeling of instability in the United States.”

In a Twitter frenzy Tuesday morning Mr Trump continued his attack on President Obama. Tweeting  that Mr. Obama had ushered in a flawed health-care system, allowed dangerous prisoners to leave the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and let Russia get “stronger and stronger.”  He also cited completely false statistics on these subjects.
Trump is desperately trying to turn the public's focus from the investigation into his campaign's connections to Russia. What better target than a worldwide, respected leader and diplomat who won the Nobel Prize for peace.