President Trump called Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who leaked troves of classified national security information, an "ungrateful traitor" early Thursday morning for criticizing Barack Obama.
Manning was sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of pages of classified information on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to WikiLeaks, which later published the material. Obama commuted Manning's sentence earlier this month before leaving the White House by 28 years, allowing the former soldier to leave jail in May instead of in 2045.
Manning, who is transgender, penned a column for the Guardian published Thursday that argued Obama's willingness to compromise hurt the progressive cause.
Trump took to Twitter at about 3:00 a.m. the same day and appeared to defend his predecessor, calling Manning an "ungrateful traitor" for "calling President Obama a weak leader." Trump also said Manning should have never had his sentence commuted in the first place.
Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
