Donald Trump is no fan of Chelsea Manning:

President Donald Trump called Chelsea Manning an “ungrateful TRAITOR” in an early morning tweet Thursday, the President’s first public comments since the former army private and leaker had her sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama.”Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!” Trump wrote in a post.

Trump appeared to be responding to an op-ed in the Guardian that Manning shared on Twitter on Wednesday in which she wrote that Obama’s presidency had been insufficiently progressive.”Takeaway from the @BarackObama legacy: What we need is a strong #unapologeticprogressive to lead us,” Manning wrote in a tweet that linked to her piece.
 

This sentence commutation is perhaps one of the worst stains on Barack Obama’s presidency. American Action News spoke with several veterans regarding Manning. One noted, in comparing Manning with fugitive leaker Edward Snowden:

“If Manning had been a civilian like Snowden I wouldn’t have any problem with his commutation, but he wasn’t. He was an active duty soldier that swore an oath and betrayed his brothers and sisters in arms. He is a traitor and should be shot, not released. One last fuck you to the military from Obama.

…When you are deployed, you are completely dependent on everyone around you doing their job in order to stay alive. He actively undermined this and increased everyone’s danger.”

We agree with this sentiment, absent the language. This wasn’t about mercy for someone who committed an unspeakable crime and reformed his life. This was about Obama showing compassion for a transgender person so that he could burnish his progressive credentials.