Having warned of the risks of a Trump presidency, President Obama returned on Wednesday to a more optimistic vision of the future of the United States, as part of his final international tour while in office.
“American democracy is bigger than any one person,” Mr. Obama told an audience in Athens, before he departed for Berlin. “That is why we have a tradition of the outgoing president welcoming the new one — as I did last week.”
Mr. Obama, making his first visit to the Acropolis, did acknowledge that democracy could be challenging. “And in multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural societies, like the United States, it can be especially complicated,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”
Obama saluting Greeks after his last speech on foreign soil
Standing in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, which was bedecked with Greek, American and European Union flags, Mr. Obama made a fervent pitch for the European Union, which some Greeks have advocated leaving in recent years because of the costs of remaining tied to the euro.
Source: NYTimes