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After the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Va., President Trumps statements about white nationalists, neo-Nazis and their opponents drew criticism from some observers who said he failed to adequately address and acknowledge racial discord in the United States.

When Trump was asked Tuesday whether he believed race relations had improved or worsened since he took office in January, he said he thought they had gotten better or [remained] the same. He said race relations had been frayed for a long time, and you can ask President Obama about that because he made speeches about that."

Meanwhile, a quote Obama shared on social media after the Charlottesville violence, which included one death, had garnered 2.8 million likes by Tuesday evening, breaking the record of the most liked tweet in the history of the 11-year-old company, according to the social media platform. By Wednesday afternoon, the number of likes had surpassed 3.8 million.

The quote, by late former South African President Nelson Mandela, reads:

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

As the United States first black president, Obama often addressed the issue of race, and his reaction to racially charged incidents attracted intense scrutiny. Here are some of his comments:

Obama offended police in Cambridge, Mass., when he described them as acting "stupidly" when they arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is black, on a charge of disorderly conduct at his home after a suspected break-in. Afterward, Obama convened a beer summit between the professor and the responding officer, Sgt. James Crowley, who is white. Gates accused the policeman of racial profiling, but Crowleys superiors supported him and said he had acted appropriately. Obama acknowledged that his choice of words was poor.

To the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.... Because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, you know, African Americans are sensitive to these issues. And even when you've got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.

After a Florida jury acquitted neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman of killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, Obama addressed the nation from the perspective of a black man and father and offered context for the resulting angry response to Zimmermans acquittal.

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.... The African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away.

There are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me -- at least before I was a senator. . . .

Those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.

Paul Kitagaki Jr. / pkitagaki@sacbee.com

A Black Lives Matter protest in Sacramento in 2016.

A Black Lives Matter protest in Sacramento in 2016. (Paul Kitagaki Jr. / pkitagaki@sacbee.com)

After the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, also unarmed and black, in Ferguson, Mo., Obama sought to draw on Americans commonalities. Darren Wilson, a white police officer, had gotten into an altercation with Brown and shot him after Brown reportedly had robbed a convenience store. The incident sparked protests and violence in Ferguson.

The president said:

We're all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protest, a reverence for the dignity of every single man, woman and child among us, and the need for accountability when it comes to our government.

So now is the time for healing. Now is the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson. Now is the time for an open and transparent process to see that justice is done.

After a St. Louis County grand jury did not indict Wilson in November 2014, Obama acknowledged the broader challenges the country still faced and called on the nation to seize the moment as an opportunity for change.

We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America. We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the past several decades. I've witnessed that in my own life. And to deny that progress I think is to deny Americas capacity for change.

After a Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury declined to indict white New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, while he was being arrested on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes, Obama again addressed the nations racial discord.

This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, thats a problem. And its my job as president to help solve it."

After the killings of nine black worshipers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., by white supremacist Dylann Roof, Obama called on Americans not to settle for symbolic gestures and to follow up with the hard work of more lasting change.

For too long, we've been blind to the way past injustices continue to shape the present. Perhaps we see that now. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career..

None of us can or should expect a transformation in race relations overnight. Every time something like this happens, somebody says, 'We have to have a conversation about race.' We talk a lot about race. There's no shortcut.

Jim Mone / Associated Press

Protesters gather in July 2016 outside the governors residence in St. Paul, Minn., to denounce the shooting death of Philando Castile by a police officer.

Protesters gather in July 2016 outside the governors residence in St. Paul, Minn., to denounce the shooting death of Philando Castile by a police officer. (Jim Mone / Associated Press)

After the killings of Alton Sterling, a black man who was shot several times at close range while held down on the ground by two white Baton Rouge, La., police officers, and Philando Castile, a black man who was fatally shot by a Latino police officer in Minnesota after being pulled over in his car in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., Obama again addressed the nation.

What I can say is that all of us as Americans should be troubled by the news. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system.

African Americans are arrested at twice the rate of whites. African American defendants are 75% more likely to be charged with offenses carrying mandatory minimums. They receive sentences that are almost 10% longer than comparable whites arrested for the same crime.

So if you add it all up, the African American and Hispanic population, who make up only 30% of the general population, make up more than half of the incarcerated population. Now, these are facts.

And when incidents like this occur, there's a big chunk of our fellow citizenry that feels as if because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same. And that hurts. And that should trouble all of us.

After the deaths of five Dallas police officers who were ambushed by black assailant Micah Xavier Johnson during a Black Lives Matter rally, Obama called on police to acknowledge institutional racial bias but also condemned the officers slayings as an act of racial hatred. During a standoff, police killed Johnson using an explosive delivered on a remote-controlled device.

I'm here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we've come against impossible odds.

Times staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed to this report.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter

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President Obama often spoke about race relations in the US Here are some of his words - Los Angeles Times

Aug. 15 To the Editor:

Former President Obama played a huge role in the violence we witnessed last Sunday in Charlottesville. Do you remember his quote from the movie The Untouchables? If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. He said those words at a Philadelphia fundraiser during the 2008 presidential campaign. Remember the New Black Panthers outside Philadelphia polls on that Election Day? Dressed in para-military gear and waving long night sticks to intimidate white voters whom they referred to as crackers." Obama and Holder did not bring these thugs to account for their actions. They had everything needed for arrest and trial but chose to not prosecute. "Equal justice under the law" is a concept foreign to that administration.

These were only two of the many seeds of racial unrest sewn by Obama and his fellow travelers. The riots, business burning and looting during his administration were many and he did nothing to stop them. Those seeds sprouted and grew into what we saw in Charlottesville last weekend.

The Democrat mayor of Charlottesville ordered the police to stand down during these protests on Sunday. Why were these violent, incompatible groups not kept away from each other? They were allowed to collide and the end result was predictable. Did the Democrats want a confrontation to happen? It would fit their play book and give the liberal media some red, bloodied body parts to chew on and spit out all over the president.

We now see where Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy is on administrative leave for making racist, misogynistic and homophobic tweets before he was elected to City Council.

People on the left have been weaned on the hate filled words and actions from the last administration, not the present one. Where democrats rule, chaos reigns.

Michael Dow

York, Maine

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Obama administration sowed the seeds of racial unrest - Seacoastonline.com

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will be revisiting the Obama administration's greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency rules for big-rig trucks and trailers in response to industry concerns.

"In light of the significant issues raised, the agency has decided to revisit the Phase 2 trailer and glider provisions," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "We intend to initiate a rulemaking process that incorporates the latest technical data and is wholly consistent with our authority under the Clean Air Act."

The Obama EPA and Transportation Department updated previous rules for large tractor trailer trucks almost a year ago in October. The update to the previous 2014-2018 model year standards began regulating truck trailers and gliders, which are older remanufactured trucks, "for the first time under the GHG program -- with compliance deadlines beginning in 2018," according to EPA.

The heavy-duty truck rules were part of former President Barack Obama's climate change agenda and put into place as part of the U.S.'s commitment to the 2015 Paris climate agreement. President Trump announced on June 1 that the U.S. would exit the Paris deal. Trump also scrapped Obama's climate agenda called the Climate Action Plan.

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EPA looks to redo Obama-era climate rules for big rigs - Washington Examiner

The former president's message after the violence in Charlottesville, Va., was brief, but it hit the right note for many.

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion ... ," Barack Obama tweeted, accompanied by a photo of himself, jacket slung over his shoulder, smiling at four young children gathered at a windowsill.

Twitter has announced that Saturday's tweet is the most-liked tweet ever. It attracted more than 3.3 million likes and 1.3 million retweets as of Wednesday morning.

Obama tweets infrequently in his post-presidential life. But in a couple of tweets, he added a few more words from former South African President Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

In the passage quoted by Obama, Mandela writes:

"I never lost hope that this great transformation would occur. Not only because of the great heroes I have already cited, but because of the courage of the ordinary men and women of my country. I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps for just a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished."

White House photographer Pete Souza took the photo in the tweet in June 2011.

The caption explains how the moment came to be: "The President had attended the fourth grade closing ceremony for his daughter Sasha at her school in Bethesda, Md. As he was departing, he noticed some pre-school children peering out of a window at a child care facility adjacent to Sasha's school so he walked over to say hello to them."

The previous most-liked tweet was posted by Ariana Grande in May, following a bombing at her concert in Manchester, England.

Two other tweets by Obama are in the top five most-liked: one in which he calls John McCain "an American hero" and one just hours after his presidency ended, in which he jokes, "Is this thing still on?"

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Quoting Mandela, Obama's Tweet After Charlottesville Is The Most-Liked Ever - NPR

The Obama administration expanded the program beyond children last year to include more categories of migrants.

By this summer, of the approximately 10,000 people who had applied for entry, 2,193 had been approved as refugees, said R. Carter Langston, a spokesman for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

An additional 1,465 did not meet the legal criteria to become refugees, but were allowed to come to the United States and work legally as parolees, a kind of halfway status that does not offer a pathway to citizenship as refugees have, but protects them from deportation for two years.

Those who have already received parole will not see any immediate changes when the parole program ends on Wednesday. But, as before, they will have to reapply for parole when the two-year period is up, Mr. Langston said.

Once they do, they will be petitioning an agency that Mr. Trump has ordered to be less lenient than it was under President Barack Obama. The parole program was one of several moves that Mr. Obama made to protect young immigrants from deportation and that conservatives protested as stretching the limits of presidential power.

Though the parole program is ending, children and their families can still apply for refugee status as before.

Lisa Frydman, the vice president for regional policy and initiatives for Kids in Need of Defense, a group in Washington that provides legal assistance to unaccompanied immigrant children, said the decision to shut down the parole option would drum up more business for the smuggling networks that Mr. Trump has vowed to dismantle.

It is not a surprise, but it is a disgrace, she said. This is the Trump administration completely turning its back on Central American children, slamming the door on them.

For the 2,714 people in the process of applying to the program, gaining what is known as conditional parole status, the future is hazier. Their conditional approvals will be revoked. Some, after being interviewed by refugee officers, may qualify as full-blown refugees. The rest may ask for parole individually, according to the announcement, but the agency will no longer automatically consider them for parole.

No one has entered the United States through the program since February, when the Department of Homeland Security suspended it while officials reviewed what Mr. Trumps executive order would mean for it, Mr. Langston said.

Ms. Frydmans organization has three cases in which the child began the application process but has not been able to travel to the United States. In one case, two siblings applied; one was granted refugee status and the other conditional parole. The refugee is free to come; the parolee is not.

In another case, the mother had already bought the plane ticket for her child, who had received conditional parole.

Its so cruel, Ms. Frydman said.

A version of this article appears in print on August 16, 2017, on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Policy Blocks Obama-Era Path to U.S. for Central Americans.

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Policy Under Trump Bars Obama-Era Path to US for Central American Youths - New York Times