--- title: Donald Trump Calls Chelsea Manning a 'Traitor' on Twitter description: President Trump called Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst turned whistleblower a "ungrateful TRAITOR" canonical: https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T12:42:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:57:47.192Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Calls Chelsea Manning an 'Ungrateful TRAITOR' on Twitter og:description: After she wrote about Barack Obama og:url: https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77880791a0dcb28a/6988ae69fb4eac104388fe2f/chelsea-manning2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Chelsea Manning og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Calls Chelsea Manning an 'Ungrateful TRAITOR' on Twitter twitter:description: After she wrote about Barack Obama twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77880791a0dcb28a/6988ae69fb4eac104388fe2f/chelsea-manning2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls Chelsea Manning an 'Ungrateful TRAITOR' After She Wrote About Barack Obama  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 26, 2017 12:42 PM UTC  Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick. Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick.U.S. Army/AP  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 26, 2017 12:42 PM UTC President Trump turned his attention to Chelsea Manning Thursday in an early-morning tweet calling the Army intelligence analyst turned whistleblower a “ungrateful TRAITOR” for criticizing President Obama. Manning, whose sentence President Obama [commuted](http://time.com/4637616/white-house-defends-president-obamas-decision-to-commute-chelsea-mannings-sentence/) during his final week in office, published a [column](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/25/compromise-doesnt-work-political-opponents-chelsea-manning) in _The_ _Guardian_ arguing that Obama’s willingness to compromise undermined progressive causes. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824573698774601729) Trump’s apparent defense of Obama represents a surprising turn given the new president’s barrage of insults about his predecessor’s leadership throughout the campaign. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls Chelsea Manning an 'Ungrateful TRAITOR' After She Wrote About Barack Obama","datePublished":"2017-01-26T12:42:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:57:47.192Z","description":"Trump also appeared to come to Obama's defense","url":"https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77880791a0dcb28a/6988ae69fb4eac104388fe2f/chelsea-manning2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77880791a0dcb28a/6988ae69fb4eac104388fe2f/chelsea-manning2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chelsea Manning","caption":"Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick.","creditText":"U.S. Army/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4649966/donald-trump-chelsea-manning-traitor-twitter-barack-obama/","name":"President Trump Calls Chelsea Manning an 'Ungrateful TRAITOR' After She Wrote About Barack Obama"}}]}] ```