Obama refuses to call off anti-Trump protesters, by Jordan Fabian.

President Obama won’t try to call off protests against Donald Trump, he said Thursday, ignoring pleas from the president-elect’s advisers to denounce the nationwide demonstrations.

“I would not advise people who feel strongly or are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised over the course of the campaign, I would not advise them to be silent,” Obama said during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama said protests are just something Trump would have to get used to as the leader of the free world.

“I’ve been the subject of protests during the course of my eight years,” he said. “And I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that hasn’t been subject to these protests.”

Obama and Clinton should be publicly pressured to either own or disown the protests, especially the violent ones and the ones calling for anti-democratic outcomes.

Trump has slammed protests against him, accusing demonstrators of being paid off and egged on by the media.

Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager, said it’s the responsibility of Obama and Hillary Clinton to quell the protests. “It’s time really for President Obama and Secretary Clinton to say to these protesters, ‘This man is our president,’ ” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”