THE HILL: Obama won’t call off anti-Trump protesters.

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.”

Yeah, if the streets had filled with — often rioting — protesters denouncing Obama’s legitimacy right after the election in 2008, he wouldn’t have said a thing. And if George W. Bush had refused to denounce them, the press wouldn’t have soft-pedaled it at all. . .

But I’m sure Trump’s fine with it, as it’s just helping build his mandate. If they keep this up for four years, he’ll be re-elected in a landslide.