Barack Obama has warned that Donald Trump’s leadership poses a threat to the United States.
Amid a contentious national discussion about immigration raids and deportations, Obama delivered a speech Tuesday night at the Bushnell Performing Arts Centre in Hartford, Connecticut, criticising existing federal government tactics.
He started by raising concerns about a troubling decline in America’s adherence to democratic principles.
“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood – and not just my generation, at least since World War II – our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” Obama said, according to Connecticut Public Radio.
He underlined the significance of opposition from both government officials and civil society.
“There has to be a response and pushback from civil society, from various institutions and individuals outside of government, but there also have to be people in government in both parties who say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’” he added.
“It is consistent with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It’s consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as a fair system in which everybody’s voice matters and people have a seat at the table and nobody’s above the law,” Obama warned, cautioning that America, while not fully authoritarian, is veering in a dangerous direction.
“We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.”
A key concern for Obama was the growing divide over truth itself. “In 2020, one person won the election, and it wasn’t the guy complaining about it,” he reminded, referring to President Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
“And that’s just a fact, just like my inauguration had more people… I don’t care, but facts are important.”
He further noted the peril when partisans cling to falsehoods regardless of evidence: “In one of our major political parties, you have a whole bunch of people who know that’s not true but will pretend like it is. And that is dangerous.”
According to the Independent, this scathing criticism mimicked past scandals, as when Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, asserted that his inauguration had “the largest crowd in history,” despite overwhelming photographic and scientific proof to the contrary.
Obama responded with a message of hope when asked how to remain upbeat in the face of escalating political tensions.
“I’m still optimistic – I’m still the ‘hope’ guy,” he said. Highlighting the need for collective action, he urged Americans to be “impatient with injustice and cruelty,” but also to build alliances and coalitions: “If you want to deliver on change, then it’s a game of addition, not subtraction,” he advised.
“You have to find ways to make common ground with people who don’t agree with you on everything but agree with you on some things.”
He drew on Abraham Lincoln’s ideas to underscore the redemptive power of empathy: “When people actually meet and get to know each other… what Lincoln called those ‘better angels’ come out,” Obama said.
“People start recognizing themselves in each other and they start trusting each other, and that’s not just the basis for democracy, but that’s the basis for our long‑term salvation.”
