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Former President Barack Obama has broken his silence on the current state of American politics, sharply criticising a “loss of shame” and decorum in the nation’s discourse.
In a wide-ranging podcast interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama responded to a recent controversy involving a video shared on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account.
The video, which promoted election conspiracies, featured a racist depiction of the former president and First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces placed on the bodies of monkeys.
Obama described the current political environment as a “clown show” driven by social media and television, lamenting that the sense of propriety once expected of public officials has evaporated.
While the Trump campaign eventually removed the video and blamed a staff error, Obama noted that the “devolution of discourse” into such levels of cruelty is deeply troubling to the majority of Americans.
He predicted that this shift toward inflammatory messaging would ultimately hurt the Republican Party at the ballot box during the upcoming midterm elections.
The interview also touched on the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
Obama did not hold back, comparing the tactics used by federal agents to those found in authoritarian dictatorships.
He specifically referenced “rogue behaviour” and two fatal shootings that occurred during the weeks-long operation, which involved thousands of ICE agents.
Obama stated that such systematic aggression by the federal government against residents is dangerous and contradicts American values.
Despite his grim assessment of the political climate, Obama expressed hope in the resilience of ordinary citizens.
He praised the demonstrators in Minnesota who stood in sub-zero temperatures to peacefully oppose the raids, calling their organised resistance a “heroic” defence of the America they believe in.
These comments come at a time of intense legislative gridlock, as a partial government shutdown continues over a funding dispute regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement methods.
