Obama Blasts Trump in Wake of Historic Peace Deal

Former President Barack Obama took aim at President Donald Trump on Monday, blasting the administration’s recent domestic military deployments and accusing American institutions of “capitulating” to political pressure during an interview on comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast.

Obama’s remarks came just days after Trump finalized a landmark peace deal in the Middle East — an accomplishment that has earned rare bipartisan acknowledgment. But instead of applauding the diplomatic breakthrough, the former president focused on criticizing Trump’s domestic policies, claiming his administration was “weakening democracy.”

“I think there is no doubt that a lot of the norms, civic habits, expectations, institutional guardrails that we took for granted have been weakened deliberately,” Obama said. “I don’t think they’re destroyed, but they’ve been damaged, and they’ve been systematic about it.”

His comments followed ongoing lawsuits from Democratic-led states over Trump’s use of the National Guard in cities such as Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. The former president accused Trump of making “a deliberate end run” around legal limits on executive power — ignoring that federal law grants the president broad authority to protect federal property and enforce order when local officials fail to act.

“When you see an administration suggest that ordinary street crime is an insurrection or a terrorist act, that is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy,” Obama said, adding that media coverage of such actions would have been far harsher if he had done the same.

Obama also faulted universities, law firms, and corporations for negotiating with the Trump administration instead of defying it, particularly those that agreed to scale back controversial “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs in favor of broader “opportunity and inclusion” initiatives.

“Universities should say, ‘This will hurt if we lose some grant money, but that’s what endowments are for,’” Obama argued. “What we’re not going to do is compromise our basic academic independence.”

His defense of DEI programs comes even as public confidence in such initiatives has cratered, with critics arguing they discriminate on the basis of race and ideology. Several major companies, including Disney, have quietly replaced their DEI departments after consultations with federal officials about hiring standards.

Obama urged institutions to resist “bullying” from the Trump administration, saying they should continue hiring based on “different backgrounds.” Critics, however, note that his own administration repeatedly pressured private institutions and corporations to adopt politically driven diversity mandates.

In a rare moment of self-reflection, Obama also acknowledged that progressives’ “moral superiority” has alienated many Americans. When Maron joked that Democrats had “annoyed the average American into fascism,” Obama agreed that his party often comes across as condescending.

“You can’t just be a scold all the time,” he said. “You can’t constantly lecture people without acknowledging you’ve got some blind spots too.”

Ironically, Obama also warned against “political interference” in the Justice Department — even as newly declassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard show Obama-era officials politicized intelligence operations during the 2016 transition to falsely portray then-candidate Trump as compromised by Russia.

“We don’t want masked folks with rifles patrolling our streets,” Obama added. “We want cops who know the neighborhoods — that’s how we keep the peace.”

The White House has not commented on Obama’s interview, though officials maintain that the deployment of federal forces is aimed at restoring order in Democrat-run cities that have struggled with surging violent crime and anti-immigration riots.

Despite leaving office nearly a decade ago, Obama continues to be one of the most politically active former presidents in modern history — often weighing in to defend the progressive causes that have defined his legacy, and to criticize the conservative movement that has since reshaped the country.