Former President Barack Obama sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s recent domestic military deployments and accused U.S. institutions of capitulating to political pressure in an interview released Monday on comedian Marc Maron’s long-running “WTF” podcast.The former president’s comments came after the Trump administration finalized a major peace deal in the Middle East.
Obama, however, suggested that Trump’s actions were eroding civic norms and weakening institutional safeguards.
“I think there is no doubt that a lot of the norms, civic habits, expectations, institutional guardrails that we had, that we took for granted for our democracy have been weakened deliberately,” Obama said. “I don’t think they’re destroyed, but I think they have been damaged, and they’ve been systematic about it.”Obama’s remarks, which came amid ongoing litigation between several Democratic-led states and the federal government over the use of National Guard troops in cities such as Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., reflected his growing concern about what he described as “a deliberate end run” around legal limits on military authority.
“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. He added that if he had sent the National Guard into a state without approval, “Fox News would have had a very different reaction.”
Obama also criticized universities, law firms, and corporations for reaching settlements or entering into new agreements with the Trump administration, saying that institutions that had once promoted diversity and independence should have “stood by their convictions.”
“Universities should say, ‘This will hurt if we lose some grant money, but that’s what endowments are for,’” Obama said. “What we’re not going to do is compromise our basic academic independence.”
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NEW: Obama torches Donald Trump:
“A lot of what I represented, a lot of what Michelle and I have tried to project– the values we’re thinking about America. My successor seemed to represent the opposite. Not seemed, did.” pic.twitter.com/rSGDileb8W
— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) October 13, 2025
The former president referenced private companies that have recently revised or reduced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs as part of broader negotiations with the administration.
Several firms, including Disney, have replaced their DEI initiatives with “opportunity and inclusion” programs after discussions with federal officials about hiring standards.
Obama urged institutions to resist “bullying” from the government and maintain hiring practices that reflect “what this country is — to hire people from different backgrounds.”
During the hour-long podcast, Obama also discussed the role of vulnerability and empathy in political discourse. Responding to Maron’s comment that Democrats had “annoyed the average American into fascism,” Obama agreed that moral superiority could alienate voters.
“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.”
The former president added that political movements should not become “holier-than-thou” enterprises, saying, “There was this weird progressive language that implied a superiority that’s not different from what we used to joke about coming from the right and the moral majority.”
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Obama, ironically, also warned against political interference in the Justice Department and the courts.
“We don’t want masked folks with rifles and machine guns patrolling our streets,” he said. “We want cops who know the neighborhoods and kids around — that’s how we keep the peace. We want our court system and prosecutors just playing things straight, not meddling in politics.”
The White House did not respond directly to Obama’s criticisms, but administration officials have said the deployment of federal forces is intended to restore order and protect federal property amid a surge in violent crime and anti-immigration protests in Democrat-run cities.
The interview comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard earlier this year declassified documents showing Obama-era officials politicized intelligence during the 2016 transition to falsely characterize then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as a traitor to Russia.
Obama continues to be one of the most politically active former presidents in modern times.