In a candid appearance on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, former President Barack Obama took sharp aim at President Donald Trump’s use of military forces inside U.S. cities, accusing his administration of deliberately eroding democratic norms and bypassing legal limits on power. Obama warned that civic institutions had “been weakened deliberately” and urged universities, corporations, and legal bodies not to bow to political pressure.

He also criticized what he described as a growing culture of moral superiority on both political sides, saying Democrats must reconnect with ordinary Americans rather than “scold them.” While acknowledging that not all democratic guardrails are lost, Obama accused the Trump administration of “a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.” His remarks underscored a deepening political divide as Trump’s administration pushes forward with controversial domestic deployments and major international peace initiatives.