Obama mocks social media ‘clown show’ in first comments since Trump’s racist video surfaced
Former President Barack Obama called this kind of rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and his administration a “clown game” in a podcast interview that aired Saturday.
Obama was asked by YouTube host Brian Tyler Cohen about the “removal of speech” from Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in their administration, including a racist video Trump posted online depicting the former president and his wife, Michelle Obama, as monkeys.
Obama did not directly address the video, but he spoke about Trump’s actions, his speech and his mass deportation plan.
“I think it’s important to note that the majority of the American people find this behavior very troubling,” Obama said, speaking in detail about the administration’s behavior for the first time since Trump retweeted the video. “It’s true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s disturbing.”
People across the country “still believe in decency, respect, good deeds, and there’s this kind of comedy that’s happening on social media and on television,” Obama added. “And the truth is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who felt like you had to have some kind of behavior and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. [of the president]right?”
Trump drew widespread criticism from lawmakers in both parties after posting the racist video to his Truth Social feed earlier this month. When he removed the post, he refused to apologize for posting it.
Obama also criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for their brutal tactics in Minnesota, telling Cohen, “The corrupt behavior of federal government agents … is deeply disturbing and dangerous.”
“This is not the America we believe in, and we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to go back with the truth and cameras and peaceful protests and shine a light on the kind of behavior we’ve seen in the past in dictatorial countries and we’ve seen in dictatorships, but we’ve never seen it in America,” said the former US president.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Obama also discussed the problems plaguing his party, and called for a “strong” convention in 2028 to decide the future of the Democratic Party.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to have a strong debate. I want everyone who will come to solve this. I benefited from having a difficult primary school as I could have. It made me a better person. It ended up making me a better president because I was tested. My ideas were tested,” said the former president.
He also called on Democrats to nominate a young person “connected to the moment” in 2028, though he did not mention former President Joe Biden, who was plagued by concerns about his age and sanity when he ran for re-election in 2024 and ended up suspending his campaign.
“Part of it has to do with the fact that I was young,” Obama told Cohen about why he believes he was able to rally so many young voters during his 2008 presidential run.
“I’m 64 years old now. I’m in good health – 64, I feel happy. But the truth is, half of the references my daughters make about social media, TikTok, etc., I don’t know who they’re talking about. There’s something that at some point you’re old, you’re not directly connected to the immediate struggles that more people are facing,” the former president. “And, I’m not making a hard and fast rule here, but I think Democrats do well when we have nominees who are connected to the moment, to the zeitgeist, to the times.”
