Former President Obama argued in an interview published Saturday that American politics has become a "clown show" under the second Trump administration, suggesting that many Americans dislike the rhetoric coming out of the White House in recent months.
Obama made the comparison while addressing a controversial video posted on President Trump's Truth Social account earlier this month that briefly depicted the former president and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes.
Trump has refused to apologize for the video despite strong bipartisan backlash. Instead, the White House blamed a staffer for "erroneously" making the post, and it was taken down.
"I think it's important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling," Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen on his "No Lie" podcast.
Cohen had asked how the country could bounce back from what he described as the "de-evolution of discourse," pointing to the video and administration officials' labeling of two U.S. citizens who were fatally shot during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis as "domestic terrorists" as examples.
Obama proposed that while that kind of rhetoric successfully draws people's attention and serves as "distraction," most people "still believe in decency, courtesy, [and] kindness."
"There's this sort of clown show that's happening on social media and on television," he said.
"And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? So that's been lost," he continued.
The former president pushed back against the notion that Republicans "see what they want, and they just go after it," arguing that the GOP "haven't actually codified or institutionalized anything" other than the so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill since regaining control of Congress.
"They have poured a huge amount of money into ICE and their immigration agenda, and they've cut taxes for really wealthy people, and now they're trying to unravel a bunch of rules and norms and laws that are already in place; that's an easier job," he said. "I say that because we should accept the responsibility and the challenge that our job is going to be a little bit harder."
He acknowledged that there has been "some unwillingness on the part of Democrats in the past to break down some of the institutional barriers for us getting stuff done," but cautioned against replicating Republicans' approach.
"I don't want us to simply duplicate the behavior on the other side. I don't want us to have a slash and burn strategy where we don't care about rule of law, we don't care about some of the guardrails around our democracy. We start lying and having no regard for the truth, the way the other side seems to be comfortable with right now, because if that's how we fight, then we lose what we're fighting for," Obama said.
The former president also weighed in on the frustration from voters who feel Democrats are not doing enough to counter Trump.
"Sometimes I think we're tough on Democrats," he said, before drawing a contrast between himself and the current president.
"When I was President of the United States, I suppose I could have simply unilaterally ordered the military to go into some red state and harass and intimidate a governor there or cut off funding for states that didn't vote for me; I could have exercised that prerogative, but that is contrary to how I think our democracy is supposed to work, and I think we shouldn't get discouraged by the fact that we have a tougher job," he said.