Summary

Barack Obama sharply criticized Donald Trump’s presidency during a speech at Hamilton College, condemning attacks on the press, immigration crackdowns, and threats to civil liberties.

He called it “unimaginable” that Trump’s actions—such as barring the AP and threatening law firms—would have been tolerated under past presidents.

Obama warned that Trump’s behavior, though “goofy,” poses real danger, and he labeled Trump a “wannabe dictator.”

He also referenced former Trump aide John Kelly’s “fascist” remark and urged Americans not to mistake chaos for leadership.

    • Demdaru@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      If you thought the country needed you and you thought you could really help our nation, is there even a one percent chance you’d consider running?

      “Just between us, and the readers of this magazine — there’s zero chance,” Mrs. Obama replied.

      Yeah, can’t say I am surprised. I mean, she saw what that did to her husband. Not sure how it looks from USA pov, but from outside, the man visually aged two decades during his cadency.

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    Obama allowed the Republicans to viciously kick him around for eight years, yet he never stopped trying to appease them. He should have ruthlessly prosecuted the crimes of the illegitimate Bush administration, and showed the proto-Nazi Republican party that treason would not be tolerated. If he had, there never would have been the environment for MAGA to rise. But he failed us, like all those corporate, Republican-Lite Demopublicans.

    Now he’s still playing the same old game, like most of them, pretending that its business as usual, and letting HitlerPig get away with being Putin’s muscle, as he actively, gleefully destroys America, right in front of our faces, ss he plays golf. Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

    How long do we have to tolerate obvious TREASON before we stop it? Do we have to wait until the entire Democratic free world has collapsed, billions of people have died, and Sociopathic Oligarchs are sitting on top of the pile, smoking cigars and drinking expensive scotch, and gloating about their success, before we can finally admit what we already know right now, BEFORE the carnage - that the destruction of Democracy was their plan all along?

    It’s time for some coalition of respected leaders, including military, to step up and end this madness decisively. There are a lot of potential tipping points (a war against NATO allies, leaving NATO, an alliance with Russia/ China/ N Korea, attacking Canada/Mexico, giving away Alaska and/or Taiwan, a draft, disappearing American citizens without due process, designating citizens as terrorists for exercising free speech, etc), but the one bright red line that can NEVER be crossed, is elections. If HitlerPig suspends elections for ANY reason at all, it will become time to literally execute the entire MAGA leadership. That is precisely why the Founding Fathers created the 2nd Amendment, and we should honor them by applying it as they intended.

  • Lit@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Just call him for what he is, A russia agent, Krasnov Trump.

    And stop calling them Presidents, they are public servant. re-label the term to “Head Public Servant”.
    So that everyone is reminded everyday who they are supposed to serve.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Larry Niven’s scifi series had a species named Puppeteers where the leader was called the “Hindmost” because nobody wanted the gig. I think the leader’s job was to draw off the predators or something like that.

  • demizerone@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Barrack gave us trump when he let home owners eat shit and the bankers walk free. Even Bush was going to give home owners some reprieve, and asked Obama if he wanted to proceed and Obama told him " there is only one president at a time". When he came in to power, he bailed out the banks.

    • BilboBargains@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      He campaigned explicitly on a platform of change and then proceeded to install a cast of deeply entrenched establishment figures to shore up the establishment at the expense of common people. Classic switcheroo.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Obama was also in a position of power to actually do something about the Russian influence on the 2016 election - and he did nothing.

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    he labeled Trump a “wannabe dictator.”

    Sure wish Democrats would quit downplaying the threat.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Exactly. I just posted this in another thread…

      • He is setting tariffs on his own, a power designated solely to Congress by the Constitution.

      • He is having masked police kidnap people off the streets without warrants and shipping them to an overseas gulag without trial or even charges.

      • He is illegally refusing to distribute money allocated by Congress to certain states in order to punish them for not doing his bidding.

      • And when the courts have ordered him to stop doing the above, he has willfully ignored those court orders with no repercussions.

      Exactly what more needs to happen for this to be a dictatorship?

      • CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
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        9 hours ago

        These are just the things we know about. God knows else gets blocked internally, doesn’t hit the news or doesn’t pick up media traction.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I agree. It’s absolutely fucking infuriating.

      “Aggressively and rapidly installing himself as a dictator” would still be understating a bit.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      20 hours ago

      it lowkey became inevitable when the democrats didn’t make blocking trump from ever being president their #1 focus

      • freely1333@reddthat.com
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        13 hours ago

        Became inevitable when democrats ran Biden the first time… anyone with two brain cells could tell a Biden that doesn’t deliver some absolutely insane legislation was done. He even ran on being a one term president. He needed to stay on that path hard and allow a real primary group to form so there were competing ideas out against Trump. Saying everything is great in the face of massive inflation isn’t really going to cut it.

      • longjohnjohnson@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        They wanted to beat him again in another election. I’m pretty sure Biden had the DOJ drag their feet specifically so he could beat him again in another election.

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          15 hours ago

          It was said that the DOJ did that on their own. From inside sources, I think believable. But Biden didn’t fight them.

          • longjohnjohnson@lemmy.ml
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            17 hours ago

            Yup, and now the world suffers because of democrats unwillingness to say or do anything that might give the impression that they’re making anything even remotely a political attack.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          Pretty sure the reasoning was that biden was only barely able to beat trump in 2020 and wouldn’t be able to beat anyone else.

  • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Good, start the campaign now so that if Trump somehow crowbars in a law that allows him to run for a third term Obama can bury him

    • HubertManne@piefed.social
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      23 hours ago

      I don’t see that as a fix. A third term for either would be a higher level constitutional crisis than all the many ones trump has already initiated. Many failed like with his first impeachment for misappropriating federal funds to bribe a foreign official.

      • freely1333@reddthat.com
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        13 hours ago

        Everyone assumes Obama would easily win. I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion. It would just make the third term fully legitimized.

      • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        Besides the fact that Trump has already telegraphed a possible plan to allow for three terms only if they’re non-consecutive.

        • HubertManne@piefed.social
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          22 hours ago

          I mean thats great but it should not be allowed any more than any presidential law break is allowed. The solution is not to go with it and also do it.

      • Nougat@fedia.io
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        21 hours ago

        The only reason we have a 22nd amendment is because the shitheels were mad they didn’t get a turn. They could have stopped being shitheels, but that’s just out of the question.

        • HubertManne@piefed.social
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          21 hours ago

          Its something they should have put into the original consitution. They were never supposed to be careers. Given the terms of the various branches they should have maxed 12 years in any federal role besides judicial and that should have had a retirement cut off of 60.

          • monarch@preferred.social
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            21 hours ago

            Maybe a hot take but career politicians are something that make sense in a democracy that is properly functioning. If a politician is sure that they won’t have to go work in industry after they are out of office they are less likely to feel the need to bend to the will of the oligarchs. But that is not how it has worked out so the idea itself seems much worse than it inherently is.

            • HubertManne@piefed.social
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              6 hours ago

              not to me. Sure there are some great folks but the population is large and there are equally great folks out there. We need being a politician for a bit to be an accessible thing. We definitely need guardrails for quid pro quo but if guaranteed lifetime political is the solution its not a solution. Our system should work if everyone is one termer. Heck I would like every election to have a recall ballot were the electorate can vote to recall any position they vote for. If it cresta 50% of the electorate then the position goes up for election at the next election.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              9 hours ago

              Which is also why term limits (in many cases) are low-key a terrible idea, despite sounding great on the surface.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    Oh my god shut the fuck up about it being “unimaginable”. They published the playbook online for anyone to see in 2020. They said they would follow the playbook. They are now following the playbook. They are completing sections of the playbook as written. They will continue to complete sections of the playbook as written, until they are either done executing the playbook, or removed from power somehow. None of this is a surprise. You are not allowed to be surprised by this.

    • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      This is a straw man. Obama was not saying that nobody knew what project 2025 was planning. He’s saying that prior presidents could never have gotten away with behaving in ways that Trump behaves, and doing things that Trump does.

  • hOrni@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    You could listen to him. He was the only decent president You had in my memory.

  • jimjam5@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    If any President in recent history should return for a third term, I’d vote for Obama again in a heartbeat.

  • elatedCatfish@lemm.ee
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    21 hours ago

    Would love to vote for this Obama guy if he has the chance to run again. Do it, Republicans. No balls.

    • fake_meows@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      That’s the funny part: if Trump and the supreme court somehow finagle a new legal loophole for the constitution, then Obama will get elected.