Chicago, IL – Former President Barack Obama accused Donald Trump of deliberately weakening America’s democratic institutions, calling his past deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago and other cities “inherently corrupting.”
According to remarks made Monday on the final episode of Marc Maron’s podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” Obama said that under Trump, “a lot of the norms, civic habits, expectations, [and] institutional guardrails that we took for granted… have been weakened deliberately.”
Obama, who began his political career in Chicago, blasted Trump’s use of the National Guard in Democratic-led cities as both illegal and dangerous. “When you have military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting,” he said, referring to Trump’s repeated but false claims that military force was needed to address crime in urban areas.
The former president argued that the actions amounted to a “deliberate end run” around the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts military involvement in domestic law enforcement.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker echoed Obama’s criticism during an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” saying Trump’s motives were political rather than protective. “They just want troops on the ground because they want to militarize, especially blue cities and blue states,” Pritzker said.
Trump’s attempts to deploy troops have been blocked in federal court, with judges ruling the former president lacked the authority to carry out such actions.
Obama’s latest comments follow a series of public critiques in which he accused Trump of empowering extremist views and eroding democratic norms.
This article was produced by a journalist and may include AI-assisted input. All content is reviewed for accuracy and fairness.
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