“Imagine if I had done any of this,” the two-term former president said.
www.thedailybeast.com
People aren't understanding what Obama is saying or why he is saying it to push their own narrative based on a excerpt from a larger speech. He's warning about how the normalization of authoritarian behavior from the executive branch threatens the foundational principles of American democracy. He is pointing out that Trump is actively weaponizing the federal government against critics, institutions, and the free press in ways that would've sparked national outrage if done by any previous president, especially a Black one.
His comments are trying to draw attention to the erosion of legal and democratic accountability that allows Trump to act with impunity. It's a warning about how the system is being stress-tested, and far too many people are letting it happen.
Dudes in here talking about M4A and reparations fundamentally misunderstands the difference between executive power and legislative governance. Trump is using executive threats and the machinery of government to punish enemies and protect himself legally. That's *not* policy-making, that's authoritarianism.
Obama couldn't just "crash out" and give us M4A or reparations, because those actually require laws passed through Congress. You can't executive-order your way to universal healthcare or generational wealth redistribution.
If Obama had tried even a fraction of what Trump's doing now he would've been impeached in a week, and everyone pretending otherwise knows it. Stop confusing bluster and lawlessness with policy delivery.
Trump is proving that the White House can inject fear in powerful sectors of society.
And are we forgetting that people are trying to kill him? He was nearly killed last year!
In the aftermath of the biggest crash since 1929, Obama being more FDR than Bill Clinton wouldn’t have gotten him killed
Trump isn't "injecting fear" into powerful sectors of society, he's testing how much authoritarian behavior elites will tolerate when it's in service of their tax cuts, deregulation, or judicial appointments. The fact that major corporations, law firms, and media institutions *aren't* mounting serious resistance to his attacks on the rule of law, civil liberties, or dissent shows the opposite of fear, it shows complicity.