By Obinna Uballa
Former United States President Barack Obama has criticised what he described as a collapse in political decorum and civility, responding publicly for the first time to a video shared on US President Donald Trump’s social media platform that depicted him and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The New Diplomat had reported that the one-minute clip, posted on Truth Social on February 5, promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and briefly showed the Obamas’ faces superimposed on monkey bodies. The post sparked bipartisan condemnation, with the White House initially dismissing the backlash as “fake outrage” before later blaming the upload on a staff error and removing it.
Obama addressed the controversy during a wide-ranging podcast interview with left-wing commentator Brian Tyler Cohen released Saturday. Without directly naming Trump, Obama said most Americans “find this behaviour deeply troubling.”
“There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television,” Obama said. “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. That’s been lost.”
He suggested such rhetoric could have political consequences, predicting voters would ultimately respond at the ballot box during the midterm elections.
Trump, speaking to reporters earlier, said he stood by the broader claims in the video regarding alleged election irregularities but claimed he had not seen the offensive portion at the end.
During the interview, Obama also criticised the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, describing the conduct of federal agents as deeply troubling.
Thousands of federal officers, including agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had conducted weeks-long raids and arrests in what the administration described as targeted operations against criminals. The crackdown triggered mass protests and nationwide debate, particularly after two fatal shootings during the enforcement actions.
Obama likened some of the tactics to those associated with authoritarian regimes.
“The rogue behaviour of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,” he said, adding that such actions resembled conduct “we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and dictatorships.”
He, however, praised communities that organised peaceful protests and documented enforcement activities.
“Citizens saying, ‘This is not the America we believe in,’ and pushing back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests – that kind of sustained behaviour by ordinary people is what should give us hope,” he said.
The controversy over immigration enforcement also spilled into Congress, where lawmakers clashed over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, leading to a partial government shutdown as Democrats demanded reforms in how ICE conducts operations.
Remarks on Extraterrestrial Life
Separately, Obama reignited online discussion about extraterrestrial life in a viral clip shared on X. In the video, he reiterated his longstanding view that while he has never personally seen aliens, the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe cannot be ruled out.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said, adding jokingly that extraterrestrials were not being hidden at Area 51 “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States.”
Throughout and after his presidency, Obama has maintained that although he encountered no evidence of alien spacecraft during his time in office, the vastness of the universe makes the existence of other life statistically plausible.
