this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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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.

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[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 97 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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 65 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 23 points 1 week 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 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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

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[–] freely1333@reddthat.com 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 70 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah bruh. It was imaginable. I fucking imagined it. Because it was goddamn obvious.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] freely1333@reddthat.com 7 points 1 week 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.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago (3 children)

he labeled Trump a “wannabe dictator.”

Sure wish Democrats would quit downplaying the threat.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] elfin8er@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Senator Booker listed ways that Donald Trump has hurt America and Americans for TWENTY FIVE HOURS!

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[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I agree. It's absolutely fucking infuriating.

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

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[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] melfie@lemmings.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

He should’ve also jailed the oligarchs responsible for the 2008 crash, but as revealed in Wikileaks, his cabinet was selected in an email from Citigroup. Obama is also a war criminal with all of the civilians killed in his many drone strikes. Everyone was excited about the first black president, but he was just more of the same, except with more melanin. Along with helping the decline of the American healthcare system by slobbing the knobs of the insurance oligarchs with ACA, the economic prospects of an entire generation were ruined. The broken trust during his presidency was largely responsible for the USA going from its first black president to its first orange one.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I had no problem imagining it for at least a year before Election Day.

Nobody fucking listened.

[–] Sizing2673@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Don't forget all the dipshits constantly gaslighting

I'm still getting it. My retarded family thinks Trump is going to fix shit. I keep fucking telling them he's the one breaking shit

At what stage do I say "fuck you family, you helped give me this mess"

Is it after I get deported? Put onto trains and into ovens?

So many people have no fucking problem with Nazis.

I hate people. I hate how stupid they all are.

They're all just so God damned dumb and my world would be better if they all just died

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I stopped speaking with my parents a couple of weeks after January 20, and let them know that the ball's in their court and if they want to have a relationship, all they need to do is acknowledge that they were wrong about Trump.

It fucking sucks. But I just can't abide that shit anymore. Without getting into details, I might not have a job this time next year (after a decade there) directly because of the actions of this Administration. And even still, they don't seem to care.

I've started wondering how they'd react if I was disappeared. They'd likely tell people that I probably did something to deserve it, before ever admitting that they support a fascist dictator.

Shit's a real bummer.

[–] Sizing2673@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm sorry friend. I don't understand how people can be so defective and have no empathy

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The irony is that the values that I'm standing by here were taught to me by them. I may not have stayed in their church, but the "good parts" definitely stuck with me. I'm empathetic, in part, because I was taught to be by them.

I imagine if they were raising me now, they probably wouldn't have let me watch shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers that only helped solidify those values.

Back then we went to a multi-cultural church, and had several very good friends that were people of color. If that were happening now instead, I'm not sure how they would be able to reconcile that with their political views. Just ignore the cognitive dissonance, I guess?

Their minds have just been so broken by conservative propaganda that I don't even recognize them.

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[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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

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[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

“Imagine if I had done any of this,”

Ha... I'm not a big fan of obomber but at least he's legit funny sometimes.

#Michelle2028

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/michelle-obama-beat-trump-poll/

[–] Demdaru@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 week ago

What they did to her too, racist ass anti-trans bullshit.

[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 70 points 1 week 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.

[–] jimjam5@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was rooting for a Jimmy Carter second term but that’ll be tough now.

[–] vinnymac@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do undead presidents act as a third term loophole?

[–] fake_meows@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

Even if he wasn't undead, it would be SUCH an upgrade.

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[–] WuceBrillis@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago

https://archive.ph/QbtHO

This is the archived version of the article, no paywall.

[–] hOrni@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (9 children)

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

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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Rally the troops Obama. Do something about it.

[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Tariffs are basically tax on Americans.

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