Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama says a majority of Americans \u2018find this behaviour deeply troubling\u2019.<\/p>\n
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Speaking publicly for the first time after United States President Donald Trump\u2019s social media account depicted him and his wife Michelle as monkeys, former President Barack Obama has deplored the degradation of the country\u2019s political discourse to a \u201cclown show\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[What] is true is that there doesn\u2019t 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, right? That\u2019s been lost,\u201d Obama said in a wide-ranging podcast interview with left-wing political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday.<\/p>\n
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The video, shared on Trump\u2019s Truth Social account on February 5, prompted censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting \u201cfake outrage\u201d only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and then taking it down.<\/p>\n
Near the end of the one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas \u2013 the first Black president and first lady in US history \u2013 were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discourse has devolved into a level of cruelty that we haven\u2019t seen before \u2026 Just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on an ape\u2019s body,\u201d Cohen said in the interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so again, we\u2019ve seen the devolution of the discourse. How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Without mentioning Trump\u2019s name, Obama said a majority of Americans \u201cfind this behaviour deeply troubling\u201d, adding that it will hurt the Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Trump has told reporters he stood by the thrust of the video\u2019s claims about election fraud, but that he had not seen the offensive clip at the end.<\/p>\n
The apparently AI-generated video was set to Lion Sleeps Tonight, a song made famous by Disney\u2019s The Lion King film. In it, the faces of the Obamas were placed atop the bodies of apes, widely smiling, perpetuating several tropes made against Black people.<\/p>\n
The post mocking the Obamas was made during the Black History Month, a time dedicated to honouring the milestones, contributions and history of Black Americans.<\/p>\n
Obama also compared the actions of agents enforcing Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in Minnesota state with dictatorships.<\/p>\n
He called the behaviour of federal officers, which included two fatal shootings<\/a> that led to mounting pressure on Trump\u2019s mass crackdown, the sort that \u201cin the past we\u2019ve seen in authoritarian countries and we\u2019ve seen in dictatorships\u201d.<\/p>\n Thousands of federal agents, including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), carried out weeks of sweeping raids<\/a> and arrests in what the Trump administration claims were targeted missions against criminals.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rogue behaviour of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n However, he added he had found hope in communities pushing back against the operations.<\/p>\n \u201cNot just randomly, but in a systematic, organised way, citizens saying, \u2018this is not the America we believe in, and we\u2019re going to fight back, and we\u2019re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n