Barack Obama reacted for the first time on Saturday after Donald Trump shared a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle as primates. The former Democratic president denounced a "clown show" and also criticized anti-immigration operations in the United States, which he described as the drifts of a "dictatorship."

First modification: 02/15/2026 - 15:34 Last modification: 02/15/2026 - 17:47

Usually rarely present in the media, Barack Obama participated in a political podcast broadcast on Saturday, February 14, in which he expressed his concern about the consequences for the United States under his Republican successor.

The former Democratic president lamented the “clown show” offered by the American political class after Donald Trump's dissemination of a racist video.

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He also condemned the anti-immigration operations, which, according to him, resemble practices typical of a dictatorship.

Progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen asked him in particular about the "degradation of political discourse" in the United States and cited as an example the video, widely denounced as racist, spread and subsequently deleted at the beginning of the month on the Truth Social network from Donald Trump's account.

Trump's animosity toward Obama

Most Americans "find this behavior deeply disturbing," Barack Obama responded, without explicitly mentioning the video or his Republican successor.

"There is a kind of clown show that takes place on social networks and on television, and the truth is that it does not seem to cause any shame among people who previously thought that there should be a certain decency, sense of form and respect for public office. That has been lost," said the former president.

The video, to which he had not reacted until now, showed the faces of Barack Obama, the country's first black president, and Michelle Obama on the bodies of primates, which provoked widespread criticism among Democrats and some Republicans.

Donald Trump minimized the criticism and claimed not to have seen the part of the video in question, while the White House stated that a member of his team was responsible for the publication.

The tycoon maintains a particular animosity towards Barack Obama, a very popular figure among Americans. He often refers to him as "Barack Hussein Obama", using his middle name, and helped spread conspiracy theories about the Democrat's nationality.

During his campaign, the Republican leader multiplied virulent statements against immigrants and shared false information with racist overtones.

"It is not the America we believe in"

In the same interview, Barack Obama was especially critical of the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and the border patrol in Minneapolis, until the end of their deployment this week.

"The deviant behavior of federal government agents is deeply worrying and dangerous," he said, alluding to practices "that we have seen in the past in authoritarian countries and dictatorships."

Since December, several thousand federal agents, often hooded, have multiplied raids and arrests of migrants, which has provoked the indignation of many residents of this Democratic bastion, which has become the epicenter of rejection of the US president's repressive immigration policy.

Two American citizens who tried to oppose ICE, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed by federal agents last month.

Obama had previously criticized the actions of ICE, calling for a citizen "awakening" to the attack on fundamental values.

In the podcast, he praised the resistance against these operations: "They are citizens who say, in a systematic and organized way: 'this is not the America we believe in,' and we are going to resist, we are going to respond with the truth, with cameras and with peaceful demonstrations."

"This kind of heroic and persistent behavior by ordinary people, despite sub-zero temperatures, should give us hope," he added.

Pulse in Congress

Tom Homan, a close collaborator of President Donald Trump, announced on Thursday, February 12, the end of the operation carried out in Minnesota. The Democratic opposition continues to demand broad reforms in the operation of ICE, including the elimination of mobile patrols, the prohibition of agents from hiding their faces and the obligation to have a court order before detaining an immigrant.

To that end, Democratic leaders in Congress are refusing to approve the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2026 funding bill.

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