Former President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy 200 National Guard troops to Chicago, calling it “inherently corrupting” for a president to use the military against U.S. citizens. Obama made the remarks on the final episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, released Monday.
Trump’s deployment, aimed at reducing violent crime after a surge in shootings over Labor Day weekend, has drawn lawsuits from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Obama said the move represented “a deliberate end run” around the long-standing Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
“That is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy,” Obama warned, arguing that politicizing the military “is inherently corrupting.”
Background on the deployment
Trump ordered the Guard deployment after a violent Labor Day weekend in Chicago that left nine people dead and 58 wounded. This represents an 87% increase in shootings from the previous year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The White House said Trump deployed Guard members to “restore order,” but the move quickly drew lawsuits from Pritzker and Johnson, who accused the administration of overreach.
Obama told Maron that it was “mind-boggling” to imagine how Fox News would have reacted if he had taken similar action as president.
What else Obama said
The former president also criticized law firms, universities and corporations for caving to Trump administration pressure. He urged organizations not to be bullied by White House influence and said Americans still have the capacity “to take a stand” against political intimidation.
The conversation ranged from threats to democracy to internal tensions within the Democratic Party, with Obama reflecting on what he called a “holier-than-thou” tone among some liberals. He said it risks alienating voters rather than persuading them.
What’s next
The White House has not provided additional justification or data supporting the Chicago deployment. The lawsuits filed by Illinois officials last week could set up a major legal fight over the limits of federal power in domestic policing.
