Camille Naredo

Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks while campaigning for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger during a campaign rally in the Chartway Arena on November 01, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia. Win McNamee, Getty Images/AFP

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA - NOVEMBER 01: Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks while campaigning for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger during a campaign rally in the Chartway Arena on November 01, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia. Spanberger will face off against Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears in the Commonwealth of Virginias off-year election for governor and other statewide offices on November 4.   Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

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Former President Obama Campaigns With New Jersey And Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Ahead Of Elections On Tuesday

Agence France-Presse

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1771153224211AFP__20251101__2244515344__v4__MidRes__FormerPresidentObamaCampaignsWithNewJerseyAnd.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks while campaigning for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger during a campaign rally in the Chartway Arena on November 01, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia. Win McNamee, Getty Images/AFP" width="960"/>Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks while campaigning for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger during a campaign rally in the Chartway Arena on November 01, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia. Win McNamee, Getty Images/AFP</div>WASHINGTON -- Former US president Barack Obama criticized a lack of shame and decorum in the country&#x27;s political discourse, responding Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump&#x27;s social media account that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys.In a wide-ranging podcast interview with left-wing political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen released Saturday, Obama also compared the actions of agents enforcing the president&#x27;s immigration crackdown in Minnesota to dictatorships.The video, shared on Trump&#x27;s Truth Social account on February 5, sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting &quot;fake outrage&quot; only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and taking it down.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/2/7/trump-posts-then-deletes-racist-clip-of-obamas-as-monkeys-1114">READ: Trump posts, then deletes, racist clip of Obamas as monkeys</a></div>Near the end of a one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Trump&#x27;s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas -- the first Black president and first lady in US history -- were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.&quot;The discourse has devolved into a level of cruelty that we haven&#x27;t seen before...Just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on an ape&#x27;s body,&quot; Cohen said in the interview.&quot;And so again, we&#x27;ve seen the devolution of the discourse. How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into?&quot;Without naming Trump, Obama responded by saying the majority of Americans &quot;find this behavior deeply troubling.&quot;&quot;There&#x27;s this sort of clown show that&#x27;s happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn&#x27;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, right? That&#x27;s been lost.&quot;<div> </div><div>- &#x27;Rogue behavior&#x27; -</div>Obama predicted such messaging will hurt Trump&#x27;s Republicans in midterm elections, that &quot;ultimately, the answer is going to come from the American people.&quot;Trump has told reporters he stood by the thrust of the video&#x27;s claims about election fraud, but that he had not seen the offensive clip at the end.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/2/7/trump-won-t-apologize-for-video-depicting-obamas-as-apes-1728">READ: Trump won&#x27;t apologize for video depicting Obamas as apes</a></div>Turning to Trump&#x27;s policies, Obama criticized his immigration crackdown in Minnesota and blasted the conduct of agents during the controversial weeks-long operation that was brought to an end this week.Obama called the behavior of federal officers, which included two fatal shootings that sparked mounting pressure on Trump&#x27;s mass crackdown, as the sort that &quot;in the past we&#x27;ve seen in authoritarian countries and we&#x27;ve seen in dictatorships.&quot;Thousands of federal agents -- including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- carried out weeks of sweeping raids and arrests in what the Trump administration claims were targeted missions against criminals.&quot;The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,&quot; Obama said.But he added he had found hope in communities pushing back against the operations.&quot;Not just randomly, but in a systematic, organized way, citizens saying, &#x27;this is not the America we believe in,&#x27; and we&#x27;re going to fight back, and we&#x27;re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests,&quot; he said.&quot;That kind of heroic, sustained behavior in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope.&quot;As long as we have folks doing that, I feel like we&#x27;re going to get through this.&quot;The aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota had triggered large protests and nationwide outrage.The Department of Homeland Security was subject to a partial government shutdown Saturday as US lawmakers fought over funding the agency overseeing much of Trump&#x27;s immigration crackdown.Democrats are opposing any new DHS funding until major changes are implemented over how ICE conducts its operations.

Former US president Barack Obama criticized a lack of shame and decorum in the country's political discourse, responding Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump's social media account that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys.

Former US president Barack Obama criticized a lack of shame and decorum in the country's political discourse, responding Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump's social media account that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys.

Obama deplores lack of shame after Trump racist monkey clip

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Obama deplores lack of shame after Trump racist monkey clip

Agence France-Presse

Published February 15, 2026 07:02 PM PHT

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United States

Donald Trump

Barack Obama

Michelle Obama

racism

immigration raids

Truth Social

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