Is America heading toward autocracy under Trump? Obama's stark warning for the world's oldest democracy
Former US President
Barack Obama
has issued a rare and pointed warning about the health of American democracy—drawing unsettling comparisons to autocratic regimes abroad.
Speaking at a public forum in Hartford, Connecticut, on Tuesday evening, Obama cautioned that the United States is 'dangerously close to normalising behavior' more often seen in authoritarian governments. His comments, made during a moderated conversation at the
Bushnell Performing Arts Center
, come amid growing concern over mass immigration raids and political rhetoric that critics say is undermining democratic norms.
'If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now,' Obama said, 'there is a weak commitment to what we understood—and not just my generation, at least since World War II—our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work.'
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He was quoted by Connecticut Public Radio.
While Obama did not name
Donald Trump
directly during the event, his message was unmistakable. He referenced the spread of falsehoods about the
2020 election
and the erosion of shared truth in public life—central issues in the post-Trump political landscape.
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'What we're seeing is not consistent with democracy'
In one of the starkest moments of the evening, Obama said that current developments in U.S. governance resemble those in countries that hold elections but fail to protect democratic norms.
'What we're seeing right now… is not consistent with
American democracy
,' he said. 'It is consistent with autocracies.'
He specifically cited Hungary's Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán
, whose government has faced accusations of democratic backsliding. Comparing that model to the U.S., Obama warned, 'We're not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.'
— guyfelicella (@guyfelicella)
This remark drew attention not only for its directness but also because it underscores how far Obama believes the U.S. has strayed from its institutional guardrails. According to him, preventing further decline requires action—not only from civil society, but from political leaders across the spectrum.
'There has to be a response and pushback from civil society, from various institutions and individuals outside of government,' he said. 'But there also have to be people in government in both parties who say, 'No, you can't do that.''
Obama rebukes 2020 election denial
Obama also addressed the ongoing political fallout from the 2020 election, which Donald Trump and many of his supporters have continued to claim was stolen—despite no evidence of widespread fraud and dozens of court rulings upholding the results.
'In 2020, one person won the election, and it wasn't the guy complaining about it,' Obama said. 'And that's just a fact.'
He emphasized the danger of political leaders who knowingly repeat falsehoods, saying, 'In one of our major political parties, you have a whole bunch of people who know that's not true but will pretend like it is. And that is dangerous.'
He drew a comparison to his own experience in office to highlight the shift in how facts are treated in public discourse.
'My inauguration had more people… I don't care, but facts are important,' he said, alluding to Donald Trump's widely disputed claims about his 2017 inauguration crowd size.
The former president also argued that the breakdown of consensus on basic facts has become a core challenge for democracy: when public debate no longer rests on shared reality, democratic systems become more fragile and easier to manipulate.
Hope, outrage, and the long game of democracy
Despite the grave tone of much of his address, Obama ended on a note of guarded optimism—particularly when asked what he would say to young Americans feeling demoralized by the current state of politics.
'I'm still optimistic—I'm still the 'hope' guy,' he said, according to Connecticut Public Radio.
He urged the audience to remain 'impatient with injustice and cruelty,' calling for a 'healthy outrage' in response to authoritarian tendencies both in the U.S. and globally. But he also stressed the importance of building coalitions and finding shared ground—even with those who may not fully align politically.
'If you want to deliver on change, then it's a game of addition, not subtraction,' Obama said. 'You have to find ways to make common ground with people who don't agree with you on everything but agree with you on some things.'
He quoted Abraham Lincoln's idea of appealing to 'the better angels of our nature,' suggesting that mutual recognition and trust are not just central to democracy, but necessary for long-term social cohesion.
'When people actually meet and get to know each other… people start recognizing themselves in each other and they start trusting each other,' he said. 'And that's not just the basis for democracy, but that's the basis for our long-term salvation.'
Earlier in the week, Obama had echoed similar concerns online, referencing the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) program in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 'DACA was an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,' he wrote, urging Americans to remember that immigrants 'just want to live, work, and support their communities.'
Though he avoided overt electioneering or campaign references, Obama's warning in Hartford is being widely interpreted as a signal to voters, lawmakers, and civic institutions: the guardrails of American democracy are still in place—but they may not hold without active defense.
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