‘Inherently corrupting’: Obama warns against danger of Trump’s Chicago military deployment

Former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump‘s attempts to use the military in American cities, warning that America’s democracy is being “weakened deliberately.”

“When you have a military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting,” America’s first Black president said on WTF podcast, accusing his successor of politicizing the military.

Since entering office for a second time, Trump has taken extraordinary steps to address what he has described as out-of-control crime in cities led by mostly Black Democrats, sending the National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Portland and, most recently, Chicago—where Obama has lived for more than 30 years.

On Saturday, a federal appeals court blocked the deployment on Chicago’s streets; however, they allowed the National Guard to remain under federal control. The Trump administration has argued that military troops are needed to protect federal buildings amid ongoing protests over ICE operations in the Windy City.

President Obama, citing federal law, isn’t buying that rationale.

He explained, “When you have what looks like a deliberate end run around not just a concept but a law that’s been around for a long time, Posse Comitatus, that says you don’t use our military on domestic soil unless there is an extraordinary emergency of some sort; that when you see an administration suggest that ordinary street crime is an insurrection or…a terrorist attack, that is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.”

Obama also called out what he saw as a “mind-boggling” double standard, arguing that if he, as president, deployed the National Guard to an American city like Trump, conservative outlets like Fox News would react far differently. He said, ultimately, Trump’s actions are causing harm to the country.

“I think there is no doubt that a lot of the norms, civic habits, expectations, [and] institutional guardrails that we had — that we took for granted — for our democracy have been weakened deliberately,” said the former president.

“I don’t think they’re destroyed, but I think they have been damaged, and [the Trump Administration has] been systematic about it.”

Over the weekend, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson repeated the assertion that Trump has “declared war on the city of Chicago.” The Black mayor told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, “This is clearly the playbook of an authoritarian government, and that’s why it’s incumbent upon all of us throughout this country to push back fiercely against this tyrant.”