Obama Speaks out Against Trump and Attacks 'Politics of Fear and Resentment.

Barack Obama has delivered a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump’s America, attacking his successor by name for the first time in impassioned remarks that denounced “the politics of fear and resentment”. In his first major political speech since leaving the White House, Obama made a lengthy appeal to voters across the US to restore “a healthy democracy”, and denounced the tactics employed by Trump and Republicans in Washington as an unprecedented threat to the country’s future.

“Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security would be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us, or don’t sound like us, or don’t pray like we do – that is an old playbook, it’s old as time,” Obama said. “It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause.”

Until now, Obama had weighed in on just a handful of Trump’s draconian immigration policies and decisions to withdraw from landmark international agreements, such as the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal. But on Friday, Obama offered his most pointed indictment of the political climate that has formed under Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. It was a remarkable foray back into the realm of politics, after more than a year and a half of largely sitting on the sidelines.