Obama Takes Swipe at Trump Admin, Warns Against Using State Power to 'Go After Political Enemies'

Former President Barack Obama took a thinly veiled swipe at the Trump administration on Tuesday, warning that U.S. democracy cannot survive the politicization of the criminal justice system and cautioning against presidents using the powers of government to target political opponents.

Speaking during an interview with Stephen Colbert on CBS's The Late Show, Obama did not mention President Donald Trump directly, but his remarks appeared aimed at criticism surrounding the administration's handling of the Justice Department and investigations involving perceived political adversaries.

"We can survive a lot — bad policy, funky elections, there's a bunch of stuff that we can overcome," Obama said. "We can't overcome the politicization of the criminal justice system. The awesome power of the state. You can't have a situation in which whoever's in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends."

The comments came after Colbert asked Obama which powers he believed presidents should not have. Obama said one of the most important democratic norms was maintaining the independence of the attorney general from the White House.

"The White House shouldn't be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants prosecuted," Obama said. Colbert responded that, while the Justice Department technically falls under the executive branch, "the norm is that it's independent."

"The idea is that the attorney general is the people's lawyer, it's not the president's consigliere," Obama replied.

Obama said those norms may now need to be formally protected by law rather than relying on precedent and institutional restraint. "We're going to have to do some work to return to this basic norm and we probably now have to codify it," he said.

He also appeared to reference concerns about political favoritism and presidential pardons, joking that presidents should "maybe don't pardon people who've given you a bunch of campaign contributions" or invest in private businesses while in office.

During the interview, Obama also warned against politicizing the military. "The second thing is our military. Don't politicize our military," he said.

The remarks are part of a broader pattern of indirect criticism Obama has leveled at Trump and the political climate surrounding his return to office. In a podcast interview released in February, Obama said American political discourse had devolved into a "clown show" and lamented the disappearance of "decorum" and "respect for the office" after Trump's social media account shared a video depicting Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

"There doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum," Obama said at the time.