Obama on Trump 2.0 Agenda: 'It's Up to All of Us to Fix This'

Former President Barack Obama is taking aim at President Donald Trump’s latest actions and calling on Americans to step up in defiance.

During a speech at Hamilton College in New York on Thursday, April 3, Obama criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to target law firms, universities, and diversity initiatives, warning that now is the time for action.

“It is up to all of us to fix this,” Obama said. “It’s not going to be because somebody comes and saves you.”

Obama’s comments came after Trump issued executive orders aimed at law firms representing individuals he claimed acted against U.S. interests. His administration also threatened to cut federal funding to universities that maintain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

“This is the first time I’ve been speaking publicly for a while. I’ve been watching a little bit,” Obama said. “It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not had to pay a price for it.”

The 44th president urged both law firms and universities to resist political pressure, even if it means facing consequences.

“If you’re a law firm being threatened, you might have to say, ‘Okay, we will lose some business because we’re going to stand for a principle,’” he said.

“If you are a university,” he continued, “you may have to say, ‘Have we violated our own values, our own code, violated the law in some fashion?’ If not, and you’re just being intimidated, well you should be able to say, ‘That’s why we got this big endowment.'”

Obama also took aim at companies that he said abandoned their diversity commitments.

“I’ve noticed this among some wealthier folks who you know, after George Floyd, they were right there. And a bunch of companies were talking about how they cared about diversity, and they wanted to do this, and they were all for that,” he said. “And they are mute right now. But what that tells me is it was okay when it was cool and trendy.”

Target is currently facing a boycott by African Americans after dropping its diversity initiatives.

This isn’t the first time Obama has criticized Trump. Ahead of the 2024 election, he slammed the then-candidate for his “Black Jobs” comment and said Trump’s return would be a sequel no one wants.

“We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos. We’ve seen that movie — and we all know that the sequel’s usually worse,” Obama said at the time.

Watch Obama deliver his remarks at Hamilton College in the video below.