Obama slams Trump tariffs and federal cuts, urges Americans to defend democratic values

Former US President Barack Obama called on Americans to resist the political agenda spread by current US President Donald Trump and defend the democratic values this country stands on. The remarks from Obama came during his address at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York on Thursday.

The former president warned Americans to prepare to “possibly sacrifice” in support of democratic values. The speech came days after Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs worldwide, making foreign goods more expensive for Americans. In light of this, Wall Street tumbled, with experts predicting that America might be heading towards recession.

“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 have to pay a price for it,” Obama said in his address. The two-term president from the Democratic Party said that the Trump administration has led to the erosion of mutual respect for free speech.

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In his address, Obama urged people to call out what is wrong with the Trump administration. “It is up to all of us to fix this,” Obama said, including “the citizen, the ordinary person who says: ‘No, that’s not right.’” He emphasised that he disagreed with some of Trump’s economic policies, including widespread new tariffs.

However, the former president emphasised that he is more “deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech”. Obama also said schools and students should review campus environments around issues of academic freedom and prepare to lose government funding in their defence.

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“If you are a university, you may have to figure out: ‘Are we, in fact, doing things right?’” he said during the conversation at Hamilton College. “Have we in fact 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’s address came at a time when Columbia University has become a prime target of the Trump administration. The White House has cut federal funding to different programs the university has to offer and conducted a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters who took part in the demonstrations last year.

Harvard, Princeton University and other institutions are also under federal funding review over their policies on the issue. “Now we’re at one of those moments where you know what? It’s not enough just to say you’re for something; you may have to do something,” the former president concluded.