Former President **Barack Obama publicly criticized former President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Chicago in response to rising violent crime, calling such an action “inherently corrupting” for a president to use the military “against their own people.” The remarks came during the final episode of comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, where Obama addressed concerns around democracy, institutional norms, and the politicization of national security.

Obama emphasized that the deployment appeared to bypass long‑standing legal boundaries, specifically pointing to the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits military engagement in domestic law enforcement unless under extraordinary circumstances. He contended that labeling regular street crime as an insurrection or terrorist attack is a “genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.”

In response, Trump defended his decision by pointing to the spike in violence in Chicago, citing multiple shootings over a single weekend and asserting that federal intervention was necessary. The deployment drew strong pushback from Illinois officials, including the governor and mayor, who argued the intervention threatened state sovereignty and blurred the line between law enforcement and military force.

Obama’s critics, however, accused him of hypocrisy—recalling his own administration’s use of federal and military‐adjacent forces during domestic unrest, such as the Baltimore uprising in 2015. Some analysts noted that while Obama framed his critique around intent and norms rather than action per se, applying a standard selectively depending on who holds power raises questions about consistency and fairness