Obama Warns Colbert About Dangerous Politicization of Justice Under Trump

In a candid interview with Stephen Colbert, former President Barack Obama laid bare his concerns about the Trump administration’s corrosive impact on the American justice system. Without naming Trump directly, Obama described a troubling shift toward politicizing the Justice Department, turning it into a tool for settling political scores rather than upholding the law.

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

Obama emphasized the need to restore and codify the norm that the attorney general serves as “the people’s lawyer,” not the president’s personal legal hitman. “The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants to prosecute,” he said.

This warning comes amid the Trump Justice Department’s attempts to prosecute political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Obama’s remarks highlight a broader pattern of weaponizing federal power for personal and political gain — a hallmark of the Trump era’s authoritarian drift.

He also expressed alarm over the erosion of military norms designed to keep the armed forces loyal to the Constitution rather than any individual leader. “We’re going to have to find mechanisms to restore that,” Obama said.

On the issue of presidential pardons, Obama noted the constitutional power but cautioned against abusing it to reward campaign donors and cronies — a practice Trump has flagrantly embraced.

Obama’s interview, airing just ahead of the Obama Presidential Center opening, serves as a stark reminder that the struggle for democratic integrity continues. His call to action is clear: without safeguarding the independence of justice and government institutions, the American experiment itself is at risk.

As Obama put it, the fight is about ensuring “we the people” means every American — not just a privileged few wielding power unchecked. In the face of Trump’s ongoing assaults on democratic norms, that message could not be more urgent.