The long-simmering feud between President Trump and former President Obama erupted this week after Trump accused his predecessor of treason, a startling escalation in the fight between the two leaders.
The Trump administration’s barrage of attacks and document releases around the Obama administration’s handling of Russian interference in the 2016 election prompted a rare public rebuke from Obama against the current Oval Office occupant.
The confrontation pits two of the most powerful figures in politics, and arguably the most popular Republican and Democratic politicians in the country, against one another.
For Trump and the White House, going after Obama, particularly over Russian influence in the 2016 election, is seen as a political winner and a way to unite the party amid a turbulent stretch born out of the Trump Justice Department’s handling of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and files related to his criminal case.
The Russia investigation has been a fixation of GOP lawmakers and members of Trump’s base dating back to 2017 and has fueled distrust in the FBI and intelligence community.
“The leader of the gang was President Obama. … He’s guilty. It’s not a question,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office. “I like to say let’s give it time. It’s there. He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office released documents last Friday and again on Wednesday purporting to show Obama and some of his top aides misled the public about the nature of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
Gabbard has alleged Obama officials “manufactured intelligence” about Russia’s election interference and that Russia did not prefer Trump in that election, as the intelligence community had previously established.
Obama’s name was uttered roughly a dozen times at a Wednesday White House press briefing, where Gabbard spoke to reporters about the latest release of documents, as contained in a House Intelligence Committee report drafted in 2017, when Republicans led the panel, and published in 2020.
“The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly points to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact,” Gabbard said, telling reporters her office was referring documents to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges.
Gabbard had previously accused Obama and his White House aides of a “treasonous conspiracy,” though on Wednesday she repeatedly sidestepped questions about what specific crime Obama would have committed.
Critics have panned the documents released by Gabbard as out of step with intelligence community findings and the findings of a bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee released in 2020, which both established that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election and preferred Trump to win. The Obama White House said at the time Russia did not change any votes in the election.
The allegations against Obama were so severe, and in the view of some Democrats so outlandish, that it elicited a rare public statement from the former president’s office.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” Rodenbush added.
Multiple investigations have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
A 2019 report by former special counsel Robert Mueller found that Russia interfered in the election, partly through a social media campaign that favored Trump.
The Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 released a bipartisan report that also affirmed the findings of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and that the Russian government “demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump.” Numerous Democrats have noted this week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio served on the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time.
But even if the focus on Russian interference and Obama’s role don’t lead to criminal charges, it has the added benefit of shifting attention away, if only temporarily, from an undesirable news cycle for the White House.
The Beltway has been consumed in recent weeks with stories about the case of Epstein, the sex predator who died in 2019, and calls among many of Trump’s own supporters for more transparency.
To the chagrin of Trump and his allies, The Wall Street Journal published a story shortly after Gabbard’s White House appearance ended reporting that Attorney General Pam Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name was among many that appeared in the Epstein documents.
“He’s treating his supporters like he thinks they’re stupid with these lies about other presidents and every other random tangent,” said Andrew Bates, a former spokesperson in the Obama and Biden administrations. “This is a different version of Trump because you can feel the panic behind his Epstein excuses.”
In addition to being red meat for Trump’s base, Obama has been a target of Trump’s personal animus dating back to before he was in office.
It was Trump who led the racist “birther” conspiracy that claimed Obama was not born in the United States. Trump spent much of his first term claiming Obama “spied” on his campaign in 2016. And the president spent part of the 2024 campaign attacking Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama over their fiery remarks at the Democratic National Convention, which portrayed Trump as a nuisance only focused on his problems.
Democrats view Trump’s attacks on former President Obama as returning to a tired playbook at a time when he is facing unrest from some in his own party over the Epstein case and criticisms from political rivals over the potential backlash to his key policy accomplishment.
“When you have nothing to present that’s affirmative to the American people, Republicans blame Barack Obama,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. “It’s laughable.”
