Former President Barack Obama has forcefully pushed back against Donald Trump’s escalating claims that he led a “coup” attempt after the 2016 election—calling the accusations “bizarre” and “a weak attempt at distraction.”
In a rare public statement, Obama’s office broke its silence in response to Trump’s most recent remarks, in which the former president accused his predecessor of “treason” and claimed Obama had orchestrated efforts to “manufacture” evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election to undermine Trump’s victory.
“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,” the statement read. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
The rebuttal came just days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released an 11-page memo recommending criminal prosecution of Obama-era national security officials, claiming they were part of a “treasonous conspiracy” to sabotage the incoming Trump administration. Trump cited the report as justification for calling Obama the “leader of the gang.”
Obama’s office sharply dismissed the substance of Gabbard’s document, noting: “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.”
That conclusion was reaffirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired at the time by Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
Trump’s renewed attacks came during a meeting at the White House with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator ousted in the 1986 “People Power” uprising. Asked by reporters who should be investigated under Gabbard’s referral, Trump responded: “It would be President Obama. He started it… The leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?”
Trump then claimed the Gabbard report provided “irrefutable proof” that Obama, along with Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and others, had tried to stage a coup against him.
“This was treason. This was every word you can think of,” Trump said. “They tried to steal the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined.”
Trump also hinted that more documents are coming, saying Gabbard told him she had “thousands” of additional files. He appeared to downplay ongoing calls for transparency around documents related to Jeffrey Epstein by redirecting attention to the Gabbard report: “Take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense.”
However, the Gabbard memo has come under scrutiny for conflating unrelated issues and misrepresenting findings to discredit the 2017 intelligence community assessment. That report concluded that Russia interfered in the election by hacking and leaking Democratic emails to damage Clinton’s campaign, though there was no evidence of vote tampering.
Obama’s team emphasized that the core findings have withstood years of bipartisan review and are not undermined by politically charged claims from Trump or his allies.
