President Donald Trump has renewed his longstanding and disputed claims that former President Barack Obama attempted to orchestrate a “coup” following the 2016 election, stating that those responsible “must pay.”
In a series of posts on Truth Social, President Trump once again invoked unsubstantiated allegations against Obama and former U.S. intelligence officials who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. His posts come amid continued public scrutiny surrounding the release of the Epstein files.
“The Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX is now TOTALLY UNDISPUTED! THE FACTS ARE ALL THERE, IN BLACK AND WHITE,” Trump wrote Friday morning. “It is the biggest scandal in American History. The perpetrators of this CRIME must pay a big price. This can never be allowed to happen in our Country again!”
In another post, he shared a video from The Daily Signal featuring conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson, who accuses intelligence leaders from the Obama era of conspiring to “destroy” Trump following his 2016 victory. “They must pay for the crime of the Century,” Trump declared.
These renewed allegations appear to be prompted by recent remarks from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has cited newly declassified documents suggesting what she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama and senior national security officials. According to Gabbard, they fabricated evidence of Russian election interference to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
Gabbard further claimed the Obama administration laid the foundation for “what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump,” accusing officials of spreading misleading intelligence.
Gabbard’s accusations lean heavily on discrepancies between the U.S. intelligence community’s January 2017 assessment—that Russia conducted an influence campaign to aid Trump’s campaign—and separate, unsubstantiated assertions that votes were manipulated in Trump’s favor.
Notably, the Obama administration never alleged that vote tallies were changed or voting machines were compromised.
A 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, which included current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also concluded that Russia sought to assist Trump’s campaign.
In response to Gabbard’s claims, Obama’s office issued a statement:
“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.”
Meanwhile, Trump allies, including Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, have welcomed the release of documents indicating the FBI had investigated claims that Hillary Clinton approved a plan to link Trump to Vladimir Putin during the 2016 race.
However, The New York Times noted that an annex to Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report suggests the information about Clinton’s alleged approval may have originated from Russian intelligence sources.
President Trump’s renewed focus on Obama coincides with intensifying questions about his own past connection to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in 2019.
Trump, who has previously claimed his relationship with Epstein ended over a real estate disagreement, now contends he severed ties after Epstein allegedly “stole” young workers from Mar-a-Lago.
“He took people. I say, ‘Don’t do it anymore,’ you know, they work for me,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “He took some others. Once he did that, that was the end of him.”
One of those individuals, Trump said, was Virginia Giuffre, a known victim of Epstein’s trafficking network, who died by suicide in April.
