Obama tells Stephen Colbert about the privileges presidents must never abuse

Stephen Colbert spoke to former President Barack Obama about presidential powers and what limitations he thinks should be in place. It seems that the power of the president of the United States is boundless. Although that’s a sentiment many people currently feel, Obama shared two rules he swore by while he was in office.

“Now that you’re no longer in office, what powers do you believe the president should not have?” Colbert asked Obama on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“There are a couple that I’ve followed even though they weren’t law,” Obama said. He also thinks that these rules must now be codified if decency were to be restored. With President Donald Trump’s blatant strong-arming in the White House, needless to say, better mechanisms for accountability should be installed.

The DOJ as the president’s consigliere

“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants to,” Obama said. This is the first rule he believes all presidents must follow. It’s a direct response to Trump’s use of the Department of Justice to prosecute his political enemies and reward his allies.

“The idea is that the attorney general is the people’s lawyer. It’s not the president’s consigliere,” Obama added.

Colbert agreed with Obama and remarked that the practice is just a custom but not an official rule. The president chooses the attorney general. Thus, it’s assumed that the one chosen for the role has close ties to the president. In practice, it would be difficult for the attorney general to actively oppose the very person who has placed them in power.

“We can survive a lot. Bad policy, funky elections. There’s a bunch of stuff that we can overcome. We can’t overcome the politicization of the criminal justice system,” Obama remarked. A justice system that politicians weaponize in their favor is one of the components of an illiberal democracy. A country may still have elections, but its freedoms are significantly curtailed.

Obama also condemned pardoning political donors, an act Trump has brazenly done in 2025.

Politicization of the military

“The second thing is the military. Don’t politicize our military,” Obama told Colbert. “As president, you are commander in chief, you’re responsible for directing our military.”

Notably, in 2025, Trump deployed California National Guard troops, and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in the wake of immigration protests. A judge would later block Trump’s deployment. But it goes to show that Trump is not above using the military against his political adversaries.

“But there had been a whole series of norms that were in place to ensure that you weren’t trying to make that military loyal to you as opposed to the constitution and the people of the United States. We’re going to have to find mechanisms to restore that,” Obama commented.

Essentially, much of what makes democracy robust is the checks and balances that apply to everyone, including, theoretically, those in power. It’s a systemic failure if the president is able to sidestep and weaken institutions because of their power.

Obama says presidents shouldn’t engage in “side hustles”

“A good policy that I’d like to see followed is that the president of the United States shouldn’t have a bunch of side hustles that companies and foreign entities can invest in,” Obama said, and who isn’t sick of Trump merchandise of the MAGA base? The White House might as well be a large gift shop with a bunch of signed, dropshipped goods from the president.

Arguably, it shouldn’t just apply to the president. Members of Congress and the Senate should all show restraint as public servants. Technically, they can even propose legislation to curb this display of opportunistic corruption.

These are basic principles that presidents should operate with. But decency is lost on the shameless.

(featured image: CBS)

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