‘Imagine if I had done any of this’: Obama compares his and Trump’s administrations, highlights an attack on Amendment Acts in the latter
If he did any of this, they would have definitely lost their minds
In a 2025 video that has recently gained renewed attention on social media, former United States President Barack Obama, during an interview at Hamilton College, says something many have been thinking for a while. Would the American people be okay if any of the former United States presidents, including himself, did even a fraction of what Donald Trump has been doing as President?
Focusing on Trump’s efforts to curb journalism that critiques him, Obama said, “Imagine if I had done any of this… imagine if I had pulled Fox News’s credentials from the White House press court… imagine if I’d said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated that you will not be allowed into government buildings.” As the crowd showed some discomfort and concurred with Obama’s claims, he continued, highlighting a series of other hypotheticals.
“…We will punish you economically for dissenting from the Affordable Care Act or the Iran deal. We will far it out students who protest against my policies.” He added, “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”
If there is a media outlet opposing Trump, there is definitely a lawsuit
Since coming to power for a second time last year, in a massive attack on First Amendment acts President Donald Trump has sued multiple news outlets, totaling billions of dollars, according to a Politico article from April 2026. The piece notes that as of that month, Trump had lawsuits against six “news organizations and publishers.” These included The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Des Moines Register.
The article also highlighted that Trump doesn’t necessarily have to win these lawsuits to get what he wants. He can simply use intimidation tactics to corner these outlets, and so far it seems to be working in his favor. “He’s not winning these cases. The problem is that he’s figuring out this scheme to use the law as a weapon that kind of cuts the courts out,” said Lee Levine, a lawyer who has represented several news organizations over the course of his career.
And Lee is correct. The Politico article states that about a month before Trump’s 2025 swearing-in ceremony, ABC settled a defamation lawsuit by paying $16 million and issuing an apology. Later, in July 2025, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed over a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired before the 2024 election.
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