Obama takes aim at companies cutting deals with Trump: ‘We have capacity to take a stand’ | Barack Obama

In a new podcast episode, Barack Obama took aim at institutions and businesses that have made deals or are working on compromises with the Trump administration, noting: “I think we’re all capable of taking a stand.”

In conversation with Marc Maron on the latest edition of the comedian’s long-gestating book WTF with Marc MaronThe former US president said institutions that changed direction during the Trump administration, including law firms, universities and businesses, should stand by their beliefs.

Rather than bowing to the administration, Obama noted, universities should say: “It would hurt if we lost some grant money in the federal government, but that’s what grants are for. Let’s see if we can get through this, because what we’re not going to do is compromise our basic academic independence.”

He also noted that organizations that bow to Trump need to be able to say, “We’re not going to be bullied into saying we can only hire or promote people based on some criteria made up by Steve Miller,” referring to the top White House aide and architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration policy.

Obama, whose two terms preceded the first Trump administration, also said companies must push back against the administration’s pressure campaign to stop hiring diversity.

“We think it’s important to hire people from diverse backgrounds because of the state of this country,” Obama said.

Universities, law firms and other businesses have all reached deals with the White House, including curbing campus anti-Semitism in exchange for lowering DEI targets and restoring federal funding. A number of powerful law firms in Washington have also agreed to provide free legal services to the administration, while the companies have rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Disney, a frequent target of political-ideological groups on the left and right, canceled its internal “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” program in favor of “Opportunity and Inclusion” to strengthen “all things through access, opportunity and a culture of belonging.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Obama acknowledged that honesty comes with a price.

“It can be disturbing sometimes,” he said, referring to Maron’s joke in his stand-up routine that Democrats are driving the average American toward fascism.

“This made me sad,” Obama said. “I wasn’t that funny when I said it, but four or five years ago I said, ‘Look, you can’t scold all the time. You can’t lecture people all the time without admitting that you have some blind spots.'”

Vulnerability, he said, comes from defending core beliefs but not trying to claim that “I’m so right and so naive and so insightful that I can’t possibly be wrong about this.”

“There was weird progressive language, not unlike what we joke about coming from the right and the moral majority, implying a holier-than-thou superiority and a certain fundamentalism that I thought was dangerous,” he said.

Maron aired the final episode of his show on Monday after 16 years of hosting and more than 1,600 episodes broadcast from his Los Angeles garage. Obama brought the 62-year-old host, stand-up comedian and actor to his office in Washington for a final interview.

Obama asked the first questions. “How do you feel about all this?” “To transition, to move on from this thing that has been one of the defining parts of your career and your life?” he said.

“I feel good,” Maron replied. “I feel like I’m kind of ready for a break, but there’s a fear of what I’m going to do now. I’m busy. But it’s no different than your job… There’s a lot of people who have come to trust me over the last 16 years.”