Faith Nyasuguta
President Donald Trump has reignited a bitter feud with his first predecessor, Barack Obama, by accusing him of treason in connection with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Speaking during an Oval Office press briefing on Tuesday alongside visiting Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, Trump lashed out at Obama, painting him as the mastermind of what he claimed was a vast criminal conspiracy to undermine his first election win.
“The leader of the gang was President Obama – Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump told reporters, leaning into the long-running right-wing trope of tying Obama’s middle name to conspiracy theories. “He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things nobody’s ever imagined, even in other countries.”
Trump’s fresh salvo revives a central theme of his political persona: the notion that he is perpetually at war with a “deep state” determined to sabotage him. Despite the lack of evidence to support his allegations, Trump has continued to amplify unproven claims about election rigging – first about his unexpected 2016 win and later about his defeat in the 2020 election, which he still refuses to concede.
Reviving the Russia Narrative
Trump’s allegations tie back to the final months of Obama’s second term, when the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia had attempted to interfere in the 2016 race to help Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Obama responded by expelling dozens of Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions.
A declassified report in early 2017 laid out details of Russia’s sweeping effort to meddle through disinformation campaigns, hacked Democratic emails, and propaganda designed to damage Clinton’s campaign. Yet the central question of whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia has remained hotly disputed.
In 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report said investigators did not find enough evidence to charge Trump or his campaign with collusion but did not exonerate him from obstruction of justice allegations. The Mueller investigation, and its lengthy probe, became a lightning rod for Trump, who branded it a “witch hunt” and insisted the entire narrative was fabricated by his enemies.
Tulsi Gabbard Joins Trump’s Crusade
Trump’s renewed offensive was bolstered by his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump loyalist. Just days before Trump’s remarks, Gabbard issued a statement declaring she had uncovered “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his national security team “manufactured and politicised intelligence” to fuel what she described as a “years-long coup” against Trump.
In her press release, dated July 18, Gabbard claimed that documents declassified by her office prove the Obama administration conspired to delegitimise Trump’s presidency before it even began. She called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue criminal charges.
“Their goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,” Gabbard wrote. “Every person involved must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
She later doubled down on social media, posting that she had handed over all relevant materials to the DOJ for criminal referral – even as fact-checkers and national security experts cast doubt on her interpretation of the documents.
Fact-Checking the Claims
National security analysts point out that Gabbard’s claims appear to misrepresent what the documents actually say. While some internal communications show that officials debated how to characterise Russia’s interference, no credible source has ever presented evidence that Obama directed intelligence agencies to fabricate findings.
The 2017 assessment did not claim Russia hacked vote tallies but did conclude that Russia used cyber tools, disinformation, and propaganda to sway American public opinion. Multiple independent investigations – including a Republican-led Senate probe – agreed with that fundamental finding.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed Gabbard’s statements, calling them “deeply troubling” and accusing her of politicising intelligence to suit Trump’s vendetta.
“It is sadly not surprising that DNI Gabbard, who promised to depoliticise the intelligence community, is once again weaponising her position to amplify the president’s election conspiracy theories,” Warner said.
Obama’s office issued a rare rebuke, labelling Gabbard’s accusations “bizarre” and reiterating that no votes were changed in 2016, though Russia did attempt to influence American voters through online meddling.
A Distraction or a Prelude?
Some observers believe Trump’s renewed focus on the 2016 election is partly a political smokescreen. Recent reports have linked Trump to controversial documents about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which have stirred fresh controversy within Trump’s base.
Amid those distractions, Trump posted an AI-generated video on social media showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office – a deepfake video set to the Village People’s “YMCA.” Critics decried the stunt as reckless and misleading, but Trump doubled down: “This is, like, proof – irrefutable proof – that Obama was seditious, that Obama was trying to lead a coup,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The extraordinary spectacle has sparked fears that Trump’s second term could be defined by efforts to punish political rivals and settle old scores. With Gabbard at his side, he now has an intelligence chief willing to publicly echo his narrative – a sharp departure from the often strained relationship Trump had with the intelligence community during his first term.
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