Former President Barack Obama took purpose at growing old leaders, saying the world’s greatest crises are sometimes fueled by males clinging to energy.
Speaking at London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday (Sept. 24) in dialog with British historian David Olusoga, Obama spoke on growing old world leaders and made a remark that might be perceived as a dig at President Donald Trump.
“It’s fair to say that 80 percent of the world’s problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won’t let go,” stated Obama. “They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything and they get very anxious about it.”
Olusoga added, “History is not short of those figures. Neither is the present.”
The critique is in step with Obama’s previous feedback. Back in 2019, he advised a personal viewers in Singapore that “usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way” drive a lot of the world’s dysfunction.
Obama pressured the significance of remembering that political leaders are “not there for life, you are not there in order to prop up your own sense of self-importance or your own power.”
The remarks got here simply days after Trump unveiled a “Presidential Walk of Fame” in the White House Rose Garden, that includes a plaque for Obama and an autopen picture for former President Joe Biden.
During the London occasion, Obama additionally criticized Trump for spreading misinformation by linking Tylenol use throughout being pregnant to autism, a declare repeatedly debunked by scientists. He warned that such rhetoric undermines public well being, creates concern for folks of autistic kids, and spreads what he known as “violence against the truth.”
Beyond U.S. politics, Obama cautioned towards the rise of “creeping authoritarian tendencies” and the narrowing of America’s founding supreme of “we the people.” He argued that democracy is threatened when solely sure teams are seen as deserving full standing and rights.
The sold-out occasion, titled An Evening with President Barack Obamadrew greater than 14,000 attendees.