Trump’s controversial remarks reignite the debate surrounding the 2016 U.S. election and political allegations.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for the arrest of former President Barack Obama, accusing his predecessor of conspiring to commit a coup during the 2016 presidential election. These remarks were made by Mr. Trump in a post on the social media platform Truth Social.

In his message, Mr. Trump alleged that Mr. Obama directed CIA agents to fabricate false intelligence regarding the Russia investigation, also known as “Russiagate.”

“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has just released HUNDREDS OF SHOCKING DOCUMENTS ON RUSSIAGATE, proving that Barack Obama personally ordered CIA agents to create fake intelligence about President Trump and actively ‘worked with the enemy’ to sabotage and erode the American people’s faith in democracy and President Trump’s landslide victory in 2016. This was a coup attempt by Barack Hussein Obama and his gang… As Jesse Watters said: ‘Whatever happens to these people is not revenge… it is accountability. And it is time for these people to pay the price.’ ARREST OBAMA NOW!”, Mr. Trump posted on the social media network Truth Social.

Mr. Trump described these alleged actions as a conspiracy intended to undermine the American people’s faith in democracy and in his victory in the 2016 election. The U.S. President emphasized that this was a coup attempt and demanded criminal prosecution against Mr. Obama.

According to the content of the post, Mr. Trump cited information suggesting that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has released hundreds of documents related to Russiagate. Mr. Trump asserted that these documents prove Mr. Obama directly ordered the creation of false intelligence and “worked with the enemy” to weaken his administration.

The aforementioned statements were made in the context of the Trump administration intensifying its review of the conduct of political opponents in previous election cycles.

The call for Mr. Obama’s arrest appeared shortly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a seizure of documents related to the 2020 election at the Fulton County election office near the city of Atlanta. This activity was attended by several high-ranking officials, including Ms. Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey.

Allegations regarding Russian interference have been raised multiple times in the West and in the media, but have also been dismissed in many instances. The Russian side denies these allegations and asserts that they are baseless arguments.

What’s Obama been up to?

Why Democrats are looking to a former president to weather the Trump storm.

Former presidents usually leave the big political battles to their successors. Up until this year, that was largely the case for former president Barack Obama. In his retirement from politics, he founded an award-winning production company, wrote a memoir, and worked to cultivate new political leaders through the Obama Foundation.

But a second Trump presidency has tested Obama and put him back in the national spotlight as the Democratic Party looks to him for answers on how to respond to Trump’s most unprecedented policies, including partisan redistricting.

Today on “Post Reports,” host Colby Itkowitz speaks with national politics reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb about how Obama is confronting Trump and why his voice continues to hold sway over Democrats.

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter.

Obama labels Minneapolis shooting a ‘wake-up call to every American’

His remarks come as video shot by bystanders appears to contradict statements by Trump’s administration

Former President Barack Obama called the death of an intensive care nurse at Border Patrol’s hands a “heartbreaking tragedy” and warned that “many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”

Labeling the shooting “a wake-up call to every American,” he and his wife urged the Trump administration to work with city and state officials to “to avert more chaos and achieve legitimate law enforcement goals.”

“Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety,” Obama wrote.

“That’s not what we’re seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we’re seeing the opposite. For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city.

“This has to stop.”

He joins local leaders and Democrats across the country in demanding federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and set off clashes with protesters in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier.

The latest shooting has sparked a legal fight over control of the investigation amid the immigration surge that has swept across Minneapolis and surrounding cities.

Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appears to contradict statements by President Donald Trump’s administration, which said agents fired “defensively” against Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, as he approached them Saturday morning.

Pretti can be seen with only a phone in his hand as he steps between an immigration agent and a woman on the street. No footage appears to show him with a weapon. During the scuffle, agents appear to disarm him after discovering that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and then opened fire several times. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” On X, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti “a would-be assassin.”

Pretti’s family said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” at authorities, calling Pretti a kindhearted soul who wanted to make a difference in the world. Relatives were furious at federal officials’ description of the shooting.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son.”

A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued.

 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul.

“A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is nonnegotiable,” Ellison said in a statement.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which are named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that federal officers blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.

On Sunday morning, though, bureau officers were working at the scene.

The Minnesota National Guard temporarily assisted local police at the direction of Gov. Tim Walz, officials said, with troops sent to the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off daily with demonstrators.

But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Sunday morning on CBS’ Face the Nation that “it’s back to just the Minneapolis police responding to calls.”

O’Hara said he had seen no evidence that Pretti brandished the pistol, and that the crackdown was exhausting his department.

“This is taking an enormous toll, trying to manage all this chaos on top of having to be the police department for a major city. It’s too much,” he said.

Gun groups defend right to carry weapon at protests

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questioned during a news conference Saturday why Pretti was armed. But gun rights groups have noted it’s legal to carry firearms during protests.

“Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights,” the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement. “These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed.”

The president weighed in on social media by lashing out at Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.

He shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”

Trump said the Democratic governor and mayor “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was among several Democratic lawmakers demanding that federal immigration authorities leave Minnesota. She also urged Democrats to refuse to vote to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying via social media: “We have a responsibility to protect Americans from tyranny.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer later said that Democrats will not vote for a spending package that includes money for DHS, which oversees ICE. Schumer’s statement increases the possibility that the government could partially shut down Jan. 30 when funding runs out.

Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an ICE officer killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Jan. 7, sparking widespread protests.

 

Videos show shooting

When the Saturday confrontation began, bystander video shows protesters blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on a commercial street in south Minneapolis.

The videos show Pretti stepping in after an immigration officer shoves a woman. Pretti appears to be holding his phone toward the officer, but there’s no sign he’s holding a weapon.

The officer shoves Pretti in his chest, and pepper sprays him and the woman.

Soon, at least seven officers are forcing Pretti to the ground. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. An officer holding a canister strikes him near his head several times.

A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear where it came from. Multiple officers back off. More shots are heard. Officers back away, and the man lies motionless on the street.

Bovino, the public face of Trump’s crackdown, was repeatedly pressed on CNN’s Sunday State of the Union for evidence that Pretti assaulted law enforcement.

It was “very evident” that Pretti was not following the officers’ orders, he said.

“It’s too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene,” he said. “He made the decision.”

Protests continue

Demonstrations broke out in several cities across the country after the shooting, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

In Minneapolis, protesters converged in the neighborhood where Pretti had been shot despite dangerously cold weather with temperatures around minus 6 degrees (minus 21 Celsius).

An angry crowd screamed profanities at federal officers after the shooting, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. Protesters dragged large garbage bins from alleyways to block streets, lighting garbage in at least one on fire.

As darkness fell, hundreds of people mourned quietly by a growing memorial at the site of the shooting. A doughnut shop and a clothing store nearby stayed open, offering protesters a warm place.

By morning, the scene was calm.

Brett Williams, 37, came from the city’s suburbs to a morning vigil at the scene.

“I stand in solidarity with a brother whose life was taken too soon,” he said. “He’s standing up for immigrants. We’re all immigrants.”

‘Becoming’ media moguls? Michelle Obama, Melania Trump pursue Hollywood

First lady Melania Trump stares directly into the camera and quips, “Here we go again,” in the opening scenes of her dramatic documentary trailer.

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The film “Melania” follows her life in the 20 days leading up to the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. Known for her self-made mystique, the first lady, who has long focused on motherhood over political barnstorming, was glaringly absent from the campaign trail in the run-up to the 2024 general election.

Released Jan. 30, from disgraced director Brett Ratner, who is named in the Epstein files, “Melania” defies precedent: It is the first documentary of its kind to premiere in American theaters profiling the first family currently occupying the White House. It is also wildly controversial.

Over the weekend, as “Melania” became the most-watched non-musical doc in over a decade, some people began to speculate about a plot to fluff up the film’s ticket sales.

Similar films centered on other high-profile women navigating public life – from Duchess Meghan to fellow first ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton – were sent straight to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. They were also made after, not in the midst of, their subjects’ royal duties and public service.

 

Lilly Goren, a political science professor at Carroll University, explained that “Melania’s film is different because it wasn’t about when they were in the White House, it was just before they came back to the White House.”

 

Doc-style inside looks for first ladies aren’t new: Jackie Kennedy had her own

Two years into Donald Trump’s first term, the Obamas launched a production company, Higher Ground Productions, to back film and TV projects that aligned with their brand in 2018. “Becoming,” Michelle Obama’s memoir, was released that November.

Now one of the best-selling memoirs in history, the book became an instant New York Times bestseller after its release. “Becoming” follows Obama’s journey from Chicago’s South Side to the Oval Office, and covers her years at Princeton, Harvard, her law career and nonprofit work.

 

 

Higher Ground won its first Oscar for the documentary “American Factory” in January 2020, and a “Becoming” companion documentary, filmed during Obama’s book tour, was released on Netflix that May. Four years after Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, an intimate documentary about the former secretary of State came out on Hulu.

Critics lauded the four-part documentary series. It featured a seemingly candid Clinton, who has sometimes been dogged by criticism over authenticity, revealing her insights into the hills and valleys of her very public life.

While the more private first ladies, Laura Bush and Jill Biden, haven’t yet received a large-scale documentary treatment, the format at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue dates back to Jacqueline Kennedy’s years in the historic building.

“You did have famously Jackie O touring the White House while they were occupants there, which was a major media event,” historian Goren told USA TODAY. A Valentine’s Day special that aired on CBS and NBC in black and white on Feb. 14, 1962, “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy” was a more intimate look at her White House renovations. It reached 56 million viewers. Melania Trump has drawn inspiration from Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ tenure as first lady.

When asked about being a potential first lady in a 1999 New York Times article, the Slovenian model said she would emulate Kennedy. “I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy,” she told the Times. “I would support him.” Her husband also said in 2019 that “we have our own Jackie O, it’s called Melania, Melania T.”

 

 

‘They are reality TV stars’

Michelle Obama, who now hosts the Higher Ground-produced “IMO” podcast with her brother Craig Robinson, says that she is “from the South Side of Chicago” in the opening scenes of her own doc trailer. “That tells you as much about me as you need to know,” she adds, referring to the neighborhood’s working-class roots.

Clinton’s doc trailer begins with her discussing how she “provoked strong opinions” as the first female nominee for U.S. president. Melania’s “Here we go again” trailer is far more theatrical in nature – in one clip, President Trump invites the camera operator into a seemingly buttoned-up room; in another, Melania says, “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

Helmed by Ratner, director of the “Rush Hour” franchise, the picture advertises itself as more of an action film than an intimate look at the first lady’s life. Its glossy editing also harkens back to President Trump’s days on the NBC business competition series “The Apprentice” and its celebrity edition.

 

“Trump and Melania, they are reality TV stars,” Morgan State University journalism professor Jason Johnson told USA TODAY. “So yeah, it seems like something that you could splice into the Kardashians’ season premiere trailer.”

Johnson noted that “Melania” fans are “a very small slice of the consuming public.” “Melania has never been, under any circumstances, a real cultural icon to anything, but the small sort of sliver of MAGA,” he added, explaining that he would be interested in watching a film about her childhood overseas, her modeling and how she first met Trump, but the film doesn’t go there.

Amazon MGM Studios, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, purchased the film for $40 million and spent an additional $35 million on a marketing push. Johnson, who is also a left-leaning political commentator, believes the price tag was a “bribe,” and said that the subject matter of the film about the 20 days before Trump’s second term is “not particularly interesting.”

When asked about Johnson’s statement, an Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson said, “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only – because we think customers are going to love it.”

The White House did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment about allegations of bribery.

The movie promised to pull back the curtain on the first lady’s ultra-private, guarded behavior, largely unknown to the public. And one thing is for sure: Her husband’s second term has made the American public even more curious about the first lady. If nothing else, it’s now clear that Trump herself invites the intrigue.

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