Barack Says US Citizens 'Are Right to Be Concerned' Over Trump's Agenda... As He Slams Republicans' 'Mind-boggling' Response to National Guard Deployments

Barack Obama may have left the Oval Office nearly 10 years ago, but he's kept his finger on the political pulse of the nation.

The former president has said US citizens "are right to be concerned" over Donald Trump and MAGA lawmakers' agenda as he called out the "mind-boggling" hypocrisy from Republicans over national guard troops being deployed to Democrat-run cities, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Obama, 64, didn't hold back as he warned about Trump's "genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy" since taking office for this second term on Marc Maron's final WTF podcast episode.

While reflecting on how the political landscape has changed since his years in the White House, Obama told Maron, "When I used to travel around the world, you know, this is back when democracy promotion was still bipartisan."

He went on to name-drop former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as examples of bipartisan support.

Obama added: "So, it wasn't controversial for me to go to other countries and say, 'You know what? It's a good idea for militaries to be under civilian control.' Because when you have militaries that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting."

The former president noted Trump sending national guard troops to Democrat-run cities was a violation of longstanding laws prohibiting the military from being used against citizens without meeting the exception criteria first.

He added: "When you see an administration suggesting that ordinary street crime is an insurrection or a terrorist act. That is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy. And that was understood by Democrats and Republicans."

Obama laughed as he imagined backlash from Republicans and media coverage if a scenario similar unfolded while he was in office.

He said: "It's almost too easy of a thought experiment. If I had sent in the National Guard into Texas and just said, 'You know what? A lot of problems in Dallas, you know, a lot of crime there. And I don't care what Governor Abbott says. I'm going to kind of take over law enforcement because I think things are out of control.'

"It is mind-boggling to me how Fox News would have responded."

Obama chuckled as he recalled an incident in which Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and others accused him of using the military against US cities, but they are seemingly okay with Trump deploying the national guard to Chicago.

Obama continued: "There was a moment, I don't remember what year this was, where the military just had regular exercises in Texas, out of one of the bases, and Ted Cruz and a number of other folks were out there lending credence to the fact that I was preparing for, you know, the whole black helicopter, one world government, I was about to take over Texas.

"And this is like a sitting U.S. senator, kind of retweeting about what's going on with these exercises.

"I didn't monitor military exercises because you know what? That was the Pentagon's job. That was the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs Staff, and the co-coms. That was their job to prepare and focus on military readiness. And they made report to me.

"The point is that we have blown through just in the last six months a whole range of not simply assumptions, but rules and laws and practices that were put in place to ensure that nobody's above the law.

"And that we don't use the federal government to simply reward our friends and punish our enemies. And the same thing is obviously happening in the Justice Department. So people are right to be concerned."