Obama Breaks Silence, Blasts Trump’s “Coup” Accusation as Ridiculous Distraction
Barack Obama has finally hit back at Donald Trump’s explosive claim that the former president led a “coup” against him following the 2016 election — calling the accusations outrageous, false, and a blatant distraction from real issues.
In a rare and fiery move, Obama’s office issued a direct rebuttal after Trump accused his predecessor of “treason”, alleging that Obama helped “manufacture” evidence of Russian interference to undermine his presidency.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, we usually don’t respond to the constant stream of nonsense from this White House,” the statement read. “But these claims are so absurd, they demand a response. These bizarre allegations are nothing more than a pathetic distraction tactic.”
The statement also dismissed an 11-page report released by Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, who claimed she had turned over evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” involving Obama-era national security officials to the Justice Department.
“Nothing in that document disproves the widely accepted conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. However, it’s also clear they did not manipulate vote tallies,” Obama’s office added.
This conclusion is backed by the 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, led at the time by Marco Rubio, now Trump’s Secretary of State.
Meanwhile, Trump launched into another tirade during a press event with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., claiming Obama was the ringleader of the alleged operation.
“It was Obama. He started it. Biden, Comey, Clapper — they were all in on it. But Obama was the leader of the gang,” Trump told reporters. “This isn’t speculation — this is irrefutable proof that Obama tried to lead a coup alongside Hillary Clinton and others.”
Trump even branded the act “treason”, claiming they attempted to steal and obfuscate the election.
“They did things that no one’s even imagined. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
According to Trump, Gabbard promised him “thousands of more documents” were coming to support her claims. He also appeared to brush off public calls for releasing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, urging people to “stop talking about nonsense” and instead focus on the so-called coup evidence.
But critics aren’t buying it.
The Gabbard report has been blasted for misrepresenting facts and twisting conclusions, especially around the 2017 intelligence assessment that Russia sought to help Trump and damage Clinton’s campaign. While it’s true that no vote tallies were changed, the report found Moscow hacked and leaked internal DNC documents to inflict political damage on Clinton.
Gabbard’s narrative, however, uses the finding that no vote manipulation occurred to falsely suggest there was no Russian influence operation at all. It also cites Obama’s December 2016 daily briefing — which noted no direct hacks of voting infrastructure — as supposed evidence of political interference.
These conclusions, however, were later validated by both the Mueller Report (2019) and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings (2020).
Even seasoned intelligence professionals aren’t impressed.
“It was clearly written with a pre-set agenda. There’s a confusing misuse of terms like ‘confidence’ and ‘probability’ — whether deliberate or not — which leads to sloppy and manipulative arguments,” he wrote.
“The bigger issue? Her report is garbage. Her talk of ‘deep state officials’ is amateurish and undermines her entire case. She’s playing clever games with crappy precedents and deliberate confusion to spin a partisan hit piece.”
As the political firestorm continues, it’s clear that Obama is no longer letting Trump’s baseless attacks go unchecked. And with intelligence experts and bipartisan committees backing the original findings, the so-called “coup” theory is looking more like political theater than fact.