Former President Barack Obama didn’t need to say Donald Trump’s name to make his point crystal clear.
During a pointed appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night, Obama took aim at what he sees as a glaring lack of ethical boundaries in the current White House, calling out the idea that a sitting president should be juggling personal business interests on the side.
“A president shouldn’t have a bunch of side hustles,” Obama said bluntly, laying out what he described as a “pretty obvious principle.” Without directly naming Trump, the message landed squarely: the Oval Office isn’t a place to mix public power with private profit.
The remarks come as Trump faces mounting scrutiny over a string of eyebrow-raising financial entanglements. Critics have zeroed in on reports that Trump is accepting a luxury jet from Qatar—potentially to be used as the next Air Force One—while also benefiting from a surge in his family’s cryptocurrency ventures and private companies backing a massive $400 million White House ballroom project.
Obama didn’t stop there.
He also warned about what he called dangerous efforts to blur the lines between politics and institutions that are supposed to remain independent—like the Justice Department and the military.
“The Attorney General is the people’s lawyer,” Obama said, not the president’s personal fixer—a not-so-subtle jab at the kind of loyalty-driven governance critics say has defined Trump’s approach.
And then came the bigger warning: the risk of a president using the full weight of government power to punish enemies and reward allies.
“You can’t have a situation where whoever’s in charge starts using that to go after political enemies,” Obama said, underscoring what he framed as a fundamental threat to democracy.
He also took a swipe at Trump’s controversial pardons tied to the January 6 Capitol attack, suggesting that presidents shouldn’t be handing out clemency to people with financial or political ties to them.
Despite the sharp critiques, Obama has largely avoided constant commentary on Trump’s actions—a strategy he recently defended, arguing that speaking out on every controversy would dilute his impact.
Still, Tuesday’s remarks hit hard—and not by accident. Delivered on one of the final episodes of Colbert’s long-running show, the moment carried extra weight as Stephen Colbert prepares to sign off on May 21, closing a chapter that often blended comedy with pointed political critique.
And in classic Obama fashion, the message was clear—even without naming names.
Watch the full interview below. Obama’s remarks on “side hustles” starts at the 8:35 mark.
