Donald Trump; Barack Obama

Former US President Barack Obama criticised incumbent Donald Trump’s policies, saying that the country is being “tested right now” and urging Americans to “take a stand.” Obama made the remarks on the 1,686th and final episode of the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast, which the comedian launched in September 2009. The identity of the final guest had been kept secret until the episode was released on Monday.Maron said the conversation needed to feature a “singular” guest who could address “how we move through the world we’re living in, as frightening as it is,” HuffPost reported.“We’re not at the stage where you have to be like Nelson Mandela and be in a 10-by-12 jail cell for 27 years and break rocks,” Obama told Maron, discussing how Americans should respond to Trump’s policies, while referencing South Africa’s apartheid struggle. The 44th president, a former civil rights attorney, urged law firms to “uphold their principles.”“They should say, ‘We’re going to represent who we want, and we’re going to stand up for what we think is our core mission,’” he remarked. Obama also offered advice to universities and businesses, calling on them to stay “true to their values” amid “political and social pressures.”“University presidents need to risk losing some federal government grant money ‘because what we’re not going to do is compromise our basic academic independence.’ And businesses need to stand firm on diverse hiring and say, ‘We’re not going to be bullied into saying that we can only hire people or promote people based on some criteria that’s been picked up by Steve Miller (an influential Trump aide),'” he stated.His remarks referred to the Trump administration’s clashes with universities over noncompliance with federal directives, as well as its repeated targeting of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the government.