Barack Obama, back on campaign trail, slams Donald Trump's 'politics of fear'

URBANA: Former President Barack Obama issued a scorching critique of his successor on Friday, blasting President Donald Trump's pattern of pressuring the justice department, his policies and reminding voters that the economic recovery - one of Trump's favourite talking points - began on his watch.

Obama's speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was delivered less than two months before midterm elections that could determine the course of Trump's presidency. The remarks amounted to a stinging indictment of political life in the Trump era. "It did not start with Donald Trump," Obama said. "He is a symptom, not the cause (of division and polarisation in US). He's just capitalising on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years."

Noting the history of former presidents avoiding the rough and tumble of politics, Obama acknowledged his sharp critique of Trump was something of a departure from tradition. But he said the political moment required a pushback and called for better discourse. "Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do - that's an old playbook," he said. Trump wasted no time in responding. "I'm sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep," Trump said at a campaign appearance in North Dakota. "I found he's very good for sleeping."

Even as he has largely remained out of the spotlight, Obama made clear he's paid close attention to the steady stream of headlines chronicling the Trump administration and said the news is a reminder of what's at stake in the November midterm elections. "Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire," Obama said. He later added: "This is not normal."

Obama, reacting to the anonymous New York Times opinion piece that was sharply critical of Trump's leadership, said "that's not how our democracy is supposed to work." "The claim that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check," Obama said. " That's not how our democracy is supposed to work. These people aren't elected"

Obama also criticised Trump's response to the violence last year at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, saying: "We're supposed to stand up to discrimination." Obama's speech was a preview of the arguments he will make on the campaign trail --partly in an attempt to reach out to voters in parts of the country he won in 2012, but which voted for Trump in 2016.