President Barack Obama has taken a public stance against the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running late-night show. He is issuing a warning regarding the right to free speech, which he said is being stifled by Donald Trump via “government coercion.”

Obama calls out the Trump administration for threatening media companies and stifling free speech

Obama posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, to warn about actions taken by the current government to suppress freedom of speech.

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama tweeted, according to CBC.

He shared a link to a New York Times article reporting on Karen Attiah firing from The Washington Post after her posts regarding Charlie Kirk’s shooting. 

“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” Obama added.

Obama went on to share additional articles defending the importance of the First Amendment, including an opinion piece written by David French for The New York Times and an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’s “A Plea for Free Speech in Boston” from 1860.

“This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents,” the former president said on Bluesky in reference to French’s article.

Obama has increasingly been taking public stances against the Trump administration in recent months

Obama, who has remained silent on most political issues since leaving office, has started taking public stances in recent months to call out what she sees as attacks on democracy. In April, he criticized Trump’s tariffs and orders taking aim against higher education. In a speech at Hamilton College, Obama said that the values of the United States have “eroded,” according to MSNBC. 

In June, he warned in a speech at The Connecticut Forum that the US is “dangerously close” to normalizing behavior “consistent with autocracies.” Last month, Obama condemned gerrymandering efforts by the Republican party and said they are “an existential threat to our democracy.”