Former President Barack Obama strongly suggested this week that there was a “resistance” in the military that is preventing President Donald Trump’s administration from “politicizing” it. Obama’s comments echo those from six Democratic lawmakers who have come under fire for telling service members to ignore Trump’s “illegal” orders in a video.

As the first speaker in the museum’s new lecture series, “Building Bridges,” Obama went to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.
During the hour-long event, he remarked that there have been “pretty big breakdowns” of major institutions and claimed that the military is being used in “partisan politics,” arguing that resistance within the ranks has helped hinder its complete politicization.

“I would not expect the politicization of the Justice Department or our military,” Obama said. “And I don’t think that’s happened. I think there’s been resistance, particularly in the military, to that. But the degree to which that has been encouraged, you know, that used to be something that I would lecture other countries not to do.

“You don’t have your military involved in partisan politics. Its loyalty is to the Constitution. Its loyalty is not to any party, and it is not to any president,” Obama added.

Obama claimed that his administration was different because he earned respect from the military by not playing politics.

He said that when he took office in 2009, he was someone who had “never served” because he thought he had lost the “Pentagon vote” to war hero and former prisoner of war John McCain.

“When I was sworn into office and I boarded Marine One or Air Force One, they saluted, and if I said this is what we need to do, they said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And when I’m sitting with my Joint Chiefs of Staff, they are giving me their best unvarnished advice,” Obama said.

“And, over time, I didn’t just win them following orders, they would say, because they’ve written about it. I won their respect because they never saw me make a decision about national security that in any way was affected by me worrying about my politics,” Obama added.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, criticized Obama’s comments, saying that Obama “remained silent” when the Biden administration was said to be going after conservatives in the military.

“Previous administrations also injected politics into our military with DEI, climate change worship and drag queen performances. Secretary Hegseth is dismantling these woke distractions and restoring meritocracy across the services, so our war fighters can do their jobs,” he said.

California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell made similar comments last week after suggesting that members of the military were privately acting as a “check” on President Trump’s orders.

“What gives me hope, and I talk to service members all the time,” Swalwell said. “They tell me that I don’t appreciate enough, and the public doesn’t appreciate enough that while Congress is not a check on the president anymore, and the judiciary at the Supreme Court is hardly a check, military members have told me, ‘We can be a check.’”

“They’re essentially saying, ‘We’re not going to betray our oath to the Constitution because this guy tells us to.’ While it’s not codified that way — they’re not a branch of government on their own — their honor and integrity might just save us,” Swalwell added.

The comments came after six Democratic lawmakers were criticized for telling service members to ignore Trump’s “illegal” orders in a video that was just released.

President Trump suggested that the Department of War may be investigating the six Democratic Congressional veterans who released a video urging service members to reject unlawful orders.

In the video, the veterans — Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — told the military and intelligence communities that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

Trump said during an appearance on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that the six lawmakers were in “serious trouble. I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death.”