Former US President Barack Obama has cautioned that the United States is edging dangerously close to becoming an autocracy, pointing to a decline in democratic norms and institutions.

Speaking at a charity event in Connecticut on Tuesday, Obama made a thinly veiled criticism of Donald Trump, referencing threats to the rule of law, judicial independence, and the right to protest. “If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood — and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” he said.

Obama warned the country is nearing the point of undermining its own democratic foundations, reports the Telegraph.

 “We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalising behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, ‘Let’s not go over that cliff because it’s hard to recover.’”

Speaking alongside historian and vocal Trump critic Heather Cox Richardson, the former president emphasized that democracy relies on government employees and the Justice Department taking their constitutional oaths seriously.

“It requires them to take that oath seriously, and when that isn’t happening, we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy,” he said. “It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orban.”

His remarks come in the wake of a national uproar over Trump’s immigration crackdown, which triggered widespread protests and led to the detention of several Democratic officials by federal agents.

This marks the second time in recent months that Obama has publicly criticised Trump administration policies. Back in March, he voiced alarm over government actions targeting universities and law firms. “That kind of behaviour is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans,” he said.

During his Connecticut appearance, Obama also critiqued liberals for becoming “comfortable in their righteousness” during his presidency, cautioning that their values are now facing serious challenges.