When Barack Obama speaks, people listen — not just because he’s a former president, but because he knows what leadership rooted in empathy sounds like.

On Marc Maron’s W-T-F podcast, Obama didn’t mince words about Donald Trump’s latest move to deploy military forces into American cities. He warned that America’s democracy is being “weakened deliberately.” Here’s part of what he had to say:

“When you have a military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting.”

Think about that — soldiers, trained for war, taking orders to patrol the same neighborhoods they swore to protect. It’s not just un-American, it’s dangerous.

Since taking office for the second time, President Trump has made law and order his personal brand — sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Memphis, Portland and, most recently, Chicago — Obama’s own hometown. A federal appeals court has since

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