Politics | President Trump Toobin: Trump Went Too Far on Obama Accusing his predecessor of 'treason' is 'as significant as it is chilling' By John Johnson Posted Jul 25, 2025 12:15 PM CDT Copied Former President Barack Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) President Trump is never shy about going after his political enemies, but Jeffrey Toobin writes that he has crossed a line by accusing former President Obama of treason—a crime punishable by death. Trump "is wrong on the facts and the law, and his sensational allegation serves only to demonstrate how completely he has degraded contemporary political discourse," writes the legal analyst in a New York Times op-ed. Trump (backed up by director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard) accuses Obama of orchestrating a false narrative that Russia tried to subvert the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton. "He started it," said Trump of Obama. "This was treason." Obama calls the notion absurd, and Toobin agrees. "Over the years, Mr. Trump has said so many shocking things that it's tempting to dismiss this one, too, with the familiar excuses: that, for example, the president should be taken seriously but not literally, or that this was just 'Trump being Trump.' But the fact remains that the president of the United States said that a predecessor committed a crime for which he could be executed," he writes. It is "as significant as it is chilling." (Read the full op-ed.) Read These Next The Wall Street Journal is naming more names tied to Epstein. The White House and South Park are having a tiff. The sheriff says he's never seen a worse case of child sex abuse. The first video of an earthquake fault slip led to a major discovery. Report an error