First excerpts released and show president will warn against successors seeking to exploit ‘fear of the future’ in coded attack on Republican frontrunner

Barack Obama will use his last State of the Union address to warn against successors seeking to exploit “fear of the future”, in a coded attack on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump that hints at a fiercely political swansong from the president.



Though not mentioning any candidate by name, excerpts released by the White House to preview his speech see Obama urging voters to “fix our politics” and reject those who target minority groups to restore American greatness.

“America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights,” the president is due to say. “Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears.”

Trump has sparked outrage by campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform that promises to “make America great again”, and Obama appears to be warning against the rise of populist rhetoric in the Republican primary.

But the president may also take aim at progressives on the left of his party, who are currently flocking toward Bernie Sanders in search of ways to reduce income inequality and restore aspects of the American dream they believe have been lost in the modern economy.

“It’s change that can broaden opportunity, or widen inequality,” Obama will say. “And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate.”

The president’s State of the Union speech instead draws inspiration from Republican Abraham Lincoln to distance his progressive ideals from those he sees as seeking to turn back the clock.

“We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the ‘dogmas of the quiet past’,” Obama will say. “Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.”