Donald Trump is facing a fresh wave of online backlash after insisting during a speech in Washington on 26 June that Americans must show respect for the president, a demand critics say jars badly with his own long record of public attacks on Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In the now widely shared moment, delivered at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's 2026 policy conference, Trump said, 'You have to respect the president. If you don't respect the president, you're going to have a problem.'
The clip landed in an already crowded argument about Trump's treatment of past presidents, especially Biden and Obama. In recent months he has publicly said he did not feel sorry for Biden after the former president's cancer diagnosis, and separate reporting earlier this year detailed a Trump shared video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, a post that drew immediate condemnation online.
