Obama's Comments About 'Death & Insignificance' Had Trump Shade Written All Over It

While speaking at London's O2 Arena in late September 2025, Barack Obama took a swing at aging men in positions of power. The former president told historian David Olusoga (via Complex), "It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. And, you know, they build pyramids, and they put their names on everything, and they get very anxious about it."

Obama Trumps Trump: In an epic moment, President Obama slams Trump as one of the "old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance... they put their names on everything" responsible for 80% of the world's problems.

Didn't even name him.pic.twitter.com/mOcU7sNTLw

— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) September 26, 2025

Greeted by cheers and applause from the audience, Obama's mention of "old men" was taken as a reference to President Donald Trump. After all, the former "Apprentice" host has a self-righteous pattern of plastering his name across just about anything – buildings, casinos, drinks, colognes, board games, airplanes, magazines, restaurants, and golf courses. With their golden interiors, Trump hotels (which also have his name scrawled upon them) arguably draw on the imagery of the pyramids Obama mentioned — constructions of golden sand condensed into building blocks. Obama's comments about age are especially notable in the wake of Trump's attempts to quash the health rumors about him and his inability to conceal the sickly bruises on his hand and elsewhere.

Obama has had shady takes on Trump before, so it's practically undeniable that the former president's comments were actually about Trump and the way he devalues others for the sake of his own name. However, Obama would go on to target the president even more directly.

When the topic of Tylenol surfaced during his conversation with David Olusoga, former president Barack Obama wasted no time in calling out President Donald Trump. Referring to Trump's infamous press conference on September 22, 2025, when the president erroneously linked Tylenol to autism, Obama told the crowd of 14,000 in London (via Politico), "The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic ... all of that is violence against the truth."

Obama continued to criticize what he considered Trump's efforts to dehumanize American citizens as a means to create greater division among them. He called out the president's assumed agenda to redefine the constitutional declaration of "we the people" to "we, just some people." He also broke down the president's report on Tylenol in clear and concise ways before finally encouraging the public to push back against "the creeping authoritarian tendencies" of the Republican administration.