Obama "fundamentally disagrees" with Donald Trump's Muslim ban, is "heartened" by protests

Impact

Former President Barack Obama has been out of office for a little more than a week, but he already waded back into the political fray on Monday to say he "fundamentally disagrees" with President Donald Trump's ban targeting Muslims — and is "heartened" to see the protests against the policy.

The 44th president made the comments through a spokesman, who said Obama is pleased to see "the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country."

"In his final official speech as president, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day," Kevin Lewis, a spokesman to the former president, said in a statement. "Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake."

In interviews in his final days in the White House, Obama said he would not be silent once he left office.

He said he would make it known when he thought "our core values may be at stake." 

"I put in that category, if I saw systematic discrimination ratified in some fashion; I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise," Obama said at his final news conference, according to Politico. "I would put in that category, institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them some place else."

That threat that appeared to rise 10 days after his eight-year stint in the Oval Office ended.