Fact Check: Is Barack Obama suing Trump for $500B over Russian interference claims and treason warning?

WASHINGTON, DC: The clash between Donald Trump and Barack Obama is heating up once again, as a viral claim floods social media, racking up thousands of views. The trending allegation? Obama is planning to sue Trump. 

The frenzy escalated after 79-year-old Trump accused the former president of "treason," claiming the Obama administration fabricated the Russian interference narrative during the 2016 election.

Claim: Barack Obama announced he would be suing Donald Trump for $500 billion

A post on X (formerly Twitter) from the user @thehalfwaypost, shared on July 25, claimed that Barack Obama announced he would be suing Donald Trump for $500 billion.

The post read, “BREAKING: Barack Obama just announced he will be suing Donald Trump for $500 billion over Trump’s claim that Obama led a coup.” Within hours, the post gained traction, receiving over 1.1K comments, 3K reposts, and 19K likes.

However, the viral claim lacked any credible sources or official confirmation, leading many to view it as satirical. The ambiguous nature of the post left social media users confused.

One asked, “Is this true?”

Another user wrote, “Obama will probably be ending up in jail and the case will already have been dismissed.”

Meanwhile, a more critical comment stated, “You're just making up stuff. It's not even satire or parody, it's straight up wishful thinking being made into a post."

Viral claim about Donald Trump and Barack Obama is deemed false

Although the X post came from a verified account and garnered over 515K views, the claim is false, as it lacks any credible sources to support it. First, given the global prominence of both Obama and Trump, such a major legal action would have been widely covered by reputable news outlets, yet no such coverage exists.

Second, neither Obama nor Trump has made any public statement recently about a lawsuit. Most importantly, when MEAWW reviewed the bio of The Halfway Post, it clearly stated that the account shares fictional or satirical content, not factual news.

The statement read, "Dadaist graffiti news. Halfway true comedy and satire by @DashMacIntyre . I don't report the facts, I improve them. Comedy is cathartic in fascist eras like ours." These points collectively provide more than enough reason to conclude that the claim is entirely false.

What happened between Donald Trump and Barack Obama?

The false claim that Barack Obama planned to sue Donald Trump spread during a period of rising tension between the two.

In late July, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, released declassified documents. She claimed Obama and his allies had staged a “treasonous conspiracy” by fabricating the Russian interference story to damage Trump.

No verified evidence backed the claim. Still, the Trump administration demanded a criminal investigation into Obama-era officials.

On July 21, Trump intensified the situation. He posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social that showed Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. The video, captioned “No one is above the law,” drew backlash for spreading misinformation.

Trump continued to accuse Obama of “treason” and claimed he had led a coup. He also said Obama “owes me big,” referring to a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Trump argued that the ruling also shielded Obama from prosecution.

Obama’s office rejected the accusations. It called them baseless and described them as politically motivated efforts to distract from Trump’s legal issues.

This article contains remarks made on the internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.