On June 20, 2025, a video clip circulated on social media featuring a speech by former U.S. President Barack Obama, delivered on March 26, 2014, in Brussels during a meeting with NATO and European Union leaders. According to the circulated material, Obama allegedly said that “ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs” and that “order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign.”
The video of Barack Obama is disseminated out of context, with various parts of his speech edited in a misleading way. The phrase at the beginning of the video – “for the international order that we have worked for generations to build” – is in fact unrelated to the following segment where he references the notion that “ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs…”. In the full video, it is clearly evident that Obama does not agree with this view – on the contrary, he strongly criticizes the authoritarian model that concentrates power in a single hand and restricts people’s rights.
The main message of the 44th President of the United States’ speech is the defense of democratic values and the necessity of Western unity. By ignoring the context and altering the sequence of speech segments, the edited video creates the false impression that Obama himself supports the political ideology he is actually denouncing.
On March 26, 2014, in Brussels, specifically at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium, then-U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech addressed to European Union leaders, NATO representatives, students, European citizens, and the Western world in general. The official video was released by the White House on March 27, 2014.
In the official source, it is clearly shown that the key idea of Obama’s speech concerned the need to protect Western values, the importance of unity between NATO and the European Union, and support for Ukraine in response to Russian aggression. The speech took place during a time when the annexation of Crimea by Russia and ongoing events in Ukraine had significantly disrupted international stability. Obama clearly stated that violations of international law cannot go unanswered and that the West must consolidate in order to confront common threats.
Obama: “[…] the best means to resolve inevitable conflicts between states. And it was here in Europe, through centuries of struggle – through war and Enlightenment, repression and revolution – that a particular set of ideals began to emerge: the belief that through conscience and free will, each of us has the right to live as we choose.”
He emphasized that democracy, individual freedom, and the rule of law form the foundation of the international order that generations have worked to build.
Obama: “Leaders and dignitaries of the European Union, representatives of our NATO Alliance, distinguished guests: We meet here at a moment of testing for Europe and the United States and for the international order that we have worked for generations to build.”
It is in this context that he refers to an alternative, authoritarian view that prevails in the governance of some countries. This worldview suggests that individuals should relinquish their sovereignty to a powerful ruling force and supports the belief that ethnic or religious supremacy facilitates the concentration of power.
Obama: “Those ideals have often been threatened by an older, more traditional view of power. This alternative vision argues that ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign.”
This phrase does not reflect Obama’s own opinion. He is quoting the core of authoritarian ideology and criticizing it as a hostile system opposed to Western values.
His goal is to clearly distinguish between the values that unite the West and those models that disregard individual freedom and liberty. He calls on the West not only to preserve its unity but also to be militarily, politically, and morally prepared in order to prevent future aggression.
The phrase is taken out of context, which completely changes its actual meaning and creates a misleading impression that Obama endorses the authoritarian view, whereas his entire speech is, in fact, directed against such ideology.
This video has also been circulated out of context in the past. In 2014, it was fact-checked by the American fact-checking organization FactCheck.org.
Ekaterine Bregvadze
Myth Detector Lab
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