Barack Obama has warned that Donald Trump’s leadership poses a threat to the United States.

Amid a contentious national discussion about immigration raids and deportations, Obama delivered a speech Tuesday night at the Bushnell Performing Arts Centre in Hartford, Connecticut, criticising existing federal government tactics.

He started by raising concerns about a troubling decline in America’s adherence to democratic principles.

“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood – and not just my generation, at least since World War II – our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” Obama said.

He underlined the significance of opposition from both government officials and civil society.

“There has to be a response and pushback from civil society, from various institutions and individuals outside of government, but there also have to be people in government in both parties who say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’” he added.

“It is consistent with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It’s consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as a fair system in which everybody’s voice matters and people have a seat at the table and nobody’s above the law,” Obama warned, cautioning that America, while not fully authoritarian, is veering in a dangerous direction.

“We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.”