Barack Obama: “This unique opportunity to work within our nation's government is designed to encourage active citizenship and a…”

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

If I had a blame pie for why politics is so polarised and why we're seeing a rise of populism in many places, it's because of that information that is going into our brains every day.

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.

I think when we act on that basis, it doesn't always work out, but over time things do get better.