, June 19 -- Former US President Barack Obama has cautioned that the United States is edging dangerously close to becoming an autocracy, pointing to a decline in democratic norms and institutions.

Speaking at a charity event in Connecticut on Tuesday, Obama made a thinly veiled criticism of Donald Trump, referencing threats to the rule of law, judicial independence, and the right to protest. "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," he said.

Obama warned the country is nearing the point of undermining its...