Did former US President Obama Praise President Anura’s Bravery? Find out the truth…

A misleading post is circulating on social media claiming that former US President Barack Obama has made a statement praising President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. This is a fact check conducted by Fact Crescendo.

Social Media Posts

The following social media post states that on March 21, former US President Barack Obama, speaking to Fox News, praised the Sri Lankan President for his decision not to support any side in the US-Israel-Iran war. Accordingly, it is stated that Barack Obama has praised the Sri Lankan President as a political role model and as one of the bravest leaders in Asia that he has seen in recent times.

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Considering the requests received from readers regarding the authenticity of these notes, we took the following steps to verify their authenticity.

Fact Check

On March 20^th, speaking at the Parliament, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake(AKD) stated that Sri Lanka will act neutrally in the face of the war situation facing the world and take the slogan of justice and fairness to the international community. Stressing that he would not allow that neutrality to be lost despite any pressures, the President further stated that Iran had requested that three naval vessels visit Sri Lanka on a visit to enhance cooperation on March 9 and 13. The President also stated that while the permission for this was being studied, the United States had also requested permission for two fighter jets to arrive at Mattala Airport on the same evening. The President stated in Parliament that the government had taken a clear decision to grant both requests while maintaining neutrality at a time when signs of military conflict had emerged. Full video here.

However, many international media outlets, including Reuters, Economic Times, Al Jazeera, India Today, and others, reported the President’s statement, with the headline stating that Sri Lanka had rejected the US request to land the fighter jets. Reuters, Economic Times, Al Jazeera, India Today

However, if a former US president had praised the Sri Lankan president as a brave leader based on the decision not to allow US fighter jets to land, as shown in the social media post, such news would have been reported highly by both international and local media. However, we observed that no reputable media have reported such news.

Fox News has not reported that Barack Obama praised the Sri Lankan President.

Our investigation did not find any post on Fox News’ official Facebook page on the day the Sri Lankan president made the above remarks or later, where former US president praised AKD as “not only a political role model but also one of the bravest leaders I have seen in Asia in recent times.”

Meanwhile, we observed several clear differences between the post circulating on social media and the post posted on the official Fox News Facebook page. That is, there are clear differences in the post format, colours, location of the official logo, font style, etc. Thus, there is evidence that the post circulating on social media is not a post posted on the official Fox News page or its website.

Podcast linking to Obamas Image has no mention of SL President AKD

Accordingly, we further investigated to find the origins of the photo of former President Barack Obama in the viral post purportedly praising the Sri Lankan President and found that it was taken from a podcast conducted by Brian Tyler Cohen with former President Barack Obama, about a month ago, in February 2026.

During this podcast program, Barack Obama expressed his views on several other areas, including the satirical video posted by current President Donald Trump regarding black people, singer Bad Bunny, and the 2028 US presidential election. The former president’s comments on aliens during the program also attracted much attention, even in the international media. Details here

Below is a comparison between these photos.

Accordingly, it is clear that the post circulating on social media has taken an image capture from the podcast program, in which former US President Barack Obama participated, and has added the Fox News logo with a fabricated statement.

A statement made by former President Obama in 2025 has come to light again.

A statement made by Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America, who served as President from 2009 to 2017, during a conversation held at the O2 Arena in London on September 24, 2025, has gone viral again on social media these days.

Former US president had said that it is fair to say that 80% of the problems in the world are caused by old men who are afraid of death and loss of importance, who do not want to relinquish power. Details here.

In the face of the US-Iran-Israel war situation that has affected the entire world, the former president’s statement has started going viral on social media again, and some posts have even been created to link this statement to current President Donald Trump. A few posts here, here, here and here.

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Conclusion

Our investigation shows that viral posts claiming that former US President Barack Obama made a statement on Fox News, praising the Sri Lankan President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, are false.