During his conversation with Mr. Pritzker, Mr. Obama spoke about how Mr. Trump has a core base that “filters out any contradictory information.”

“It’s just glued to Fox News and Breitbart and Limbaugh and just this conservative echo chamber — and so, they’re going to turn out to vote,” Mr. Obama said. “What he has unleashed and what he continues to try to tap into is the fears and anger and resentment of people who, in some cases, really are having a tough time and have seen their prospects, or communities where they left, declining. And Trump tries to tap into that and redirect in nativist, racist, sexist ways.”…

The former president dismissed Mr. Trump’s continued focus on the Confederate monuments as a distraction amid the coronavirus pandemic — “that’s like his No. 1 priority” — but also characterized it as a menace that “gives you a sense of what this is about.” He then pivoted to what those “darker impulses” have wrought in history.

“The endpoint of that we saw in Europe 60 years ago, 70 years ago — what happens when those things get unleashed,” Mr. Obama said, according to the notes. “You don’t nip that in the bud, bad things can happen. Among the most quote unquote civilized societies.”