URBANA, Ill. — Former President Barack Obama says President Donald Trump is “a symptom, not a cause” of what’s dividing the country.

Obama says during a speech Friday at the University of Illinois that Trump is capitalizing on the same resentments, fear and anger that politicians have fanned for years. He’s says it’s the result of a rapidly changing world and growing inequality and that politicians who appeal to that fear are using “an old playbook.”

Obama is receiving an award for ethics in government at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Obama is hitting the campaign trail for his fellow Democrats, with an event in California for House candidates and then a stop in Ohio next week.

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