According to former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), President Obama is to blame for Donald Trump’s dominance in the Republican presidential primary.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published on Thursday, Jindal wrote that “the president truly doesn’t get enough credit for creating one of the most polarizing forces in American politics today.”
“No, not Hillary—that is more Bill’s doing. Let’s be honest: There would be no Donald Trump, dominating the political scene today if it were not for President Obama,” Jindal wrote.
The former Louisiana governor said that voters are simply reacting to “the perceived deficiencies of the incumbent.”
“After seven years of the cool, weak and endlessly nuanced ‘no drama Obama,’ voters are looking for a strong leader who speaks in short, declarative sentences,” Jindal wrote. “Middle-class incomes are stagnant, and radical Islam is on the march across the Middle East. No wonder voters are responding to someone who promises to make America great again. You can draw a straight line between a president who dismisses domestic terrorist attacks as incidents of workplace violence and a candidate who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country.”
Although Jindal railed against Obama for creating the partisan “rancor he now rails against,” the former governor did not exactly offer a defense of Trump.
“President Obama loves to construct straw men so he can contrast his heroic self against them. But Donald Trump needs no characterization; he is capable of being absurd on his own, no outside help required,” he wrote. “Without President Obama, there is no Donald Trump. Mr. Trump often diagnoses the ills Mr. Obama has caused, but his prescriptions are just as often wrong. America deserves better.”
