President Barack Obama broke into a laugh on Thursday morning when asked to respond to Donald Trump’s remark that Vladimir Putin was “a leader, far more than our President has been a leader.”
At the final press conference Obama held at the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit, he was asked if he wanted to “defend” his legacy from Trump’s criticism.
“Do I care to defend…? OK, OK, respond,” he said, laughing.
“As far as Mr. Trump, I think I’ve already offered my opinion,” Obama said. “I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States. Every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed.”
The President has mostly refrained from offering play-by-play commentary on the 2016 race, though he has taken shots at Trump’s business acumen, nativism and lack of “basic knowledge” about the world.
On Thursday, he called on the press and public to “just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.”
Obama cautioned that this particularly unusual election cycle shouldn’t “normalize” “behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous.”
“People start thinking that we should be grading on a curve,” Obama added. “When you speak, it should actually reflect thought-out policy that you can implement.”
Okay, Barack!!
Laughter plus exactly the right words (“uninformed”, “outright wacky”) to burrow directly under that very thin, cheeto-colored skin!
Incoming tweet storm from Mr. “I’m rubber, you’re glue” Trump expected in 5…4…3…2…
ETA: I think our Pres is going to have lots of fun on Trump’s account over the next few weeks!
“As far as Mr. Trump, I think I’ve already offered my opinion,” Obama said. "I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States. Every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed.”
As a great man once said (maybe about Trump): “Farting is the only way an asshole can speak.”
Wow wow wow. Expressing offhand disdain, like you really and truly couldn’t be bothered to care, could be an Olympic sport if more people practiced it at this level.
Yep, Obama is world class, gold medal in this.
And …
Cue national press stories about how there’s never been a sitting President who so disdained a possible successor from the other party, and about … oh, hell, I don’t know what.