In his broadest dig yet at Donald Trump, President Obama said the Republican presidential front-runner isn’t qualified to be president.
“He is not somebody who, even within the Republican Party, can be considered as equipped to deal with the problems of this office,” Mr. Obama told an ABC-affiliate in New Hampshire in an interview that aired Monday evening.
Tuesday’s Indiana primary is one of the last hurdles for Mr. Trump to capture the Republican nomination. If Mr. Trump does become the GOP nominee, Mr. Obama said he’s confident that the Democratic nominee will win in November.
“If in fact the Republicans nominate Mr. Trump, then it’s going to be an interesting fall season,” he told WMUR. “I’m confident that ultimately the Democrat in that circumstance will win.”
The president made several jokes at Mr. Trump’s expense Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“They say Donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be president. But in fairness he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan,” the president said.
Starting out as a community organizer, Mr. Obama served as a state senator in Illinois and four years as a U.S. senator before winning the presidency.
Mr. Trump said he’s had plenty of foreign policy experience from operating his business empire.
“I do deal with leaders around the world,” he said. “I built a great company and right now we have hundreds of deals being negotiated all over the world by my company, and I deal with presidents and I deal with prime ministers and I deal with everybody. I probably have more experience than virtually anybody looking at this office.”
Of the president’s mocking his foreign policy experience at the correspondents’ dinner, Mr. Trump told CNN, “I thought it was fine. Honestly, I’ve heard it, I’ve heard it before.”
On the fifth anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama also was asked by CNN if he has considered Mr. Trump making a similar decision to approve a special-forces mission.
“I don’t have those thoughts, because I don’t expect that to happen,” the president said.
