U.S. President Barack Obama hit back at Donald Trump on Thursday for criticizing his foreign policy record, saying the Republican nominee was unfit to follow him into the Oval Office and the public should press him on his “outright wacky ideas”.
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The summit ended with Laos turning over the chairmanship of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Duterte, whose country will host the annual diplomatic gathering next year.
“Behavior that in normal times we would consider completely outrageous becomes normalized”, Obama said.
“People start thinking that we should be grading on a curve”, Mr. Obama said.
Obama noted that his interactions with foreign leaders in recent days have highlighted the seriousness of the job of president. During the NBC News “Commander-In-Chief Forum”, Trump said that USA generals were “reduced to rubble” under the Obama administration and that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a better leader than Obama.
The snub was a spectacular setback for relations between the United States and Philippines, which are longtime allies and bound by a mutual defense treaty to help each other in times of war.
Obama has made enhancing relationships with Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines a priority during his almost eight years in office. Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton and has said he plans to campaign full-force for the Democrat ahead of the November election.
“I expect to work very hard over the next four and a half months”, he said.
In a short statement, the White House only said that “Obama had a brief discussion with President Duterte before the ASEAN Gala Dinner in the leaders’ hold space”.
“As despicable as these [crime] networks may be and as much damage as they do, it is important, from our perspective, to make sure that we do it in the right way”, Obama said in Vientiane, Laos’ capital, while attending an ASEAN summit.
On Monday, hours before arriving in Laos, Duterte told Philippine reporters he wouldn’t accept questions from Obama about extrajudicial killings that have occurred during his crackdown on suspected drug dealers and users.
Duterte, in a statement, said both sides have agreed to move the meeting to a later date.
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Correction: An earlier version of this article and the headline incorrectly quoted a remark President Obama made about Donald Trump. “Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum”, Duterte told reporters shortly before flying to Laos. Relations between long time allies the United States and the Philippines saw a spectacular setback this week after firebrand politician Duterte branded Obama a “son of a whore”.
