He urged both voters and journalists to pay careful attention to what he called Trump’s “uninformed or outright wacky ideas”, and not to grade the Republican White House nominee “on a curve”.
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Obama, closing out his final presidential trip to Asia, said his meetings with foreign leaders during the trip had illustrated that governing is “serious business” requiring knowledge, preparation and thought-out policies that can actually be implemented. He said Asian leaders would be puzzled by Trump’s remarks, and Americans would know who to choose as president on November 8.
When he’s overseas, Obama has relayed fears from foreign leaders, who he says question him often about the state of the USA presidential contest.
Trump said the progress of US military generals had been stymied, or “reduced to rubble” with Obama as commander-in-chief and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as his first secretary of state. It was the first time Trump and Clinton had squared off on the same stage since securing their nominations in July.
Speaking at a news conference in Laos, Obama warned United States citizens against becoming immune to Donald Trump’s more outlandish statements, arguing that the stakes of the USA presidential contest were too high for Americans to tune out.
The remarks came at the end of Obama’s ninth visit to southeast Asia, where he has tried to bolster relations and present the U.S.as a counterbalance to the increasing power of China.
Obama rejected the notion that he’d been slighted while in Asia or that leaders in the region were rejecting his leadership – a criticism leveled by Trump.
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Obama will make his way back to the US today after wrapping up the ASEAN summit. Obama said they shook hands but that it was a brief interaction, adding that he’d told Duterte their aides should confer on how the two treaty allies can move forward. Obama called off the meeting.
