VIENTIANE, Laos — President Barack Obama called Thursday for closer scrutiny of Republican nominee Donald Trump during the final weeks of the presidential campaign, advising voters to reject his “outright wacky ideas.”
At a news conference to end his final trip to Asia while in office, Obama warned that governing is complex, particularly diplomacy, and requires a steady, knowledgeable hand, reiterating his stance that Trump is unqualified for the office.
“I can tell you from the interactions I’ve had over the last eight or nine days with foreign leaders that this is serious business,” Obama said. “You actually have to know what you’re talking about. … When you speak, it should actually reflect thought-out policy that you can implement.”
Obama, who has said he’ll stump hard for his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in the coming weeks, urged voters to come around to his view of Trump.
“Every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed. And I think the most important thing for the public, and the press, is 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.”
The comment was particularly pointed in the hours after Trump and Clinton appeared at a veterans town hall broadcast in prime time. Moderator Matt Lauer was excoriated on social media for allowing Trump to go unchallenged on his false claim that he had opposed the Iraq war and for asking what some perceived as softer questions than he posed to Clinton.
Obama laughed off the idea he needed to defend himself against Trump’s assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader.
“Behavior that in normal times we would consider completely outrageous becomes normalized,” Obama said. “People start thinking we should be grading on a curve.”
He batted down criticism from Trump that he had been “humiliated” upon landing days earlier in China when the Chinese provided no stairs for Obama to descend from Air Force One.
Obama said his reception in Asia has been “terrific,” and, aiming to put pressure back on Trump, added that world leaders seem more concerned about the possibility that his successor will pull back from deep engagement with the continent.