President Obama mocked GOP front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday, claiming the former “Apprentice” host will never become president and that the Oval Office gig is harder than running a “reality show.”
In a move unusual for a sitting president, Obama singled out the billionaire White House candidate by name, slamming the New York real estate titan as inexperienced and unworthy of handling “nuclear codes.”
“I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president, and the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people,” Obama said in California.
“And I think they recognize that being president is a serious job. It’s not hosting a talk show or a reality show. It’s not promotion. It’s not marketing. It’s hard.”
Trump dismissed Obama’s remarks, saying the president is doing a “lousy job” — and even welcomed personal attacks by a chief executive who is unpopular among Republican voters.
“He has set us back so far, and for him to actually say that is a great compliment, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said during a South Carolina campaign event. “You look at our budgets, you look at our spending, we can’t beat ISIS. ObamaCare is terrible . . . Our borders are like Swiss cheese.”
Trump added that Obama was “lucky I didn’t run the last time when Romney ran because you would have been a one-term president.”
Obama’s broadside against Trump risks elevating the mogul’s status among independent voters, who will see personal shots by the president as evidence that Trump is the GOP’s real leader.
Obama’s remarks come one week after Trump dominated the New Hampshire primary and as he leads by double digits in polls in Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
Obama also implied that Trump was too unstable to ever be commander in chief.
“Whoever is standing where I’m standing now has the nuclear codes with them and can order 21-year-olds into a firefight, and has to make sure that the banking system doesn’t collapse,” he said.
“It requires being able to work with leaders around the world in a way that reflects the importance of the office, and gives people confidence that you know the facts, and you know their names, and you know where they are on a map, and you know something about their history.”