President Barack Obama has hit back at “wacky” Donald Trump after Vladimir Putin jibe.
He said described Donald Trump as “uninformed” after the Republican presidential nominee said Vladimir Putin was a better leader.
Speaking at the ASEAN summit in Laos, Barack Obama said that every time Donald Trump spoke it became clearer that the Republican contender was not qualified to be president.
In a televised forum on September 7, Donald Trump had praised the Russian president’s “great control” and 82% approval rating.
Donald Trump and rival Hillary Clinton had taken questions from military veterans.
Barack Obama said: “I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed.”
He pointed to the diplomatic work he had faced at both the ASEAN summit in Laos and the earlier G20 meeting in China.
Barack Obama said: “I can tell you from the interactions I have had over the last eight or nine days with foreign leaders that this is serious business.
“You actually have to know what you are talking about and you actually have to have done your homework. When you speak, it should actually reflect thought-out-policy you can implement.”
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, pilloried Donald Trump for having suggested US military leaders had been “reduced to rubble”, accusing him of having “trash-talked American generals”.
In a rare press conference, Hillary Clinton said on September 8: “That’s how he talks about distinguished men and women who’ve spent their lives serving our country, sacrificing for us.”
Donald Trump had told the forum in New York that Vladimir Putin had “been a leader far more than our president has been”.
Quizzed by NBC host Matt Lauer on his previous complimentary remarks about Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump responded: “He does have an 82% approval rating.”
“I think when he calls me <<brilliant>>, I’ll take the compliment, OK?” said Donald Trump, adding that Vladimir Putin had “great control over his country”.
Donald Trump also said that, as a result of the confidential intelligence briefings he has been entitled to as an election candidate, he had been “shocked” at how the president, Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry had done “exactly the opposite” of what intelligence experts had told them.
In the forum, Donald Trump also said: “I was totally against the war in Iraq.”
This appeared to contradict a statement in a 2002 interview with radio host Howard Stern and the forum’s moderator, Matt Lauer, came in for intense criticism after the event for not pressing Donald Trump on the statement.
Barack Obama said in Laos: “The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions to what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.”
Hillary Clinton had found herself once again on the defensive during the forum over her private email server.
The forum offered a preview of the questions Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face in their three forthcoming presidential debates, the first at Hofstra University near New York on September 26.
