Donald Trump is “uninformed” and not qualified to be president of the United States, President Obama said at a news conference in Laos Thursday in response to the Republican nominee's statement that Russian president Vladimir Putin has been a far greater leader than the current commander-in-chief.
“I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed,” Obama said.
He went on to call on the public and the press to listen closely to what the presidential candidate has to say and hold him accountable for comments that are contradictory or uninformed.
Speaking at NBC News’ presidential forum Wednesday night, Trump doubled down on his compliments of Putin, touting the foreign leader’s 82% approval rating.
“The man has very strong control over a country,” Trump said. “Now it’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader.”
In his latest stop in Asia, the president led the US delegation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos on Thursday. He said that dealing with foreign leaders is serious business and questioned Trump’s ability to successfully navigate these interactions.
“You have to actually know what you are talking about and you have to have actually done your homework and when you speak it should actually reflect thought out policy that you can implement,” he said.