Trump, Cruz doing Democrats a favor: Obama
US President Barack Obama has said extreme views expressed by Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the campaign trail were doing Democrats a “favor” in the 2016 race.
“I actually think that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have done us a favor,” Obama told donors Friday at the annual fundraising dinner for Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.
The president was referring to policy proposals by the two White House contenders that would restrict Muslims and Mexicans from entering the United States.
Obama said that Trump, the bombastic GOP frontrunner, had delivered the message shared by some in the Republican Party “with more flair, with more panache.”
Trump’s campaign has been defined by controversy from the beginning, with disparaging remarks directed against women, Muslims, and immigrants.
Trump had also pushed the “birther” movement during Obama’s first term in office, raising questions about whether the president was born in the United States.
“In 10 months, I will no longer be president of the United States. But in 10 months, I will – contrary to Mr. Trump’s opinion – still be a citizen of the United States,” Obama said mockingly in his remarks, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Trump 'not succeeding me'
On Thursday, Obama spoke at another fundraising dinner for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, where he strongly disputed the idea that Trump would succeed him in the White House.
“I recognize that there is a deep obsession right now about Mr. Trump,” Obama told the attendees. “And one of you pulled me aside and squeezed me hard and said, ‘Tell me that Mr. Trump is not succeeding you.’ And I said, ‘Mr. Trump is not succeeding me.’”
Obama has questioned Trump’s fitness for office on several occasions in the past.
Earlier this month, the president blasted the billionaire businessman on an international stage for suggesting that Japan and South Korea should be allowed to have nuclear weapons to defend themselves against North Korea.
“They [Trump’s comments] tell us that the person who made the statements doesn’t know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean Peninsula or the world generally,” Obama said last Friday during a news conference at the close of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
Trump has mocked the idea of making nuclear weapons but being reluctant to use them. He has said that “I would never take any of my cards off the table,” even in dropping an atomic bomb on Europe.
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