US President Barack Obama has said foreign leaders are “rattled” by Donald Trump and that he understands their unease given the Republican presidential nominee’s ignorance of global affairs, The Guardian reported.
Speaking at the G7 summit in Ise-Shima, central Japan, Obama said his fellow leaders were “surprised by the Republican nominee” and unsure how to respond to his brash style of politics.
“They are rattled by [him] and for good reason,” Obama said on Thursday. “Because a lot of the proposals he has made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines, instead of actually thinking through what it is required to keep America safe and secure and prosperous, and what’s required to keep the world on an even keel.”
Obama, who is attending his last G7 summit as US president, contrasted the ideological polarisation that has taken place among Republicans during Trump’s run for the White House with the inevitable bouts of “grumpiness” that have crept into the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.
Likening the Democratic primary to his nomination contest against Clinton in 2008, he said: “During primaries, people get a little grumpy with each other. Somebody’s supporter pops off and there’s a certain buildup of aggravation. Every little speed bump, conflict trash-talking, that takes place is elevated.”
Obama’s appraisal of Trump’s foreign policy acumen is shared by many people living in countries friendly towards the US. In a new YouGov poll, 62 percent of people polled in Britain said the views made them “concerned”, 75 percent said they “dislike or hate” his politics and 38 percent said his views made them feel “sick to the stomach”.
Obama’s broadside against Trump came at the end of a day in which he and his fellow G7 leaders took a stroll on hallowed ground, before listening to warnings by their host, the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, that they risked sleepwalking into a global economic crisis comparable to the Lehmann shock of eight years ago.