President Obama, who appears increasingly annoyed by presidential candidate Donald Trump, pointedly denounced the themes of the billionaire candidate’s campaign for president during his speech to the United Nations.
Referring to the “most advanced democracies” in the world, Obama admitted to the world leaders that there was opposition from the “far right” on trade agreements and immigration.
“We see greater polarization, more frequent gridlock; movements on the far right, and sometimes the left, that insist on stopping the trade that binds our fates to other nations, calling for the building of walls to keep out immigrants,” he said.
Trump is the only candidate that has specifically called for a wall on the Southern border of Mexico. He also has joined Republican opposition to Obama’s efforts on trade agreements in Asia.
Obama also lectured politicians in advanced nations for trying to win voters’ support by preying on their fears, an accusation he frequently makes when criticizing the Republican party.
“Most ominously, we see the fears of ordinary people being exploited through appeals to sectarianism, or tribalism, or racism, or anti-Semitism; appeals to a glorious past before the body politic was infected by those who look different, or worship God differently; a politics of us versus them,” he said, calling for a more inclusive political conversation.
He specifically dismissed critics in the United States who believed it was impossible to work together with regimes like China, Iran, Russia, and Islamic nations.
“[W]e, the nations of the world, cannot return to the old ways of conflict and coercion. We cannot look backwards,” he said. “We live in an integrated world — one in which we all have a stake in each other’s success.”
Obama has pointedly denounced Trump’s rhetoric in recent days as the billionaire candidate continues to lead in the polls.
During an education event in Iowa earlier this month, Obama denounced Republican rhetoric on enforcing immigration laws as “un-American” and “anti-immigrant.”
“This whole anti-immigrant sentiment that’s out there in our politics right now is contrary to who we are,” he said. “Because unless you’re Native American, your family came from someplace else.”
White House aides have dismissed Trump’s supporters as racist, while Vice President Joe Biden blasted Trump for expressing “xenophobia” in his “sick message.”
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