President Obama dismissed billionaire candidate Donald Trump’s presidential bid during an interview on the Today Show this morning with Matt Lauer. During the interview, Lauer asked Obama if he felt responsible for the rise of Donald Trump’s message.
“The message that Donald Trump’s putting out has had adherence a lot of times during the course of our history,” Obama told Matt Lauer. “You know, talk to me if he wins. Then we’ll have a conversation about how responsible I feel about it.”
Obama added that he was “pretty confident” that Americans weren’t looking for Trump’s brand of politics, dismissing him for campaigning on “fear” instead of “hope.”
“But I’m pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of Americans are looking for the kind of politics that does feed our hopes and not our fears, that does work together and doesn’t try to divide, that isn’t looking for simplistic solutions and scapegoating but looks for us buckling down and figuring out, ‘How do we make things work for the next generation.'” he said.
White House officials have signaled that the president will answer Trump and other Republicans who are highlighting Obama’s failures as president.