In his most blistering attack on Donald Trump, former president Barack Obama has accused his successor of treating the presidency like a “ reality show” and said the top Republican leader “ hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.”
Obama, the country’s first Black president, spoke on the third night of the virtual Democratic National Convention on Wednesday just before Senator Kamala Harris of California became the first Black person to be formally nominated for vice-president by a major party.
Former vice president Joe Biden is already the Democratic presidential nominee.
Obama said that both Biden and Harris have the experience needed to get things done and they have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.
But he had some very harsh words for President Trump who is seeking re-election in the November 3 presidential polls.
“I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies,” Obama said.
Obama said that he had hoped that Trump might “ show some interest in taking the job seriously … But he never did” .
“ I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care,” Obama said in an unusually strong criticism of Trump during his remarks.
“ For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. “ Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said, giving his address from Philadelphia, where the US Constitution was drafted and signed.
The former president said one expects a president to be the “ custodian” of American democracy and one who, regardless of ego, ambition or political beliefs, will preserve, protect and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for, went to jail for, fought for and died for.