Obama terms Trump as 'uniquely unqualified' to be US president

ORLANDO: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday assailed Donald Trump for being "uniquely unqualified" and "temperamentally unfit" to be the next commander-in-chief as he asked Americans to recall how Republicans themselves were divided over having a "con man" as their presidential nominee.

"Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be President. He is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief," Obama said at a well-attended Democratic rally in Columbus, Ohio.

"Don't take my word for it. Take the word of a lot of the Republicans who were saying this before they decided, politically, that it was convenient to support him. Then some of them decided, politically, it was inconvenient to support him again. They keep on doing backflips," he said.

"But think about what they said at the outset. That he was a con man. That he didn't have the temperament to do the job. That he didn't have the knowledge to do the job. Didn't have the experience to do the job. Somebody who claims to be a great businessman, but who repeatedly stiffs small businesses and workers out of what he owed them,"he added.

Obama said it would be a mistake to believe that Trump would champion the cause of the Americans as the 70-year-old real estate tycoon "did not have time his entire life for any one who was not rich".

"Because I was talking to some folks here on the way over, and I said to them, if you're a working person, if you are out there every day working hard, punching a clock, the notion that this guy is going to fight for working people, when his entire life he did not have time for anybody who wasn't rich or a celebrity; who wouldn't let you into one of his hotels unless you were cleaning the room; wouldn't let you onto one of his golf courses unless you were mowing the fairway -- come on! This guy is going to be your champion?" he asked as the audience roared back with a big 'no'.

He said Americans cannot afford a President who suggests we should torture people again, or ban entire religions from the country, "who insults POWs (Prisoners Of War) or attacks Gold Star mothers, or talks down to our troops and our veterans. Even a Republican senator said we can't afford to give the nuclear codes to somebody so erratic".

Trump does not represent the country, Obama said, adding the controversial billionaire's remarks against women were "habitual" and "a part of who he is".

"Somebody who spent 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people, open disdain not just for immigrants or Muslims, but Americans with disabilities. And we know what he said about women. This is the guy that you want to be representing the entire country all around the world?"
"By the way, this is not just one tape where he's bragging about how being famous allows him to get away with actions that qualify as sexual assault. This is a lifetime of calling women "pigs," and "dogs," and "slobs" and grading women on a 10-point scale," he said.

"Come on! Because there are a lot of working folks in Ohio, proud people who make an honest living. And I hear them saying, well, I don't know, Trump, maybe he's not so bad. Come on! This guy? He says he'll be his own foreign policy advisor, because he says he's got a "good brain". Who talks like that?" Obama said amidst laughter.