News / Politics

World leaders ‘rattled’ by Trump’s proposals: Obama

Thursday, 26 May 2016 2:28 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 26 May 2016 3:26 PM ]

US President Barack Obama speaks at a press conference during the first day of the Group of Seven (G7) summit meetings in Ise Shima, May 26, 2016. (AFP photo)

US President Barack Obama says world leaders are “rattled” by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and are not sure how to react to his proposals.

“I think it's fair to say they are surprised by the Republican nominee, they are not sure how seriously to take some of his pronouncements, but they're rattled by him, and for good reason,” Obama said Thursday, during a break from the G7 summit in Japan.

“A lot of the proposals that he's 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 that's required to keep America safe, secure and prosperous, and what's required to keep the world on an even keel,” he added.

Obama did not go into a detailed critique of Trump but said he shares the same anxiety as other world leaders.

“Things don't roll together so well if the United States is not making good decisions,” the president said.

Pledging to improve ties with Russia, urging US allies in NATO and Asia to pay their fair share of defense costs, and threatening to pull military forces out of Japan and South Korea are some of Trump's proposals.

Trump has also sparked worldwide anger by proposing a ban on Muslims from entering the US while calling for a special database and ID to better track them.

Democratic dynamics

Obama showed little interest to discuss the Democratic campaign and ducked questions regarding the latest developments about Hillary Clinton's email server use.

He also downplayed concerns by the Democratic Party over the long-running primary fight between Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, saying that occasionally in a primary “people get grumpy.”

Obama noted that a major difference between the Democratic and Republican campaign in the race for the November election was the fact that Democratic candidates were not so far apart ideologically.

Clinton backed out of a debate with Sanders in California ahead of the state's delegate-rich June 7 primary on Monday, arguing that the Vermont senator had no chance against her and she needed to focus on competing with Trump instead.

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