Obama does not think Trump is a role model, White House says
President Obama thinks “hundreds of millions of Americans” are role models for children, the White House said on Tuesday. But Donald Trump is not among them.
The question arose after Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said in a statement that she “misspoke” when she identified the GOP nominee as a role model for her kids during a televised debate late Monday.
Asked whether Obama sees Trump as a role model, White House press secretary Josh Earnest bluntly told reporters: “He does not. I think he’s made that clear in a variety of settings.” Obama has called the former reality show star “unfit” to be president, said Trump’s “yapping” about Muslims helps the Islamic State, and said the GOP nominee is only “offering fear,” not solutions, to worried voters.
“There are hundreds of millions of Americans [who] live their lives every day [and] are role models for our kids,” Earnest added. “But based on the president’s deep concern about the rhetoric of the Republican nominee, I feel confident in telling you that he would not be comfortable with describing the nominee in that way.”
Obama, whose job approval ratings have crept up to around 50 percent this year, topped the list of Americans’ most admired living men in a 2015 poll. He came in at 17 percent, while Trump came in third at 5 percent amid a crowded field. Hillary Clinton, the self-described billionaire’s Democratic rival, topped the list of most admired living women, with 13 percent of Americans bestowing that label on the former first lady.
