President Obama said the Air Force One staircase incident in China over the weekend has been “overblown” by Republican nominee Donald Trump and others.
“I think anyone in the region would be puzzled” that the episode has “somehow become indicative of the work we’ve done here,” Obama said Thursday after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit wrapped up in Laos.
Obama on Saturday was forced to exit his plane by using a little-used staircase in Air Force One’s belly, when a staircase wasn’t rolled up to the plane after it landed. He was asked if that summed up his six-day trip to Asia, during which he attended G-20 and ASEAN summits.
“Me going down the short stairs in China, yes, I think that is overblown,” he said. Beijing’s perceived slight of him should not overshadow what world leaders accomplished at those meetings or his efforts to make U.S. foreign policy more Asia-centric, he said.
