President Obama has not changed his view that President-elect Donald Trump is “uniquely unqualified” to hold the office of the presidency, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday.
“The president’s views haven’t changed. He stands by the argument he made on the campaign trail,” Earnest told reporters Thursday.
Earnest said Obama had the opportunity to make his argument against Trump on the campaign trail, and that voters made their decision regardless.
“The president didn’t get to choose his successor. The American people did,” Earnest said.
While campaigning on behalf of Hillary Clinton, Obama characterized Trump as a threat to the country.
For example, he joked that a candidate who could not be trusted to operate his Twitter account should not be trusted to hold the nuclear codes.
Obama and Trump met Thursday in the Oval Office for more than an hour. Both expressed positive feelings about that meeting, which Earnest said focused heavily on the need to staff the White House fully and properly.
Earnest told reporters that Obama has found Trump’s gracious tone since winning the election to be “reassuring.”
