Schoolyard spat: Obama brags he’d trounce Trump in head-to-head race, pres-elect tweets ‘No way!’
In response to an assertion made by President Barack Obama claiming that he would have beaten Donald Trump if he had run for a third term, the Republican president-elect took to his favorite communication tool – Twitter – to say “No way!”
Trump tweeted late on Monday to say that Obama was wrong, contending that, with jobs leaving the US, problems with Obamacare, and the spread of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), he would have trounced the outgoing president.
President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! - jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016
Obama had confidently stated in an interview with CNN released on Monday that he would have beaten Trump in a head-to-head race.
“I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said, referring to his 2008 campaign message of ‘hope and change.’
He went on to say that, while the Clinton campaign “understandably” focused a great deal on reacting to what Trump was saying and doing, it should have put more effort into explaining how the Democratic Party’s agenda helps working people.
Trump wasn’t the only one to call Obama’s bluff. Others in the Twittersphere also had a few things to say about his bold hypothetical prediction.
The sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin sarcastically suggested that Obama could have won the US Open too.
Yeah right. He would have won the 2016 US Open golf if he had played too. Obama couldn't win N. Carolina for Clinton https://t.co/sn0XrCZo2z
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) December 27, 2016
Others accused Obama of continuing to take “swipes” at Trump, even long after the election.
Donald Trump backed off on his criticism of President Obama the moment he won and here President Obama is still taking swipes at him???
— SouljahSingh (@souljahsingh) December 27, 2016
However, the vast majority of respondents to a poll tweeted out by one of social media’s most popular celebrities, George Takei, would rather see Obama in office than Trump. The original Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu is currently an activist for liberal and LGBT causes.
Trump thinks Obama would not have won against him in an election. So what does Twitter think? Who would you rather have as President?
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 26, 2016
Trump’s tweet came just a day after former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox Business that Trump could begin his presidency by reversing up to 70 percent of Obama’s legacy by “simply vetoing out all of the various executive orders.”