Washington: US President Barack Obama has slammed Donald Trump, saying that the Republican presidential candidate does not have the temperament, knowledge or “basic honesty” to be his successor at the White House.

“He (Trump) doesn’t have the temperament, or the judgment, or the knowledge, — or, apparently, the desire to obtain the knowledge — or the basic honesty that a President needs to have,” Obama said at an election rally in North Carolina yesterday.

In the remaining four weeks, Obama is expected to intensify his campaign against Trump and campaign for his former Secretary of State and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In his address, Obama said Trump is different from the two previous Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“When I was running against John McCain, when I was running against Mitt Romney, we had serious disagreements on the economy and on foreign policy and on social issues. Those elections were close and contested. We had debates. But the truth is, although, obviously, I believed that the agenda that we set was the better agenda for America, I never thought that those people were not honorable,” he said.

“I did not think that if they were in the Oval Office that America would spin out of control. I didn’t think that they couldn’t represent us on the world stage. I just thought they represented a different political party and a different philosophy,” he added.

Obama said the fact that Trump is not qualified to be the president was known even before surfacing of the 2005 tape in which he is seen making lewd remarks about women.

“So, like, tweeting doesn’t qualify you. Sound bites don’t qualify you. Insults certainly don’t qualify you. Nobody can fully know what it’s like to manage a global crisis, or know the feeling of sending a young person into war. But I tell you, nobody has been closer to those decisions than Hillary,” he said amidst laughter and applause.

“That was true even before we heard about his attitudes towards women. Now, of course, it was true when we heard what he thought about minorities, and what he thought about people of the Muslim faith, and when he made fun of disabled persons, or when he insulted Gold Star families,” he said.

Obama said Clinton is only one candidate in the race who qualifies to the next president of the US.

“As a First Lady, as a senator, as my Secretary of State, she knows what it means. She knows what it takes. I’ve seen her intelligence and judgement and temperament and her discipline. I saw her in the Situation Room, where she argued for the bin Laden mission. I saw it in capitals around the world, where she was tirelessly pursuing diplomacy that led to new partnerships; that opened up new democracies,” Obama said.

Clinton understands that the decisions one make in this job mean life or death; affect soldiers and veterans, and workers who need a good job or a raise or a decent retirement.

“She understands that it counts for families who are trying to climb into the middle class or stay in the middle class, and kids who are looking for getting a decent education. And she listens to people, and she keeps her cool and treats everybody with respect,” he said.

“No matter how daunting the odds, or how many times she gets knocked down, she doesn’t point fingers or complain that everything is rigged if it doesn’t work out the way you want it to. She doesn t check her mic. She just worries about getting up, and working harder. And she doesn’t quit. That s the Hillary I know. That’s the Hillary admire. That’s why I believe that she is more qualified to be President of the United States of America,” Obama said.

Clinton, he said, has got real plans to address the real concerns that she has heard on the campaign trail.

“This (presidential election) isn’t an audition for like some show. This ain’t a show. She’s got specific ideas to invest in jobs, to help workers share in their company’s profits, to put more young people and children and toddlers in preschool, to make sure that students get through college without taking on a ton of debt. She actually is sweating the details. She cares about this stuff,” he said.

Trump on Ryan: ‘I don’t want his support, don’t care about it’

Washington: With a host of Republicans abandoning Donald Trump after the furore over his lewd remarks about women, the defiant presidential candidate has asserted that he is “tired of non-support” and does not need the backing of party leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“The fact is, I think we should get support and we don’t get the support from guys like Paul Ryan,” the 70-year-old real estate tycoon told Fox News.

Trump’s remarks came a day after Ryan told his party leaders that he would not be interested in supporting Trump and instead would focus on retaining majority in the Congress.

“I’m just tired of non-support and I don’t really want his support. This happens all the time — if you sneeze, he calls up and announces, ‘Isn’t that a terrible thing’. So look, I don’t want his support, I don’t care about his support,” Trump said.

Trump also indicated that Ryan would no longer be the Speaker of the House of Representatives if he is elected as the US President.

“They’ll be there. I would think that Ryan may be would not be there, maybe he will be in a different position,” he said and exuded confidence that he would win the November 8 general election against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

“I’ve had a lot of women come up to me and say, ‘Boy, I’ve heard that and I’ve heard a lot worse than that over my life.

If that’s what it is going to take to lose an election, that will be pretty sad,” Trump said.

Earlier, the reality TV star had lashed out against “disloyal” Republicans in a ranting tweetstorm.

Trump called Ryan a “weak and ineffective leader.”

“Disloyal Republicans are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win — I will teach them!,” he said in a tweet.

“With the exception of cheating Bernie out of the nomination, the Democrats have always proven to be far more loyal to each other than the Republicans!,” Trump said.

“It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to,” the Republican presidential nominee tweeted.

Trump also lashed out at Senator John McCain, who was among the first few Republican leaders to withdraw support.

Trump also told Fox News that he should not have endorsed McCain, in the veteran senator’s August primary.

“He (McCain) was desperate to get my endorsement. I gave him the endorsement…and frankly, he ran against a very good woman, I feel very badly I gave the endorsement,” Trump said and described McCain as having “probably the dirtiest mouth in all the Senate”.

Meanwhile, Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said that he is “disappointed” that his party leaders are abandoning Trump.

Trump’s candidacy has suffered a blow after a 2005 tape was released in which he was seen making lewd and derogatory comments about women.

PTI