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Obama Burns Trump At Clinton Rally

by Amée LaTour

Tuesday marked the first day of President Barack Obama's active involvement in the 2016 presidential race. He joined Hillary Clinton for a rally in North Carolina, where he touted the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's qualifications and trustworthiness before a cheering crowd. But the focus wasn't all on Clinton's quality as a candidate. The president worked in his concerns about Clinton's main opponent in November, Donald Trump. Obama criticized Trump's qualifications in a poignant way, without even saying his name:

Everybody can tweet, but nobody knows what it actually means to do the job until you've sat behind the desk.

That this comment is directed at Trump is quite clear, given the seemingly compulsive nature of The Donald's tweeting (not to mention, that he's Clinton's primary challenger). Twitter is Trump's primary platform for bringing you live updates on his latest mean nickname, outrageous accusation, or unrealistic policy proposal. Obama went on to put an even finer point on his criticism:

I mean, Sasha tweets, but she doesn’t think that she thereby should be sitting behind the desk.

Obama went on to more directly reference Trump, saying, "I know the other guy talks about making America great again," and adding, "This is not a reality show. This is not entertainment," in reference to Trump's lead role in The Apprentice. Obama never said Trump's name during the speech, but suggested that his economic positions aren't even in line with his fellow Republicans.

Trump isn't known for providing too much detail about his policy proposals. He generally has a we'll-figure-it-out-when-we-get-there / we'll-be-taking-a-look approach. And when he does give details, the wonks who analyze them tend to conclude that they are unrealistic. For example, his plan to salvage Social Security relies largely on economic growth, but the amount that would be required to even save for an additional 30 years is unrealistic, according to economists Richard Johnson and Karen Smith. And Trump's proposals to deport all undocumented immigrants and to build a wall between the United States and Mexico — two of his key positions — are roundly rejected by many on both the right and left as unrealistic.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images News/Getty Images

At Clinton's rally, Obama summed up the general vacuity of Trump's proposals and his campaign. Being the president of tweeting doesn't make one fit to be the president of the United States.