President Barack Obama called out Republican frontrunner Donald Trump on Monday for “taking advantage” of the “anger, frustration and fear” increasingly felt by blue-collar workers over economic hardships and the changing cultural makeup of America.
He acknowledged that his skin color might be a specific cause of anxiety among some voters in the Republican heartland. “Mr Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign,” he said.
Obama pointed out that questioning his personal origins – which Trump has done loudly in the past – is “something that is actively promoted and may gain traction because of my unique demographic”.
In a wide-ranging interview with National Public Radio, which was recorded before he left for a family Christmas vacation in Hawaii, he also covered the terrorist threat, climate change and affirmative action.
Obama noted that some working-class discontent in the US is “justified” but also that it is “misdirected”.
Obama was asked if he understood why some Americans believe he is “trying to change the country” in some ways that they cannot accept.
He responded: “Are there certain circumstances around being the first African American president that might not have confronted a previous president? Absolutely.”
Obama appeared ready to expand on the point, but was interrupted.
He went on to say it was “not a big stretch” to imagine that those such as Trump “actively promoting” questions about “whether I was born in the United States or not” were gaining support because of his race.
Obama was elected twice with overwhelming support from black, Latino and young voters and majority support from women, men and low-income voters overall, but not from white voters as a racial group.
Meanwhile the US population is steadily becoming less white, and in the interview, Obama spoke of talking to his daughters and their friends and finding them more welcoming of people who are different from them and more sophisticated about different cultures.
“The country is inexorably changing, I believe in all kinds of positive ways,” he said.
But he went on to acknowledge voter anxiety. “When you combine that demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through ... Wages and incomes have been flatlining for some time, and that particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck ... there is going to be potential anger, frustration and fear,” he said.
Then he singled out the Republican frontrunner, adding: “I think somebody like Mr Trump is taking advantage of that.”
Trump was a leading voice in the so-called “birther” movement in the last presidential election, which repeatedly accused Obama of being foreign-born and a Muslim rather than a Christian.
In this election cycle Trump has stuck to more general anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Obama said that some anxiety around national identity, relating to demographic and gay equality, were relatively new, while fairness for blacks in the criminal justice system had been an issue “for decades”.
On other topics, Obama said he supported affirmative action to increase diversity on college campuses.
And he said he believes that US efforts to address climate change, especially shifting away from coal power as demanded by the Clean Air Act, and the climate agreement made in Paris earlier this month would survive a Republican presidency. Unsurprisingly, he predicted that the Democrats will win the 2016 election.
And he warned that whichever party puts his successor in the White House, they will still be dealing with the terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State. But general tough talk about “more bombing” coming from the Republican candidates was unfortunate, he said.
“Hopefully by the time I hand over the keys, we’ve made the kind of progress that I’m expecting ... in degrading Isil by then ... But what I would say to my successor is that it is important not just to shoot but to aim.”
