CLEVELAND _ As the convention at which he will be nominated prepared to open, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raised questions about President Barack Obama's loyalties when it comes to disputes between African Americans and police _ and at the same time acknowledged Obama's point that blacks are treated differently by police.
Trump acknowledged both with what has become his catch-all phrase: "Something's going on."
In a Monday morning telephone interview with Fox News, Trump said race relations were at their worst level in a generation. He agreed when host Steve Doocy quoted an earlier guest as saying Obama "has blood on his hands" when it comes to violence against police officers.
Obama spoke to the nation Sunday, after the killings of three Baton Rouge, La., officers. "Nothing justifies violence against law enforcement. Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible," the president said. He also cautioned against "inflammatory rhetoric."
Trump, in response, called Obama "a great divider."
"I mean, you know, I watched the president and sometimes the words are OK but you just look at the body language, there's something going on," Trump told Fox anchors. "Look, there's something going on and the words are not often OK, by the way."
"What does that mean, there's something going on?" Doocy replied.
"There's just a bad feeling, a lot of bad feeling about him," Trump said. "I see it too. There's a lot of bad feeling about him."
Trump's comments were in line with his suggestions four years ago that Obama had been born in Africa, the birthplace of his father. He campaigned relentlessly for proof of Obama's U.S. citizenship, which Obama produced in the form of his birth certificate.
Seconds after slighting Obama on Monday, Trump agreed when host Brian Kilmeade reminded him of assertions by fellow Republicans that African Americans often are treated more severely by law enforcement. Trump said that there was "definitely something going on there also."
"And it has to do with training and it has to do with something," he said. "But there is something going on that maybe, Brian, we can't recognize it or we can't see it unless you're black, and it's an experience."
Earlier in the conversation, Trump said that the Baton Rouge shooter, Gavin Eugene Long, a Marine Corps veteran, was "a member" of "radical Islam." No evidence has been uncovered to support that claim.
