US President Barack Obama has admitted for the first time that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could succeed him and warned that the businessman lacks a basic knowledge of the world and ‘doesn't seem to have an interest in learning’.
“Anything is possible,” Obama said when asked if Trump could be elected in November.
“What I think is scary is a President who doesn't know their stuff and doesn't seem to have an interest in learning what they don't know,” Obama added.
Obama had previously maintained Trump would never reach the White House but, as the billionaire led in polls, he said it was now "possible" the Republican nominee may win.
“In his press conferences and the Republican debates, Trump has shown he lacks a "basic knowledge about the world, or what a nuclear triad is, or where various countries are, or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world,” the US President said.
“Those are things that he doesn't know and hasn't seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about,” the President added.
He also said the magnate was wrong to assert that he alone can solve the United States' problems because "that's not how our founders designed our system".
"We're not a government where some strong man orders people around and banishes enemies. I think that it's important for us to remember that we live in a democracy. And by definition, then, the way we solve problems is by everybody participating and arguing and occasionally having to compromise," the President said.
Obama further said that Trump "is somebody who likes attention, maybe surprised himself that he got this far" in the presidential race.
"So, my advice to Democrats -- and I don't have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton, because she already knows it -- is you stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted," Obama said.
"One of the dangers in an election like this is that people don't take the challenge seriously. They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected," Obama added.
Hillary Clinton yesterday scripted history becoming the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the President of the United States.
With Agency Inputs
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