Obama says Donald Trump is 'exploiting' blue-collar fears


Early Monday, NPR released an interview President Obama conducted with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep on Friday, before Obama and his family flew to California, then Hawaii for Christmas. Obama and Inskeep spent about half the wide-ranging interview discussing the fight against the Islamic State, but Obama also weighed in on the protests that have been embroiling college campuses, the role his race plays in opposition to his presidency, and the 2016 presidential race, including a pointed comment about Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
"I am confident that a Democrat will win the White House," Obama said. But plenty of Americans are uncomfortable with all the social and economic changes happening in the U.S., he added, specifically mentioning "flatlining" wages and income. "Particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they're 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," Obama said.
You combine those things, and it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration, fear — some of it justified, but just misdirected. I think somebody like Mr. Trump's taking advantage of that. I mean, that’s what he's exploiting during the course of his campaign. [Obama to NPR]
Obama also touched on the "specific strains in the Republican Party that suggest that somehow I'm different, I'm Muslim, I'm disloyal to the country, etc... what I'd say there is that that's probably pretty specific to me, and who I am and my background," he said. "In some ways, I may represent change that worries them" in "certain pockets of the Republican Party."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Regarding campus protests, Obama said he thinks "it's a healthy thing for young people to be engaged and to question authority and to ask why this instead of that, to ask tough questions about social justice," but that protesters take that too far when they try to block the head of the IMF or former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from speaking on campus. "Feel free to disagree with somebody," Obama advised students, "but don't try to just shut them up.... What I don't want is a situation in which particular points of view that are presented respectfully and reasonably are shut down, and we have seen that sometimes happen."
You can watch the interview below; the comment about Trump starts at the 26-minute mark. Peter Weber
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Shadow Ticket: Thomas Pynchon’s first novel in over a decade
The Week Recommends Zany whodunnit about a private eye in 1930s Milwaukee could be the 88-year-old author’s ‘last hurrah’
-
Sora 2 and the fear of an AI video future
In the Spotlight Cutting-edge video-creation app shares ‘hyperrealistic’ AI content for free
-
Will Starmer’s India visit herald blossoming new relations?
Today's Big Question Despite a few ‘awkward undertones’, the prime minister’s trip shows signs of solidifying trade relations
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-off
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US