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Washington – US President Barack Obama on Sunday criticised the populist campaign of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, decrying “anti-intellectualism” and noting that “ignorance is not a virtue.”
Obama did not specifically name the brash New York real estate developer during his remarks at a university graduation ceremony in New Jersey, but it was clear he was referring to the candidate who is running on a slogan of “Make America Great Again!”
The Democrat told students not to pine for an American golden age of years past, saying, “The good old days weren’t all that good,” as he pointed out problems with racial discrimination, poverty and lack of equality for women.
“The world is more interconnected than ever before and it’s becoming more connected every day. Building walls won’t change things,” Obama said, an apparent jab at Trump’s calls for a wall along the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants out.
Obama noted that no wall could stop outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika, or help the US remain competitive in a time of globalisation.
“Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our borders and blame our challenges on immigrants, that doesn’t just run counter to our history as the world melting pot,” Obama said. “It contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe.”
The US president also denounced politicians who hold themselves up as examples of straight-talkers but shun political correctness. “In politics and in life, ignorance isn’t a virtue. It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about,” he said. “That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about.”
Obama was speaking to students at Rutgers University, about one hour from New York. He wore a red and black gown and received an honorary degree from the school.
Meanwhile, back when Trump’s love life was tabloid heaven, a Trump spokesperson with intimate knowledge of the businessman’s personal relationships offered juicy stories about a failing marriage, a new live-in paramour and three other girlfriends he was juggling at once.
The spokesperson identified himself as John Miller. But The Washington Post says it was actually Trump, posing as his own publicist on the phone with a reporter who wondered why Miller’s voice sounded so familiar.
The Post has unearthed a recording of that 1991 phone call. The voice on the phone describes Trump juicy details irresistible to women. “He gets called by everybody in the book, in terms of women,” says the voice. “He’s got a whole open field, really.”
On NBC’s Today show on Friday, Trump denied being the voice on the phone. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. But he owned up to it at the time, describing the Miller call as a “joke gone awry”, said the Post.
Trump also testified in a 1990 court case that he occasionally used the name John Miller and disclosed that his favourite alias was John Baron.
In the call with People magazine reporter Sue Carswell, the “spokesperson” said “actresses just call to see if they can go out with him and things”.
He said Madonna “wanted to go out with him” and “came in a beautiful evening gown and combat boots” to hang out with Trump at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned. “He’s got zero interest that night,” said the man known as Miller, apparently meaning they did not have sex.
Trump’s marriage to Ivana Trump was ending that year and he was with Marla Maples, who would become his second wife. He was also seeing three other women, said the “spokesperson”, including model Carla Bruni.
Carswell, now at Vanity Fair, told the Post she played the recording to Maples, who confirmed the call was from Trump himself and cried upon hearing him say that a ring he had given her was not meant to imply an engagement – although their engagement was announced weeks later.
Carswell said Maples persuaded Trump to invite her out with the two of them to make up for the trickery.
A Trump supporter in Congress, GOP Representative Duncan Hunter of California, said what happened back then “has no bearing on who he is today”.
“It doesn’t matter to me one whit,” he said. — AFP
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