Trump Clinton Forum, Latest Polls (Videos)

U.S. President Barack Obama hit back at Donald Trump on Thursday for criticizing his foreign policy record, saying the Republican nominee was unfit to follow him into the Oval Office and the public should press him on his “outright wacky ideas”.

Speaking in Laos at the end of the second of two Asian summits, Obama said the tycoon’s lack of leadership credentials was exposed whenever he spoke and American voters were aware of that.

“I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States, and every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed,” Obama told a news conference.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump explained how good he was going to be at dealing with world leaders by pointing to the great job he did at his recent meeting south of the border: “Look at the aftermath today where the people that arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government. That’s how well we did.”

Trump and international affairs is an end-of-the-summer horror thriller. At the big presidential candidates’ forum in New York, he bragged about the two high points in his diplomatic history — the firing of the official whose idea it was to invite him to Mexico and his bromance with Vladimir Putin. (“Well, he does have an 82 percent approval rating according to the different pollsters. …”)

The forum, on the Intrepid aircraft carrier before an audience of veterans, was a kind of remote warfare — back-to-back question-and-answer sessions. They really did seem to be held in two different worlds. Hillary Clinton defended her work on the Iran nuclear deal and the intervention in Libya, while Trump explained why he was keeping his plan for defeating ISIS secret. (“I have a substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is.”)

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sketched dueling visions Wednesday night of the U.S. role on the global stage, with the two leading presidential candidates both arguing that their experience better prepared them to make the life-or-death decisions required of the commander in chief.

In back-to-back appearances during a forum televised on NBC, they sparred over questions about their judgment and wrestled with issues that have tripped them up in the past.

Mrs. Clinton, who spoke first after losing a coin toss, said the most important quality the next president must possess is “an absolute rock steadiness and mixed with strength to be able to make the hard decisions.” She added that “I’ve had the unique experience of watching and working with several presidents, and these are not easy decisions.”

Mr. Trump countered later, saying that building a “great” company and traveling the world prepared him to make the difficult decisions required of a commander in chief, such as sending U.S. soldiers into harm’s way.

“The main thing is I have great judgment,” he said. “I know what’s going on. I’ve called so many of the shots.”

Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin on Wednesday for his high approval ratings and his “very strong control” over Russia, comparing him favourably to Barack Obama, the US president.

Mr Trump made the comments during a foreign policy forum in which Hillary Clinton appeared first and had difficulty answering questions about her handling of classified materials as secretary of state.

The Republican nominee then took the stage, and presented several unorthodox prescriptions for America’s approach to foreign affairs.

“The man has very strong control over a country,” Mr Trump said of Mr Putin at one point. “It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.”

Mr Trump repeated his claim that he opposed the invasion of Iraq – despite the fact that he expressed support for it in a 2002 interview – and said that after the US combat mission ended troops should have remained to “take the oil”.