South Carolina — In response to President Barack Obama telling the press just ahead of the South Carolina Primary, “Mr. Trump will not be president,” the billionaire businessman wore the president’s prediction like a badge of honor, and expressed his own challenge to Mr. Obama’s qualifications for the executive office: “You’re lucky I didn’t run last time when Romney ran because you would have been a one-term president.”
Donald Trump fires back at Obama, expands nationwide lead
“He has done such a lousy job as president,” Trump said on stage at a Beaufort, South Carolina rally Tuesday. “You look at our budgets. You look at our spending. We can’t beat ISIS. Obamacare is terrible. We’re going to terminate it. We’re going to absolutely terminate and replace it. I mean you look at everything. Our borders are like Swiss cheese.”
The Republican front-runner may be starting to believe his own hype when he shot back at the president’s 2012 election record, Trump had this message for Mr. Obama: “You’re lucky I didn’t run last time when Romney ran because you would have been a one-term president.”
“I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference during a summit with Southeast Asian leaders in California. “And the reason is that I have a lot of faith in the American people. Being president is a serious job. It’s not hosting a talk show, or a reality show.”
He added that “the American people are pretty sensible, and I think they’ll make a sensible choice in the end.”
At his South Carolina event, the reality television star said that he wasn’t taking the Mr. Obama’s statement as a personal insult.
“This man has done such a bad job — he has set us back so far, and for him to say that actually is a great compliment, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.
In 2016, the Democrats and Republicans will hold their South Carolina Presidential Primary on different dates in February. The GOP will hold their primary Saturday, February 20th with the Dems primary will take place the following week, Saturday, February 27th.
The South Carolina primary will immediately follow the New Hampshire primary in 2016. The “first-in-the-South” primary gives a voice to Southern states in the presidential nomination process. South Carolina often helps to begin significantly narrowing down the field of candidates following contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Hillary Clinton has a 18 points lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by in the state’s Democratic primary, which will be held a week later. Of likely voters in the Democratic primary in the Palmetto State, set to be held next week, Black Voters and Women appear to be tilting sharply toward Clinton over Sanders, 56% for Clinton to 38% for Sanders.
