Baku-APA. President Barack Obama lit into Donald Trump on Tuesday, turning the tables to make the impassioned case that Trump is the one who's un-American, APA reports quoting CNN.
Obama's extraordinary denunciation of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was about far more than a personal intervention on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the ugly general election campaign.
The commander in chief's fury, which seethed out of him in a stunning soliloquy on live television, amounted to a moment of historic significance: a president castigating one of the two people who could succeed him as beyond the constitutional and political norms of the nation itself.
Obama's remarks, motivated by his disgust over Trump's response to the worst terror attack since 9/11, were also deeply ironic, given that Trump has hounded him for years with insinuations that he's not a real American.
The real estate mogul had returned to that theme on Monday, hinting that in some way the President was complicit or approving of Islamic terror attacks, saying on Fox News, "There is something going on."
Trump's attacks have been based on conspiracy theories that Obama was born outside the country or a closeted Muslim. Obama's charge, in contrast, was based on his perception that the billionaire Republican's views are so extreme that he threatens the fabric of America itself.
"Where does this stop?" Obama asked Tuesday, condemning Trump's renewal of his call for a ban on Muslim migration and claims that "thousands and thousands" of Muslims are pouring into the country with the "same thought process" as the terrorist behind the Orlando massacre.
"Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently?" Obama asked. "Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?"
And Obama sought to shame Republican leaders, many of whom were left squirming by Trump's views. Though they differ with them, they are trapped by his millions of primary voters, who made it clear to the GOP leadership that the billionaire businessman should be heeded.
"That's not the America we want," he said. "It doesn't reflect our democratic ideals. It will make us less safe."
Obama has pilloried Trump before. But Tuesday's remarks displayed a deeper intensity and anger, reflecting his apparent belief that America had reached a dangerous moment given the real estate developer's new status as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
"I think the key for President Obama -- is he is talking to the world," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Donald Trump isn't just a candidate who a few months back was talking about banning Muslims from the United States. He has got a lot of momentum."
He continued, "President Obama wanted to make clear that the United States government, the federal government says no to what Donald Trump is suggesting, that it is hateful bigotry."
He concluded, "There was ire in his eyes and sarcasm in the way he went after Trump."
Obama also expressed fury at critiques of his foreign policy, pushing back against criticism for not using the term "radical Islamic terrorism" and calling the debate "a political distraction."
"What exactly would using this language accomplish? What exactly would it change?" Obama asked during remarks at the Treasury Department. "Would it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans?" he continued, using a different acronym for ISIS.
"Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above," he said. "Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away."
Obama's remarks -- which also touched on gun control and his efforts against ISIS -- placed him squarely in the middle of rancorous political debate that formed in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting. Republicans, including Trump, have used the attack to paint Obama as weak on national security and ineffective in combating the threats emanating from ISIS.
Much of the criticism has centered on Obama's refusal to use the phrase "radical Islam," which the White House argues unfairly maligns the entire Islamic faith.
In a brief statement following Obama's remarks, Trump said Obama "claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people."
"When I am president, it will always be America First," Trump said. He was expected to respond more fully during an evening event in North Carolina.
Democrats and some establishment Republicans, meanwhile, have suggested that Trump's rhetoric is harmful in its depictions of Muslim-American communities as complicit in domestic terror attacks.
Speaking after Obama's remarks, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the President had grown frustrated at hearing "political talking points" being wielded in place of a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy.
Obama was speaking at the Treasury Department following a meeting of his National Security Council that was focused on cutting off ISIS financing. The meeting was scheduled before the Orlando attack, though Obama said the government's response to the massacre was a main focus of the session.
The President is scheduled to travel to Orlando on Thursday to offer support to victims' families.
In his remarks Tuesday, the President defended his actions against ISIS, lauding the work of the U.S. military in going after terrorists. He said changing his wording about the threat would not alter those efforts.
In his remarks, Obama did not use Trump's name, but his target was clear when he referred to the presumptive Republican nominee and called out GOP leaders for not opposing him.
Earlier in the day, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, issued a similar assault on Trump's rhetoric, including vague allusions Monday to Obama being sympathetic toward ISIS.
"I have to ask, will responsible Republican leaders stand up to their presumptive nominee or will they stand by his accusation about our President?" Clinton said in Pittsburgh. "I am sure they would rather avoid that question altogether. But history will remember what we do in this moment. What Donald Trump is saying is shameful."
Obama, in his remarks, also called for Congress to pass tougher gun laws and the renewal of the assault weapons ban.
"We have to make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war that let them kill dozens of innocents," Obama said. "Enough talking about being tough on terrorism. Actually be tough on terrorism."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement after Obama's remarks that "Democrats want to talk about anything else because they have lost the national security debate."
"Nothing President Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing in response to the Orlando terror attack would have prevented it, but they would infringe on Americans' constitutional rights to due process and to own a gun," Priebus said.
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