US President Barack Obama today said Americans are looking for kind of politics that feeds on hopes and not fears as he accused Republican front-runner Donald Trump of campaigning on basis of "simplistic solutions and scapegoating".
Obama, 54, downplayed success of Trump, 69, in the Republican primary, saying, "the message that Donald Trump is putting out has had adherence a lot of times during the course of our history."
"You know, talk to me if he wins, then we'll have a conversation about how responsible I feel about it," he said.
"But I'm pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of Americans are looking for the kind of politics that does feed our hopes and not our fears, that does work together and doesn't try to divide us, that isn't looking for simplistic solutions and scapegoating, but looks for us buckling down and figuring out how to do we make things work for the next generation?" Obama said.
On being asked whether Obama could ever imagine a Trump delivering a State of the Union address, Obama shot back, "Well, I can imagine it in a Saturday night skit."
Obama said he will be working hard to make sure that a Democrat succeeds him at the White House.
"And there's no doubt that, given what the Republican candidates have said, that there are going to be some things that I think are really important that they are going to try to reverse," he said.
"Even something as controversial in the Republican party as Obamacare. When something works, or the evidence shows that it's helping people and you want to stop it just for ideological reasons, it turns out to be a little more difficult," he said.
"Certainly when they start dealing with foreign policy, and if they think that somehow, by talking a little tougher, they are going to somehow change the complexities of the Middle East, for example. Well, turns out that's not how it works," Obama said.
"So I think there is a really useful awakening that takes place when you walk into this office. A lot of the campaign rhetoric has to give way to some very hard tough realities," said the US President.
