Donald Trump has branded Barack Obama a ‘terrible’ president, even as he argued the Democrat isn’t the worst person ever to hold the office.
Speaking for roughly an hour at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday (March 25), Trump ranged across several issues on the campaign trail.
With his polling numbers under pressure, the president encouraged party unity and urged Republicans to focus on the upcoming midterms.
“We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and most importantly, we will make America great again.
“Thank you very much Republicans, go out and win the midterms!”
After receiving the first annual ‘America First Award’ from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump pivoted to familiar criticism of past presidents.
Although he took aim at Obama, Trump said he considers another Democrat to be the lowest-performing commander-in-chief.
“If you go back to Obama, he was a great divider. He divided this nation. He was a lousy president. The worst president in history was Biden. But Obama was a terrible president.”
Trump also alleged Obama made major concessions to Iran, saying the former president gave the country the ability to reach a nuclear weapon quickly, and claimed he ended the agreement when he entered the White House.
“He gave Iran the right to have a nuclear weapon at the highest level within a very short period of time. I terminated that agreement as soon as I came to office.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump addressed the conflict in the Middle East following last month’s joint US-Israel military strike on Iran.
He insisted Iran is eager to reach an agreement and suggested its leaders are hesitant to say so publicly.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re doing in the Middle East with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people.
“They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us. There’s never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran.”
Earlier this week, Trump made a similar claim that Iran wants ‘to make a deal’, and said a conversation had taken place with an Iranian leader.
But Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf disputed that account on X, stating that ‘no negotiations have been held with the US’.
“Fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he added.