Barack
Obama has chided Donald Trump as "wacky" and "uninformed"
after the Republican candidate said Russia's President Putin was a better
leader.
Speaking in Laos, Mr Obama
said that every time Mr Trump spoke it became clearer that the Republican
contender was not qualified to be president.
In a televised forum on
Wednesday, Mr Trump had praised Mr Putin's "great control" and 82%
approval rating.
Mr Trump and rival Hillary
Clinton had taken questions from military veterans.
Mr Obama said: "I
don't think the guy's qualified to be president of the United States and every
time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed."
The president pointed to
the diplomatic work he had faced at both the Asean summit in Laos and the
earlier G20 meeting in China.
He said: "I can tell
you from the interactions I have had over the last eight or nine days with
foreign leaders that this is serious business.
"You actually have to
know what you are talking about and you actually have to have done your
homework. When you speak, it should actually reflect thought-out-policy you can
implement."
Mrs Clinton, meanwhile,
pilloried Mr Trump for having suggested US military leaders had been
"reduced to rubble", accusing him of having "trash-talked
American generals".
In a rare press conference,
she said on Thursday morning: "That's how he talks about distinguished men
and women who've spent their lives serving our country, sacrificing for
us."
Mr Trump had told the forum
in New York that the Russian president had "been a leader far more than
our president has been".
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