World leaders rattled by Trump: Obama

Tokyo

President Barrack Obama said world leaders are ‘rattled’ by Donald Trump adding that Trump displays ignorance of world affairs and a cavalier attitude.

Trump, the billionaire US real-estate mogul and reality TV star, has dominated headlines since launching his presidential campaign last year with a mix of incendiary comments and policy stances seen as insulting Mexicans, Muslims and women, among others.

He has proposed building a giant wall along the US border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants and vows that he will get the southern neighbour to pay for it. “A lot of the proposals that he has made demonstrate either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines,” said Obama. “They are paying very close attention to this election,” Obama said, referring to other world leaders. “I think it’s fair to say they are surprised by the Republican nominee,” he added.

“They are not sure how seriously to take some of his pronouncements. But they’re rattled by them, and for good reason,” said Obama, whose historic visit to Hiroshima will underline the dangers of warfare and the need to work towards peace.

Obama, who will on Friday become the only sitting US president ever to visit Hiroshima — the site of the world’s first nuclear bomb — said the August 6, 1945 attack was “an inflection point in modern history”.

The attack is no longer as present in the modern mind as it was during the decades of the Cold War, said Obama. “But the backdrop of a nuclear event remains something that presses on the back of our imagination. I want to once again underscore the very real risks that are out there and the sense of urgency that we all should have,” he said. Obama is expected to lay flowers at the cenotaph in Hiroshima, which sits in the shadow of a domed building, whose skeleton has been left standing in silent testament to the victims of the first ever nuclear attack.