Donald Trump is pretending to be unbothered, calling former President Barack Obama “grossly incompetent” when asked about comments the 44th president of the United States made criticizing leaders’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports.
“Look, he was an incompetent president. That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
According to the report, on Saturday, while speaking during a virtual commencement address for graduating high school seniors across the country, Obama slammed leaders who weren’t “even pretending to be in charge,” when it came to the current pandemic.
“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama added. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
When asked about Obama’s remarks, Trump insisted that “tremendous progress is being made on many fronts.”
“We did a lot of terrific meetings, tremendous progress is being made on many fronts, including coming up with a cure for this horrible plague that has beset our country,” he said, before calling Obama “incompetent.”
He later reiterated his stance in a tweet.
This is not the first time that Obama has taken a jab at the White House.
In the earlier days of the pandemic in the United States, Obama cautioned about what happens when leaders don’t take their jobs seriously.
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama tweeted, without, as is the norm usually, directly naming Trump. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”
Meanwhile, Trump has been criticizing everyone—from the CDC to Obama himself—for the slow coronavirus response as he continuously obsesses over his predecessor.