President Obama gave his successor Donald Trump a bit of a compliment during a wide-ranging interview with ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos, saying the president-elect had the right amount of “craziness” needed to lead the country.
When asked if he liked the businessman and president-elect, President Obama responded that he does not think Trump lacks confidence. The president has given measured responses to questions about Trump throughout the transition, though the president-elect has insinuated that Obama has sought to make the transfer of power difficult on Twitter only to backtrack in conversations with reporters.
“You know, I’ve enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had,” Obama said. “He is somebody who I think is not lacking in confidence, which is … probably a prerequisite for the job, or at least you have to have enough craziness to think that you can do the job.”
The president did say, however, that he does not think Trump has “spent a lot of time sweating the details of, you know, all the policies.”
President Obama spoke to ABC News ahead of his farewell address, set to be delivered Tuesday evening from Chicago. In the interview, the president also discussed his thoughts on the future of his signature health law, the Affordable Care Act, under the Trump administration. Despite Congress’s plans to repeal the law, Obama told ABC he is confident it will survive though he said it may get a new name.
Obama said of Congress, “I’m skeptical that they can [repeal the law] mainly because for seven years now, including when we first tried to pass healthcare, I said to ’em, ‘OK, if this doesn’t work tell me what does.'”
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