No filter. Donald Trump is blaming President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the United Kingdom’s decision to “Brexit” the European Union. Just hours after the decision, the GOP presidential nominee made his opinion known during a press conference near his Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland.
Trump, 70, who is happy with the outcome, said that Obama’s meddling backfired. POTUS, 54, has supported Prime Minister David Cameron and previously urged U.K. voters to remain. (Cameron resigned after the vote was announced.)
“[Obama] is constantly dictating to the world what they should do. The world doesn’t listen to him, obviously. You can see that from the vote. I actually think his recommendation…caused it to fail,” Trump said on Friday, June 24, via the Daily Mail.
“I was actually very surprised that President Obama would’ve come over here and he would have been so bold as to tell the people over here what to do. And I think that a lot of people don’t like him, and a lot of people voted — if he had not said it, I think the result might have been different,” he continued. “I thought it was inappropriate.”
Trump thinks that Democratic presidential candidate Clinton, 68, is just as responsible. “She always misreads everything, if you think. She’s misread this,” Trump added. “The only reason she did it is because Obama wanted it. If Obama wanted it the other way, if he said ‘Leave,’ she would have said ‘Leave.’ She does whatever he wants her to do.…And obviously, for the 219th time, they were wrong. They’re always wrong. And that’s the problem with them.”
As previously reported, 52 percent of 33 million voters decided to leave the EU early Friday. It has sparked much outrage on social media, with many stars and politicians angrily commenting about the decision. Clinton released a statement following the news.
“We respect the choice the people of the United Kingdom have made. Our first task has to be to make sure that the economic uncertainty created by these events does not hurt working families here in America. We also have to make clear America’s steadfast commitment to the special relationship with Britain and the transatlantic alliance with Europe,” she said of the vote. “This time of uncertainty only underscores the need for calm, steady, experienced leadership in the White House to protect Americans’ pocketbooks and livelihoods, to support our friends and allies, to stand up to our adversaries, and to defend our interests. It also underscores the need for us to pull together to solve our challenges as a country, not tear each other down.”
Obama said that he will “respect the decision” too. “The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is enduring, and the United Kingdom’s membership in NATO remains a vital cornerstone of U.S. foreign, security, and economic policy,” he said in a statement, via Time magazine. “The United Kingdom and the European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship to ensure continued stability, security and prosperity for Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the world.”