US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is sickening, French leader François Hollande said Tuesday, as he added his voice to a barrage of scathing criticism of the White House hopeful.
“His excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States, especially when — as in the case with Donald Trump — he speaks ill of a soldier, of the memory of a soldier,” Hollande told journalists in Paris.
The French leader was referring to a bitter row between Trump and the Muslim parents of a US soldier slain in the line of duty, which has shaken the presidential campaign to its core just three months before the November vote.
Hollande criticised Trump’s “hurtful and humiliating comments.”
Speaking about politicians in general, he added “they should be respected when they are respectable.”
US election a ‘world election’
The Socialist leader said, “If the Americans choose Trump, that will have consequences, because an American election is a world election.”
“It could lead to a very strong turn to the right in the world, or to a correction… the American campaign shows issues that will be reflected in the French campaign,” said Hollande, who will face strong competition from far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen if he chooses to run in the French presidential vote in 2017.
The French president added, “Democracy is also at stake, as we see more and more people tempted by authoritarianism.”
The Republican campaign to retake the White House is reeling from a series of self-inflicted scandals as Trump has in recent days criticised Muslims, babies, firefighters and the military, prompting his wincing Republican backers to issue awkward denunciations.
US President Barack Obama also joined the fray, declaring Trump “unfit” to hold the country’s top office in his strongest rebuke yet of the 70-year-old mogul.
Trump ‘woefully unprepared’
Obama described Trump as “woefully unprepared” and “unfit to serve as president”.
“He keeps proving it,” Obama added, as he called on Republican leaders to disown him.
Trump swept the Republican primary, but is currently trailing Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton in opinion polls by around four percentage points.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
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