NEW YORK (AP) – It doesn’t matter what President Barack Obama says these days, his listeners are bound to hear two words: Donald Trump.
With his proclivity for dominating the conversation, the Republican presidential nominee is forcing Obama’s final few months to be viewed almost entirely through the prism of campaign politics. As Obama carries out his presidential duties, voters can’t help but wonder what the role would look like if it were inhabited by the gaudy billionaire.
At the United Nations this week, Trump trailed the president both metaphorically and physically, as world leaders took stock of what a dramatic shift a Trump presidency would mean for American leadership.
The fusion of the campaign with real-world governing was on vivid display Monday when White House and State Department officials mingled in the same Manhattan hotel lobby where Trump’s advisers were gathered as their candidate met upstairs with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Obama was staying in the hotel, while Trump was using the meeting to try to show his readiness to go head-to-head with a foreign leader. Democrat Hillary Clinton met with the Egyptian at the same hotel earlier in the day.