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Barack Obama does another round of mean tweets on Jimmy Kimmel Live and trolls Donald Trump

‘At least I will go down as a president’ 

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Tuesday 25 October 2016 08:47 BST
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Barack Obama may be coming to the end of his second term as president, but that has not stopped him squeezing in one last appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night TV show to do another round of the comedian’s ‘Mean Tweets’ feature – and get in a few digs at Donald Trump at the same time.

The president of the United States read out a series of mean tweets about himself on Jimmy Kimmel Live, culminating in one from Mr Trump, who is known for his use of the social media platform to carry out public spats or settle scores.

The last tweet read out by Mr Obama stated: “President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States!”

“Well, @realDonaldTrump, at least I will go down as a president,” he replied.

Many of the jokes during president Obama’s appearance on the show were made at the Republican candidate’s expense, referencing his claims that the 8 November election is rigged and his use of Twitter.

Mr Kimmel joked that Mr Obama had taken “time away from helping rig the election” in order to appear on the show, while the President responded with an anecdote about Bill Murray appearing at the White House for an event to promote Obamacare.

Mr Murray beat the president in a contest putting golf balls into a glass in the Oval office and managed to win $5 from him. “He won repeatedly,” he said. “The glass was rigged.”

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Mr Obama revealed it is rare for him to be woken by aides in the middle of the night but that there had been three or four occasions during his presidency when he had been called to deal with emergencies, one of which was the 2011 Japan Tsunami.

But in another reference to Mr Trump’s behaviour, the president said there has been no occasion in which he has felt compelled to reach for his phone in the middle of the night to tweet out his opinion: “I don’t tweet at 3:00 am about people who insult me,” he said.

When asked if he laughed while watching Mr Trump on TV, the president responded with “most of the time”.

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But not all of Mr Obama’s appearance was taken up with references to the Republican nominee, with himself and the host discussing baseball team Chicago Cubs making it to the World Series and the president’s family.

Mr Kimmel said he knew that Mr Obama had to leave, but asked if his wife Michelle would be able to stay for another four years. The president said his wife was never wild about politics: “All the women in my life are looking forward to being able to lead a more normal life.”

Additional reporting by agencies

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