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Trump: 'No Way' Would Obama Have Beaten Me

Trump: 'No Way' Would Obama Have Beaten Me
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a USA Thank You Tour event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, U.S., December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a USA Thank You Tour event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, U.S., December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Donald Trump speaks earlier this month with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Donald Trump speaks earlier this month with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

President Barack Obama may be convinced he could have bested Donald Trump in a race to the White House, but the president-elect says “no way!”

Trump took to Twitter Monday to shoot down Obama’s claim that he could have beaten the Republican candidate in a head-to-head race had the president not been prohibited by law from running for a third term.

Obama told his former senior advisor, David Axelrod, on his podcast, “The Axe Files,” that he believes his vision of a “tolerant and diverse and open” America could have garnered enough votes for yet another victory.

“I’m confident that if ... I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said.

Trump thinks not and claims the president had too much negative baggage for another win. “I say NO WAY,” Trump tweeted, adding: “jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.”

Besides, Trump tweeted: “The world was gloomy before I won — there was no hope.”

There was no immediate response from the White House.

Trump also took the opportunity while writing his tweets to praise his Donald J. Trump charity, which he announced Saturday he is shutting down to “avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as president,” and vowing to “continue to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways.”

Trump boasted on Twitter that he has given “millions” to the foundation (and “raised or recieved” — in yet another Twitter typo — “millions more”) yet the “media won’t report!”

In fact the Washington Post has reported that according to charity records Trump hasn’t contributed anything to his charity since 2008. The biggest donors in recent years were pro-wrestling moguls Vince and Linda McMahon, who Trump recently nominated to head the Small Business Administration.

The president-elect has also spent $258,000 from the charity to settle lawsuits against his businesses, contrary to regulations governing such foundations, according to the Post. He’s also used charity funds for other “self dealing” prohibited by charity regulations, such as using some $30,000 to purchase two large paintings of himself, one of which hangs on a wall at a Trump golf resort.

The charity is currently being investigated by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has warned the foundation that it cannot be dissolved while it is the target of a probe. Schneiderman’s office ordered the organization in a letter to stop fundraising as of September since it had not obtained the proper certification to solicit money from the public.

The probe was launched after the foundation gave a $25,000 donation to a campaign fundraising group for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was considering joining a fraud lawsuit against Trump University at the time. Trump paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS because of regulations that prohibit charities from giving political donations, and Trump reimbursed the $25,000 to his foundation.

Schneiderman’s spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick, told ABC that the ongoing probe examining procedures at the charity will prevent Trump from shuttering the organization immediately.

“The Trump Foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete,” Spitalnick said in a statement. The foundation’s fundraising activities also “remain suspended following the AG’s notice of violation earlier this year.”

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.