"Mr. Trump embodies global elites and has taken full advantage of it his entire life," Obama told NPR in an interview published Tuesday.

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"So, he's hardly a spokesperson — a legitimate spokesperson — for a populist surge from working class people on either side of the Atlantic."

Trump has cheered Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last week, saying that “they took back control of their country. It's a great thing.”

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee claimed the Brexit vote as a win over Obama, since the president had urged the United Kingdom to vote to remain in the EU.

The Brexit vote was fueled by populist concerns about Britain’s ability to control its own immigration policy, a debate some claim has parallels to Trump’s rise in the presidential race.

Obama on Tuesday cautioned against worldwide “hysteria” in response to Brexit.

"There's been a little bit of hysteria post-Brexit vote, as if somehow NATO's gone, the transatlantic alliance is dissolving, and every country is rushing off to its own corner,” he said. “That's not what's happening.”