WASHINGTON — President Obama has suggested that some critics have attacked him because he’s the first black president, and he accused Donald Trump of “exploiting” blue-collar fears.

Speaking to NPR in an interview released Monday, Obama said he has faced criticism because he’s “different.”

“If you are referring to specific strains in the Republican Party that suggest that somehow I’m different, I’m Muslim, I’m disloyal to the country, et cetera — which, unfortunately, is pretty far out there and gets some traction in certain pockets of the Republican Party, and that have been articulated by some of their elected officials — what I’d say there is that that’s probably pretty specific to me, and who I am and my background,” he said.

One “legitimate” criticism, he said, was of his failure to communicate his efforts to combat terror.

“We haven’t on a regular basis, I think, described all the work that we’ve been doing for more than a year now to defeat ISIL,” he said.

Obama said economic stresses and changing demographics are behind Trump’s rise.

“You combine those things, and it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration, fear — some of it justified but just misdirected,” he said. “I think somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that.”

Trump caused more controversy during a speech in Michigan on Monday night when he said that Hillary Clinton got “schlonged” by Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary there.

“She was favored to win, and she got schlonged,” Trump said, according to the Washington Post, using a slang term for penis.