Donald Trump speaks in Billings, Mont., on May 26, 2016. | AP Photo Trump: Pick Clinton and 'this country is gonna die' 'I have a tough temperament, but we need a tough temperament,' the GOP candidate said Friday.

Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of attacks on Hillary Clinton on Friday, hitting her on everything from her political talent to her ties to President Barack Obama, tying it all back to a central message: His likely opponent would make a terrible president.

“If you choose Hillary Clinton, this country is gonna die. It’s gonna die,” Trump said during a rally in Redding, California. “She’s not respected by other countries.”


After the Democratic front-runner’s blistering rebuke of Trump’s foreign policy on Thursday in which she warned that his election would be “a historic mistake” and declared him “temperamentally unfit” for the White House, Trump fired back.

“Frankly, I honestly believe — and I really mean this — I think that Hillary Clinton is unfit to lead our country, certainly at this time,” Trump said. “I think she’s unfit. She doesn’t have what it takes.”

The real estate mogul dismissed Clinton’s criticism of his temperament, arguing that his is strong as he derided the former secretary of state.

“’I don’t like his temperament; I don’t like his tone,’” Trump said, mocking his likely general election opponent. “Let me tell you, there’s nobody with a better temperament than me. I have a temperament for winning. I’ve won all my life, and we’re gonna start winning for you, OK?”

Trump called temperament “very important” before again boasting about his disposition.

“I really believe I have the greatest temperament there is and the temperament that this country needs at this time. Now, I could just slough it off and say, ‘Oh, I have a wonderful temperament; I’m really a wonderful person,’” Trump said. “Look, let me tell you, I have a tough temperament, but we need a tough temperament. Now my temperament is totally controlled, so beautiful.”

The often extemporaneous speaker blasted Clinton for her reliance on teleprompters, arguing that she was reading a script in front of a “phony crowd” that was told when to clap during her foreign policy speech in San Diego on Thursday. “Every word that she said was polled,” Trump said of her remarks. “I don’t poll. I don’t have teleprompters here, folks. I don’t need teleprompters.”

Clinton often embraces Obama on the trail, and her campaign this week even suggested that the president would soon endorse Clinton over Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to fight on through the Democratic National Convention in July.

Trump hit her for that, too: “I call her Obama-lite,” Trump said, accusing her of hating the president but playing nice to avoid jail time for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. “I think it’s gonna be at least as bad and maybe worse” than Obama’s run in the White House, he said of a potential Clinton presidency.

Trump said Clinton lacks natural talent and isn’t meant to be president. “She’s greedy — she’s greedy as hell — and that’s, I think, the reason she wants it,” Trump said. “But she doesn’t have the talent for the job. She’s not a natural for the job.”

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, both hate Obama, Trump said, claiming to know that the latter hates Obama as a “personal fact.”

“Hillary Clinton can’t stand Obama, but now Hillary will do anything he says. You know why?” Trump asked. “She doesn’t wanna go to jail.”

The real estate mogul summed up Clinton as a “weak,” “totally scripted” “thief” who should be in jail.

“I mean, the only problem is I’d like to run against her, if you wanna know the truth,” Trump added. “But she should be. What she’s done is terrible.”

Trump also played a bit of defense, in his own way. Facing criticism for racially charged statements, he proclaimed that he has “tremendous African-American support” — even singling out one African-American supporter during his event.

“Look at my African-American over here,” Trump shouted. “Look at him. Are you the greatest? Do you know what I’m talking about? OK.”