President Barack Obama said Donald Trump has managed to appeal to “a certain group of folks who feel left out or are worried about the rapidity of demographic change, social change.” | AP Photo Obama: Trump's rhetoric not anything new

The America-first, nationalistic tones upon which Donald Trump has built his campaign are nothing new, President Barack Obama said in an interview that aired Sunday morning, adding that despite his bombast, the GOP presidential nominee’s divisive campaign will not leave a lasting imprint on the country.

“There's a long tradition in the United States of inclusion, immigration, diversity. But also people, once they're included in what they consider to be the real America, worried about outsiders, contaminating, polluting, messing up a good thing,” Obama said in an interview taped last week for CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” He cited examples from America's past, such as discrimination against Irish or Chinese immigrants.


“The long-term trend is people get absorbed, people get assimilated and we benefit from this incredible country in which the measure of your patriotism and how American you are is not the color of your skin, your last name, your faith, but rather your adherence to a creed, your belief in certain principles and values.”

“I don't think that's going to change because Mr. Trump's got a little more attention than usual,” the president added.

Obama said Trump has managed to appeal to “a certain group of folks who feel left out or are worried about the rapidity of demographic change, social change.” The president said some are drawn to Trump over “very legitimate concerns around the economy and feeling left behind,” but, he added, that “that’s not the majority of America.

Younger Americans, Obama said, “completely reject” the positions that Trump has laid out on the campaign trail.

“We have to take it seriously,” Obama said of Trump’s policies.

“I think that anytime that we hear intolerance, anytime that we hear policy measures that are contrary to our values, banning certain classes of people, because of who they are or what they look at, what faith they practice, then we have to be pretty hard about saying no to that. And I think that America will do that this time as well.”