Was Obama calling Trump a demagogue?

But if so, Trump wasn’t the only demagogue he had in mind, White House spokesman Josh Earnest clarified on Thursday.

“[I]t seemed clear to me that each of the categories that the president was describing, that the president didn’t have one person in mind,” Earnest said. “The president didn’t have one jihadi in mind; the president didn’t have fascist in mind; the president didn’t have one domestic demagogue in mind.”

Toward the end of his speech, Obama said: “Anyone who threatens our values, whether fascist, communist, Jihadist or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”

Earnest wouldn’t directly admit that Obama was lumping Trump into the last category.

“I would concede that most of the president’s speech was not geared toward subtlety,” Earnest said. “I think the president was quite direct in the argument that he was making.”

Obama was discussing the country’s core values and how some, even some Americans, seek to undermine those values, Earnest said.

“The president was talking about over the course of our country’s history, by adhering to our core American values, we’ve overcome threats emanating from individuals and organizations that could aptly be described using that criteria,” Earnest said. “I think the American people understood quite directly that the argument … he was making did not have, particularly in that line, did not have one single person in mind. But rather was talking about the kinds of values that generations of Americans have subscribed to.”

However, Earnest did concede that some Republicans make statements that fit the bill.

There “certainly is some rhetoric that we have heard on the other side of the aisle that contradicts those values; there is no denying that,” Earnest said.

“Again, that is something that other people will have to decide in terms of whether or not that influences their decision in November.”