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 Fighting with Obama is a battle Trump would likely relish as he
tries to rally support within his own party. During hard-fought
Republican primary campaigns, the billionaire delighted in
responding to attacks from rivals and found that his support grew
when he lashed out at his opponents.
Asked about Trump at a media briefing in the White House, Obama
called on the press and public to weigh past statements by the
Republican but did not point to any specific issues or remarks.
"This is not entertainment," Obama said, a reference to Trump's
television background. "This is not a reality show. This is a
contest for the presidency of the United States," he said.
Some top Republican leaders - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan among
them - are still expressing wariness about Trump, who became the
party's presumptive nominee this week when two Republican rivals
dropped out of the White House race.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who ran unsuccessfully for the
Republican nomination, posted on Facebook that he will not vote for
Trump - one of the sharpest slights yet against the New York real
estate mogul by a senior Republican.
 "Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of
character. He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And,
he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I
cannot support his candidacy," Bush wrote, adding that he would not
vote for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton either.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, who made an
unsuccessful bid for president, joined a growing list of Republicans
who are refusing to support Trump and he announced on Friday he will
also skip the Republican convention in July. Mitt Romney, who won
the Republican nomination in 2012, is also refusing to support
Trump.
But Trump on Friday won the endorsement of another former Republican
presidential nominee, Bob Dole, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1996.
For Trump, finding unifying enemies like Obama and Hillary Clinton
could help rally Republicans back to his side ahead of the Nov. 8
general election.
Obama is likely to be the feature of much of Trump's criticism in
the general election. Republicans have sought to paint Clinton as an
extension of the Obama administration who would continue all of his
policies.
Since effectively securing the nomination on Tuesday, Trump has
begun testing themes to attack Clinton, Obama's former secretary of
state.
On Friday, Trump took aim at Clinton for her use of a private email
server while in office. Clinton has said she did not send or receive
information marked as classified. The FBI is investigating whether
laws were broken.
"The email scandal should take her down but I don't think it's going
to because I think she's being protected by the Democrats," Trump
said on "Fox & Friends," a television news program that attracts a
large conservative viewership.
CLINTON "BAD ON JOBS"
Trump tried to cast Clinton as weak on the economy, which is sure to
be one of the main policy issues as the election approaches.
"If you look at what she's going to do, she's going to be so bad on
jobs that wages are going to go down for workers," he said.
Early general election polls show Clinton with a lead both
nationally and in key states.
Clinton has a higher probability than Trump of becoming the next
president, but the gap between them narrowed this week, according to
the online political stock market PredictIt.
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A key factor for Trump in the general election will be whether he
can rally the party behind him.
Trump has seen some top Republicans who previously fought his
candidacy now back him, including Texas Governor Rick Perry. Former
Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Liz Cheney is running for
Congress in Wyoming, said he will support Trump, a source close to
him said on Friday.
Paul Manafort, a top Trump adviser, told MSNBC that Republicans will
rally behind the businessman because he has strengthened the party
by attracting new supporters.
"We want to unify the party, but the important thing to remember is
Donald Trump just won a historic victory among 17 other candidates,"
Manafort said. "He is a very strong nominee. His vision that he laid
out is not something in question."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has already
begun his efforts to rally the party behind Trump, saying at an
event hosted by Politico that behind the scenes the candidate is
"more gracious and personable than I think you see at rallies."
"I think there's work on tone to do," Priebus said, adding that he
has made that point to Trump. "I think he gets it. I think you're
going to see it. I think you're going to see the change in tone."
In addition to changing tone, Trump also faces an uphill climb to
bring the party together. Ryan, the top elected Republican in the
United States, said on Thursday he was not ready to support Trump, a
sign of lingering establishment concern about the candidate's
position on immigration and trade.
Trump took issue with Ryan.
"Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the
Republican Party," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Wrong, I didn't inherit
it, I won it with millions of voters."
Ryan has invited Trump to meet with House of Representatives
Republican leaders next week, Ryan's office said on Friday.
Trump's attorney was quoted in media reports on Friday as saying the
candidate will testify after the November election in a class-action
lawsuit that accuses him and his now-defunct Trump University of
defrauding people who paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars.
A federal judge ordered the trial in San Diego to start on Nov. 28,
which means he will not have to testify while he campaigns. The
university case was one of the subjects Trump's rivals used to
attack him during presidential debates.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu in
Washington and Emily Flitter in New York; Writing by Ginger Gibson;
Editing by Bill Trott, Alistair Bell and Ed Davies)
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