In a September 2013 Fox & Friends
phone interview, Trump blasted Obama for failing to "get everybody in a room."
"If you say who gets fired, it always has to be the top. Problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top, and the president’s the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room, and he’s got to lead. And he doesn’t do that, he doesn’t like doing that, that’s not his strength."
Trump also said that further down in history "when they talk about the government shutdown, they’re going to be talking about the president of the United States, who the president was at that time. They’re not going to be talking about who was the head of the House, the head the Senate, who’s running things in Washington. So I really think the pressure is on the president."
In an Oct. 7, 2013,
interview with then-Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Trump criticized Obama for not being a dealmaker during the shutdown.
"You have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. He has to get (the Speaker of the House) and everybody else in a room, and they have to make a deal. You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal.
"And, unfortunately, he has never been a dealmaker. That wasn't his expertise before he went into politics and it's obviously not his expertise now. But you have to get the people in a room and you have to get a deal."
A few days later, Trump appeared
on CNN for an interview with Piers Morgan, repeating that the shutdown meant Obama "is not leading and not getting people into a room."
Trump also
took to Twitter before, during and after the shutdown to voice his opinion, agreeing with users that it would never happen if he were president and that Obama had "failed to lead."