Update | Obama blasts Trump in strongest attack ever; urges Republicans to abandon billionaire as ‘unfit’

President Barack Obama, delivering his strongest condemnation of Donald Trump yet, said the Republican presidential nominee is unprepared and unfit to hold the nation’s highest office and urged Republican leaders to disavow his candidacy.

Trump “doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues” in Europe, the Middle East or Asia, and he’s shown himself to be “woefully unprepared to do this job,” Obama said in response to a question at a White House news conference with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Obama questioned how top Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and veteran lawmakers like Senator John McCain, can regularly denounce Trump’s statements while still supporting his bid for the presidency.

“The question I think they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?” Obama said. “What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer? This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily. Weekly.”

Obama said he never had reason to question the qualifications or fitness for office of the Republicans who ran against him, McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.