Bill Clinton: Donald Trump is ‘brilliant’ at ‘rubbing salt’ in people’s wounds

Former President Bill Clinton said Donald Trump is “brilliant” at “rubbing salt” in people’s wounds and that Mr. Trump makes them dislike others.

“When you go a long time without a pay raise, when you think your future is bleak, when you worry that you can’t provide for your children, and at the same time your borders seem more like nets than walls in a negative way, you have these terrorist incidents occurring, you have the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II and massive cultural change, you have a period of disorientation where people are often just reacting serially,” Mr. Clinton said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.”

“He’s brilliant at rubbing salt in their wounds,” Mr. Clinton said when asked why people are attracted to Mr. Trump, the GOP presidential nominee. “He makes them dislike other people and says I’ll fix it all and make it the way it used to be.”

“A lot of this is cultural,” Mr. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Trump’s appeal among working-class voters.

“She’s the first woman candidate for major office,” Mr. Clinton said, referring to his wife Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. “She’s trying to get the third term … a party winning a third term in a row is difficult.”

“And I will say again, the level of disillusionment with the economic, political, and social [orders] all over the world is very high,” he said.

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Asked why the presidential race is so close, Mr. Clinton said: “Partly because of the time we live in.”

“Partly because it’s hard for any party to get a third term,” he said. “Partly because of the designed clamor of every day, which doesn’t allow people to really — I hope the debates will cure this — to make a judgment.”

Mr. Clinton said Mrs. Clinton is advocating “positive change,” while Mr. Trump is advocating “a return to trickle-down economics on steroids, which got us in trouble in the first place.”