Barack Obama has said Donald Trump may have “enough craziness to think he can do the job” and that he is “not lacking in confidence”, but stopped short of saying he "likes" the President-elect.
The outgoing President spoke to ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos about his successor ahead of the inauguration next week.
He said he and the former reality star were “sort of opposites in some ways” – describing himself as a “policy wonk” where Mr Trump “has not spent a lot of time sweating the details”.
Mr Obama said Mr Trump was engaging and gregarious when he visited the White House shortly after his election last year but did not endorse his presidency.
Discussing his legacy, Mr Obama said he believed his Affordable Care Act – known as Obamacare – would survive even if it was called “something else”.
He said: “It may be called something else. And as I said, I don't mind. If in fact the Republicans make some modifications, some of which I may have been seeking previously, but they wouldn't cooperate because they didn't want to make the system work, and relabel it as Trumpcare, I'm fine with that.”
His comments come as House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed the act, which stops insurers denying healthcare coverage to people with preexisting conditions, would be repealed and replaced “this year”.
But Mr Obama is "sceptical" about how far they will go as the “gains that we’ve made are there”.
“Twenty million people have health insurance that didn’t have it before. The uninsured rate is the lowest it’s ever been,” he explained.
He said: “I'm sceptical that they can do it, mainly because for seven years now, including when we first tried to pass health care, I said to them, 'Okay, if this doesn't work, tell me what does’.
“If you think you got a better idea in terms of how to approach this that's not going to result in more pollution, and more asthma, and more illness, then put your ideas out there. But don't just depose things because, ‘This was Obama's agenda.’”
The act, which was signed into law in 2010 during Mr Obama’s first term, has remained controversial throughout his presidency and calls to repeal it have formed the centrepoint of many Republicans’ campaigns for office.
The Republican-controlled Congress has mounted many attempts to defund the programme – including causing a government shutdown in 2013.
But although the act itself may not survive Mr Trump’s presidency, Mr Obama’s health care legacy is likely to survive.
Public opinion has shifted and most now broadly support the principle that all people should be able to get healthcare regardless of any existing medical problems or whether they can afford the premiums.
The argument has now shifted to how much assistance to give and for what kind of coverage as Obama has failed to deliver on earlier promises to cut premiums by thousands of dollars.
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