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A top adviser to Hillary Clinton said Friday that Donald Trump's post-Brexit press conference from his Scottish golf course was "pathological" and offered proof he's a "reckless and erratic egomaniac."
"Donald Trump actively rooted for this outcome, and he's rooting for the economic turmoil in its wake," said Jake Sullivan, senior policy adviser with the Clinton campaign, during a conference call with reporters. "He said that the falling British pound is good for his golf business. He actually said that. He actually put his golf business ahead of the interests of working families in the United States."
The presumptive GOP nominee weighed in on the UK's decision to leave the EU, commonly known as "Brexit," which passed in a contentious vote earlier in the day. Trump made that comment about his course as he celebrated the vote, noting what he perceived as parallels to his own presidential campaign.
"When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly," he said during the press conference at the course. "For traveling and for other things, I think it very well could turn out to be a positive."
The results have led, however, to immediate market downturns worldwide and the devaluing of the British currency. British Prime Minister David Cameron also announced his intention to resign later this year after the vote result was announced.
The Manhattan billionaire said Britons have "taken their country back."
"People are angry, all over the world," he said. "People, they're angry."
He also tweeted earlier Friday that Scotland - which overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU - "is going wild over the vote."
"Just arrived in Scotland," he wrote. "Place is going wild over the vote. They took their country back, just like we will take America back. No games!"
On that last point, Sullivan said it was added proof that Trump is "just not concerned with the facts."
"Every time there is a significant national or global event, Donald Trump proves again that he is temperamentally unfit for the job," Sullivan said. "At this point, there is an emerging Donald Trump playbook in reaction to crisis. First, rather than respond with strength and leadership, he engages in, what can only be termed as, pathological self-congratulation."
"Second, rather than consult with people who might know something about what's happening, especially given the stakes for American families, he consults only with himself," Sullivan added. "In this case, asked if he had spoken to his foreign policy advisors after the vote, he said, no, because quote "'There's nothing to talk about.'"
The Clinton aide continued that comparing running a golf course to running a country is another statement that "shows he doesn't have a clue" about what it means to be president.
"The American people need a steady hand at the wheel in a time of uncertainty and not a reckless and erratic egomaniac who could easily drive us off a cliff," he said.
Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri added that, amid talk of a "campaign reset" for Trump this week, "you can change the campaign manager but not the candidate."
"We saw what happens when he's taken off the Paul Manafort teleprompter," she said, pointing at Trump's new campaign manager and former top adviser. "Donald Trump reveals his true self and that true self is someone whose temperament makes him a threat to our nation's security and the economic well-being of American families."
Asked later in the conference call as to whether the Brexit vote caused them to concern there is a similar populist sentiment in the US, Sullivan insisted that the US and UK are different countries, although he made a point to note that Clinton is "far from underestimating what is happening out there."
"There are a variety of factors that went into this vote in the UK and obviously a sense of deep frustration and alienation on behalf of the voters was part of that but there are other factors as well, and Hillary Clinton is focused on not what's happening in the United Kingdom, but rather, what is happening in the United States," he said. "What are the uniquely American challenges we are facing and what are the uniquely American solutions that we can bring to address those problems and help working families get ahead."