President Donald Trump said his predecessor Barack Obama's speech castigating him and the Republican Party made him fall asleep on Friday.
Speaking in Fargo, North Dakota, Trump said he was asked beforehand for his response to the address Obama gave in Illinois, where the former president slammed Trump's policies as a backlash to progress.
"I'm sorry. I watched it, but I fell asleep. I've found he's very good, very good for sleeping," Trump said.
Trump said Obama also tried to take credit for "this incredible thing," referring to the strong economy. Obama pointed out in his speech that the economy began making its ascent under his administration.
Obama, making his most forceful public remarks since leaving office against Trump, called out the president by name for the first time since 2016.
"You happen to be coming of age during one of those moments," Obama said. "It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear, an anger that's rooted in our past but also borne out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes."
He also called out Republicans and encouraged voters to turn out for Democrats in the 2018 midterms, scathingly pointing out only one in five young voters turned out in 2014. Republicans rolled that year, expanding their House majority and capturing the U.S. Senate.