"I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they are selecting for their party is novel," Obama said during a press conference at the White House, standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He pointed to conservative social media, talk radio and other news outlets that have hammered into the base the notion that everything he does is wrong, and compromise is a betrayal.

"I don't think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example," the president added. "I don't remember saying, 'Hey, why don't you ask me about that?' or 'Why don't you question whether I'm American, or whether I'm loyal or whether I have America's best interests at heart?' ... So what you're seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all of those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive."