Trump calls Obama 'grossly incompetent', hits back over COVID-19 criticism

US President Donald Trump on Sunday called his predecessor Barack Obama "grossly incompetent," in response to criticism from the former president of the current leadership's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

This came as Trump arrived back at the White House after a working weekend at Camp David.

Earlier on Sunday, Obama criticized US leaders overseeing the COVID-19 response for a second time, telling college graduates online that the pandemic shows many officials, as he put it, “aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

He mentioned no names but appears to be gearing up to campaign for his former vice president, Joe Biden, a Democrat running against President Donald Trump in the November election.

The US ranks first in the world in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus, having officially recorded over 1.4 million cases of the new virus and 88,709 deaths.

The coronavirus causes only mild symptoms in many, but it can cause serious illness or death for some, particularly older adults and those with certain health conditions.