Obama: Presidential run against Trump would be 'fun'

US President Barack Obama said running against Donald Trump would have been "fun," in light-hearted remarks published Tuesday that appeared to ridicule the Republican frontrunner's White House campaign.

Obama made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with the men's lifestyle magazine GQ in which the president addresses everything from his passion for basketball to the number of cigarettes he has smoked since arriving at the White House ("zero in the last five years").

Asked if he would "even bother" battle against billionaire real-estate tycoon Trump, 69, in a presidential race, Obama said: "I would've enjoyed campaigning against Trump. That would've been fun."

GQ asked Obama which character Trump would be in the award-winning fantasy television series "Game of Thrones."

"Uh... I don't think... I don't think any of them rise to that level," Obama said.

Trump's bombastic run for the White House has seen him lob verbal missiles at his Republican rivals, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and Obama, to name just a few.

"I think we have a president who just doesn't know what he's doing," Trump said earlier this month of Obama's policy on war-torn Syria.