Read it again with the accent on the "he."
What "he" thinks is best for the US could be anything up to and including complete disaster.
I tend to think he used the phrase as a double entendre.
He knows Obama is certain he’s trying to do everything he can to damage the US. By complementing him on the opposite, he knows it will gnaw at the center of Obama’s ethos.
It drives home the incompetence of this Administration in the veil of a complement.
That’s an interesting take. Thanks. That would put it in a different light to be sure, but then the emphasis is lost in the text. That may be exactly what he was thinking though.