--- title: Barack Obama Criticizes Donald Trump Ahead of GOP Debate description: President Obama criticized the Republican presidential candidates ahead of a Wednesday night debate. canonical: https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-16T16:24:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:47.717Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Criticizes Trump Ahead of GOP Debate og:description: "America is great right now." og:url: https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99b8d4a539c2e90e/698863db2dce01c6c29e588a/barack-obama-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting at North High School on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Criticizes Trump Ahead of GOP Debate twitter:description: "America is great right now." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99b8d4a539c2e90e/698863db2dce01c6c29e588a/barack-obama-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Criticizes Trump, Other Candidates Ahead of GOP Debate ## Video: Behind the Scenes With Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Behind the Scenes With Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8z07UrJ6.m3u8) (0:59)  _Published 2015-08-19. Trump Behind the Scenes_ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 16, 2015 4:24 PM UTC  President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting at North High School on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting at North High School on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.Steve Pope—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 16, 2015 4:24 PM UTC President Obama criticized the Republican presidential candidates ahead of a Wednesday night debate, arguing that they are “talking down America” with gloomy takes on the economy and other issues. In a speech before the Business Roundtable, Obama noted that energy prices and health care costs have gone down since he took office, while the stock market and consumer confidence have gone up. “Now, you wouldn’t know any of this if you were listening to the folks how were seeking this office that I occupy,” he said. “In the echo chamber that is presidential politics, everything is dark and everything is terrible. They don’t seem to offer many solutions for the problems that they perceive, but they’re quick to tell you who to blame.” Obama did not name any of the presidential candidates, but his remarks did seem pointed at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who has adopted “Make America great again” as his campaign slogan. “Despite the perennial doom and gloom that I guess is inevitably a part of a presidential campaign, America is winning right now,” he said, tapping a podium for emphasis. “America is great right now.” Still, Obama was not entirely down on the Republican candidates. He also noted that two leading Republican candidates have proposed eliminating the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers and others to pay a lower income tax rate than that imposed on ordinary income. (Obama didn’t name them, but the candidates are [Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush](http://time.com/money/4036087/tax-loophole-carried-interest/).) Obama’s criticism of Trump came one day after Vice President Joe Biden called the real estate mogul’s immigration stance [“a sick message”](http://time.com/4036051/morning-must-reads-september-16-2/) that “absolutely denigrated an entire group of people.” **Read Next:** [_Watch President Obama Troll Donald Trump in 2011_](http://time.com/3991301/donald-trump-barack-obama/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/"},"headline":"Obama Criticizes Trump, Other Candidates Ahead of GOP Debate","datePublished":"2015-09-16T16:24:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:47.717Z","description":"'America is great right now'","url":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/","keywords":["2016 Election topic","Barack Obama","White House","jeb bush","Donald Trump","Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99b8d4a539c2e90e/698863db2dce01c6c29e588a/barack-obama-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99b8d4a539c2e90e/698863db2dce01c6c29e588a/barack-obama-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting at North High School on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.","caption":"President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting at North High School on September 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.","creditText":"Steve Pope—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/","name":"Obama Criticizes Trump, Other Candidates Ahead of GOP Debate"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Behind the Scenes With Donald Trump","description":"Trump Behind the Scenes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8z07UrJ6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-08-19T22:24:50.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8z07UrJ6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4036535/barack-obama-donald-trump-debate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```