--- title: Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." canonical: https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T19:12:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:52:43.736Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' og:description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." og:url: https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' twitter:description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 26, 2016 7:12 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California.Spencer Platt—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 26, 2016 7:12 PM UTC Donald Trump is glad that world leaders are “rattled” by his candidacy. Fresh off securing the requisite number of delegates required to win the Republican nomination, the real estate mogul responded to [comments by President Obama](http://time.com/4349025/obama-world-leaders-rightfully-rattled-by-trump/) that he has heard from foreign leaders that the bombastic White House aspirant has them on edge. “They’re rattled by him and for good reason,” Obama said at a press conference at the G-7 summit in Japan. “Because a lot of the proposals that he’s made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what is required to keep America safe.” “That’s good. Is that right, is that good,” Trump told reporters at a press conference. “When you rattle someone that’s good.” ““If they are rattled in a friendly way that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” he added. Trump has turned heads among world leaders for [advocating a policy of “America First”](http://time.com/4273812/america-first-donald-trump-history/) and for reducing the role of the U.S. in the world. Trump has advocated dramatically reducing the role of the U.S. in NATO and ending other mutual defense relationships unless other countries make larger payments for their security. This week Trump repeated that Japan may need to seek out nuclear weapons of its own if it doesn’t pay the U.S. more for its safety. “I don’t want Japan to arm, but it’s possible if they don’t pay up they’re going to have to arm,” he said Tuesday in New Mexico. “Let them defend themselves,” he said of Japan and South Korea last month. “It’s time.” Trump went on to criticize Obama for speaking out against him while overseas, seeming to invoke the principle that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” “He is a man who shouldn’t really be airing his difficulties and airing what he’s airing where he is right now,” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled'","datePublished":"2016-05-26T19:12:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:52:43.736Z","description":"\"When you rattle someone that’s good.\"","url":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Barack Obama","Foreign Policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California.","creditText":"Spencer Platt—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":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","name":"Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled'"}}]}] ```