--- title: Why President Obama Is Going After Donald Trump description: President Obama could hardly contain his frustration with Donald Trump's candidacy Thursday in a press conference. canonical: https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-05T15:52:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:45:33.758Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Obama Is Going After Trump og:description: A new role for the Clinton campaign. og:url: https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Obama Is Going After Trump twitter:description: A new role for the Clinton campaign. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why President Obama Is Going After Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=44e9c68a-294e-43da-b720-be3bb715a702&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Obama Slams Rigging Claim [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Slams Rigging Claim](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uLIW2mNR.m3u8) (4:17)  _Published 2016-08-04. President Obama rebuffed Donald Trump's suggestion that the general election in November would somehow be rigged, joking that he'd never heard of anyone complaining about cheating before the game was even over._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 5, 2016 3:52 PM UTC by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 5, 2016 3:52 PM UTC **_If you only read one thing:_** _President Obama could hardly contain his frustration with Donald Trump’s candidacy Thursday in his final press conference before his summer vacation. Obama mocked the GOP nominee’s assertion that the election could be rigged against him, comparing Trump to a schoolyard child losing at a game. Days after calling Trump unfit for the presidency, Obama said it was up to the American people to determine whether he should be trusted with the means to start nuclear war. It was the latest rebuke by the president to one of his potential successors, and highlights the role Obama is set to play this fall as chief Clinton validator. With stronger economic indicators and the best poll numbers since starting his second term, Obama is once again a popular figure on the campaign trail, and Clinton’s team is betting that his comments against Trump, and in favor of Clinton, will further solidify her lead in swing states and nationally._ As Trump’s campaign remains mired in a terrible news cycle, Clinton’s team isn’t taking its foot of the pedal. A new Clinton campaign ad features Republicans raising doubts about Trump’s fitness to lead. Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell endorsed Clinton in an op-ed, suggesting Trump is an “unwitting agent” of Russia. Trump, meanwhile, is struggling to find a way to change the narrative after a week of unmitigated bad press, stemming from his critique of the Khan family to his recycling of old attacks on Megyn Kelly and a reporter with a disability. On the campaign trail, Trump maintains that the GOP is united, but the reality is anything but that, as senior GOP leaders are sending messages to Trump and his team to turn things around fast—or else. While he won’t be booted off the ticket, what’s at stake are millions in general election ad dollars that can be diverted down-ballot in a last-ditch effort to save the Senate. But complicating matters for the GOP is that their candidates would be doomed anyway if they alienate Trump’s core supporters. Obama’s big birthday bash. Paul Ryan hints at a Trump loss. And why August won’t be quiet. Here are your must reads: [President Obama Says Donald Trump’s Claim That Election Will Be Rigged Is ‘Ridiculous’ ](http://time.com/4440000/barack-obama-donald-trump-rigged-election/)Mocks the GOP nominee \[TIME\] [Many Questions and Few Answers About How Melania Trump Immigrated to the U.S. ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-questions-and-few-answers-about-how-melania-trump-immigrated-to-the-us/2016/08/04/0c13cc1a-5a3f-11e6-831d-0324760ca856%5Fstory.html)She denies wrongdoing, but doesn’t explain discrepancies \[Washington Post\] [Will Politics Take Off the Month of August? ](http://time.com/4435410/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-august/)Don’t bet on it \[TIME\] [The World’s Olympians Have Little Love For Donald Trump ](http://time.com/4438246/the-worlds-olympians-have-little-love-for-donald-trump/)Insults and fears among the world’s athletes \[TIME\] **Sound Off** “If Mr. Trump is up 10-15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then he can raise some questions.” — Obama rejecting claims by Donald Trump that the election would be rigged against him “They have been told these are classified briefings. And if they want to be President, they got to start acting like President, and that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around.” – Obama on whether he has any reservations about the presidential nominees sharing classified intelligence from their national security briefings **Bits and Bites** [Beyoncé, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar slated for Obama’s birthday bash](http://pagesix.com/2016/08/04/beyonce-jay-z-ellen-to-party-with-obama-for-his-55th-birthday/) \[New York Post\] [Clinton pauses ads in Virginia in sign of confidence](http://www.politico.com/blogs/swing-states-2016-election/2016/08/clinton-virginia-ads-battleground-states-226681) \[Politico\] [Introducing the Donald Trump-Mike Pence divergence tracker](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/04/introducing-the-donald-trump-mike-pence-divergence-tracker/) \[Washington Post\] [President Obama Denies $400 Million Payment to Iran Was a Ransom](http://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/) \[TIME\] [Did Paul Ryan just predict that Clinton will win in a landslide?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/did-paul-ryan-just-predict-that-clinton-will-win-in-a-landslide/2016/08/04/7e50022e-5a91-11e6-9aee-8075993d73a2%5Fstory.html) \[Washington Post\] [Trump admits he didn’t see nonexistent Iran money video](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-admits-wrong-iran-money-video-226706?cmpid=sf) \[Politico\] ## Transcript The decline of Isal in Syria and Iraq appears to be causing it shift to tactics that we've seen before and even greater emphasis on encouraging high profile terrorist attacks including in the United States. Isal has not had a major successful operation in either Syria or Iraq in a full year. Even ISIS leaders know they're gonna keep losing. And their message to followers, they're increasingly acknowledging that they lose missile and rocket and ISIS was right. They will lose them. And we'll keep hitting them and pushing them back them and driving them out until they do. We do not pay ransom for hostages. We've got a number of Americans being held all around the world. And I meet with their families. And it is heart breaking. And we have set up an entire section of inter- agency experts who devote all their time to working with these families. To get these Americans out. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] But those families know that we have a policy that we don't pay ransom. Precisely because if we did, we would start encouraging Americans to be targeted. Much in the same way that some countries that do pay ransom end up having a lot more of their citizens Being taken by various groups. Now the money that we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical. For instance, without sufficient funding, NIH critical trials, clinical trials and the possibilities of a vaccine which is well within reach could be delayed. So this is not the time for politics. And meanwhile, Congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk about protecting Americans from threats, well, Zika is a serious threat to Americans, especially babies, right now. So, once again, I want to urge the American people to call their members of Congress and tell them to do their job. Deal with this threat, help protect the American people from Zika. Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean? [ LAUGH ] The federal government doesn't run the election process. States, and cities, and communities all across the country, they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths and If Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory, that is being propagated across the country. Including in places like Texas [ LAUGH ] where. Typically it's not democrats that are in charge of voting booths. That's ridiculous, that doesn't make any sense and I don't think anybody would take that seriously. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing then, you know, maybe he can raise some questions. The Extraordinary rate of incarceration of nonviolent offenders has created its own set of problems, that are devastating. Entire communities have been ravaged, where largely men, but some women, Are taken out of those communities. Kids are now growing up without parents. It perpetuates a cycle of poverty and disorder in their lives. It is disproportionately young men of color that are being arrested at higher rates Charged and convicted at higher rates and imprisoned for longer sentences. What we try to do is to screen through and find those individuals who have paid their debt to society. That have behaved themselves and tried to reform themselves while incarcerated, and we think have a good chance of being able to use that second chance well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Why President Obama Is Going After Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-08-05T15:52:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:45:33.758Z","description":"President Obama could hardly contain his frustration with Donald Trump's candidacy Thursday in a press conference.","url":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads","2016 Election","Barack Obama","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.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/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—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/morning-must-reads/","name":"Morning Must Reads"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/","name":"Why President Obama Is Going After Donald Trump"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Obama Slams Rigging Claim","description":"President Obama rebuffed Donald Trump's suggestion that the general election in November would somehow be rigged, joking that he'd never heard of anyone complaining about cheating before the game was even over.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uLIW2mNR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-04T22:45:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uLIW2mNR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/","duration":"PT4M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4441007/morning-must-reads-donald-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```