--- title: Donald Trump: Calling Barack Obama Founder of ISIS 'Sarcasm' description: After reiterating comments that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the "founders of ISIS," Donald Trump backtracked, saying it was a joke. canonical: https://time.com/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-12T11:31:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T22:40:52.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: Calling Barack Obama Founder of ISIS 'Sarcasm' og:description: After reiterating comments that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the "founders of ISIS," Donald Trump backtracked, saying it was a joke. og:url: https://time.com/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: Calling Barack Obama Founder of ISIS 'Sarcasm' twitter:description: After reiterating comments that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the "founders of ISIS," Donald Trump backtracked, saying it was a joke. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Trump Says Calling Obama Founder of ISIS Just 'Sarcasm'  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 10:40 PM UTCPublished: Aug 12, 2016 11:31 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 10:40 PM UTCPublished: Aug 12, 2016 11:31 AM UTC After reiterating comments that [Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the “founders of ISIS,”](http://time.com/4448441/donald-trump-isis-founder/?iid=sr-link2) Donald Trump backtracked Friday, saying it was just a joke. Having apparently watched a CNN item on the remarks, the Republican presidential contender took to Twitter early Friday to say he was just being sarcastic: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/764045345332396032) In an interview on August 11 with Hugh Hewitt, Trump was questioned on whether the remark was serious by the conservative radio host. “Last night, you said the President was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” Hewitt said. But the GOP nominee insisted he meant it literally. “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS,” Trump said. “I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.” **Read More:** [_Inside Donald Trump’s Meltdown_](http://time.com/4447985/inside-donald-trump-meltdown/?xid=time%5Fsocialflow%5Ftwitter) A few hours later on Friday, Trump continued to mock the ‘seriousness’ of the media in another tweet: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/764064821000056832) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/"},"headline":"Trump Says Calling Obama Founder of ISIS Just 'Sarcasm'","datePublished":"2016-08-12T11:31:35.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T22:40:52.000Z","description":"After reiterating comments that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the \"founders of ISIS,\" Donald Trump backtracked, saying it was a joke.","url":"https://time.com/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"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/4449896/donald-trump-barack-obama-founder-isis/","name":"Trump Says Calling Obama Founder of ISIS Just 'Sarcasm'"}}]}] ```