--- title: President Obama Tells Donald Trump Not to Whine: Transcript description: President Obama on Tuesday attacked Donald Trump for making "irresponsible" claims about a rigged election. Here are his full remarks canonical: https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-18T18:52:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:51:06.001Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Remarks Telling Donald Trump to 'Stop Whining' og:description: Obama said "no serious person" would claim the presidential election was rigged og:url: https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc025d45ac98ae9/6988aa8797cdff90786ae393/barack-obama-trump-whining-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Obama Holds News Conference With Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Remarks Telling Donald Trump to 'Stop Whining' twitter:description: Obama said "no serious person" would claim the presidential election was rigged twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc025d45ac98ae9/6988aa8797cdff90786ae393/barack-obama-trump-whining-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Remarks Telling Donald Trump to 'Stop Whining' > 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=0d227dd9-8dcf-4e0d-a99b-f0f6df707104&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama Told Donald Trump to ‘Stop Whining’ About Elections [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Told Donald Trump to ‘Stop Whining’ About Elections](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qa0odyfJ.m3u8) (2:03)  _Published 2016-10-18. President Obama delivered a series of subdued attacks against Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, who he told to “stop whining” about the unsubstantiated claims that the election will be rigged in a press conference Tuesday._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 18, 2016 6:52 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 18, 2016 6:52 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Tuesday [attacked Donald Trump](http://time.com/4535267/barack-obama-donald-trump-rigged-election-renzi/?xid=homepage) for making “unprecedented” and “irresponsible” [claims about a rigged election](http://time.com/4532679/donald-trump-election-rigged/). “I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes,” Obama said in the Rose Garden during a joint press conference with [Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi](http://time.com/4534816/president-obama-italian-prime-minister-matteo-renzi/?xid=homepage) ahead of the Obamas’ [final state dinner](http://time.com/4535276/president-obama-white-house-dinner-menu-mario-batali/). “I have never seen, in my lifetime or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place,” Obama added. Here are their full remarks from the press conference at the White House: --- > “” --- ## Transcript I have never seen in my lifetime, or in modern political history, a presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process. Before votes have even taken place. It's unprecedented. It happens to be based on no facts every expect regardless of political party Regardless of ideology. Conservative or liberal who has ever examined these issues in a serious way will tell you that instances of voter fraud are not to be found. That Keep in mind elections are run by state and local officials, which means that there are places like Florida, for example, where you've got a Republican governor, those are Republican appointees, are going to be running and monitoring a whole bunch of these election sites, the notion that somehow It makes a trouble [ UNKNOWN ] for that because of those people that you have to watch out for, that is both irresponsible, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] and by the way they didn't really show the kind of [ BLANK_AUDIO ] leadership and toughness they will have in presence. You start whining before the game's even over? If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming someone else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job. I'd invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Remarks Telling Donald Trump to 'Stop Whining'","datePublished":"2016-10-18T18:52:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:51:06.001Z","description":"Obama said \"no serious person\" would claim the presidential election was rigged","url":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Barack Obama","White House","Donald Trump","transcript","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc025d45ac98ae9/6988aa8797cdff90786ae393/barack-obama-trump-whining-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc025d45ac98ae9/6988aa8797cdff90786ae393/barack-obama-trump-whining-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Holds News Conference With Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi","caption":"President Obama Holds News Conference With Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi","creditText":"Alex Wong/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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/","name":"Read President Obama's Remarks Telling Donald Trump to 'Stop Whining'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama Told Donald Trump to ‘Stop Whining’ About Elections","description":"President Obama delivered a series of subdued attacks against Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, who he told to “stop whining” about the unsubstantiated claims that the election will be rigged in a press conference Tuesday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Qa0odyfJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-18T17:05:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qa0odyfJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/","duration":"PT2M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4535623/president-obama-donald-trump-stop-whining-transcript/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```