--- title: President Obama Compared Election to Dante's Inferno description: At his final state dinner Tuesday, President Barack Obama compared the current presidential election to a trip through hell canonical: https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T12:34:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:16:32.877Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Compared This Election to Dante's Inferno og:description: Another journey to hell og:url: https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd83850e040708a2/6988aa935f570fa1b0b22f03/obama-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-ITALY-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Compared This Election to Dante's Inferno twitter:description: Another journey to hell twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd83850e040708a2/6988aa935f570fa1b0b22f03/obama-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Compares Election to Dante's _Inferno_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 19, 2016 12:34 PM UTC  Obama delivers a toast during the State Dinner with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House, on Oct. 18, 2016. Obama delivers a toast during the State Dinner with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House, on Oct. 18, 2016.Yuri Gripas—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 19, 2016 12:34 PM UTC At his final state dinner Tuesday, President Barack Obama compared the current presidential election to a trip through hell. Obama, who was hosting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, used a classic work of Italian literature to draw the comparison. “Some days our presidential campaign can seem like Dante’s “Inferno,” President Obama said in reference to the contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, according to the [Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2016/10/18/full-transcript-president-obamas-toast-at-the-italian-state-dinner/). The rest of the speech celebrated the relationship between the U.S. and Italy. Earlier in the day, the president told Trump to stop complaining about [a “rigged” election](http://time.com/4535267/barack-obama-donald-trump-rigged-election-renzi/). This was Obama’s final State Dinner at the White House, a milestone he marked with a quote from Italian-American baseball legend [Yogi Berra](http://time.com/4045969/yogi-berra-dead-appreciation/) — “it ain’t over ’til it’s over.” \[[_WaPo_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2016/10/18/full-transcript-president-obamas-toast-at-the-italian-state-dinner/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/"},"headline":"President Obama Compares Election to Dante's Inferno","datePublished":"2016-10-19T12:34:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:16:32.877Z","description":"Obama was speaking at his final State Dinner","url":"https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/","keywords":["White House","2016 Election topic","President Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd83850e040708a2/6988aa935f570fa1b0b22f03/obama-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd83850e040708a2/6988aa935f570fa1b0b22f03/obama-dinner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-ITALY-DIPLOMACY","caption":"Obama delivers a toast during the State Dinner with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House, on Oct. 18, 2016.","creditText":"Yuri Gripas—AFP/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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4536400/president-obama-state-dinner-renzi-italy/","name":"President Obama Compares Election to Dante's Inferno"}}]}] ```