--- title: President Obama on Donald Trump Election: Read His Speech description: President Obama delivered a speech at the White House calling for unity after Donald Trump's election as the next leader of the US. canonical: https://time.com/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-09T19:14:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:21.339Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Speech Calling for Unity After Donald Trump's Election og:description: President Obama delivered a speech at the White House calling for unity after Donald Trump's election as the next leader of the US. og:url: https://time.com/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea466a93d84200d0/6988adddf887dc4805e9828f/obama4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the victory of President-elect Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Speech Calling for Unity After Donald Trump's Election twitter:description: President Obama delivered a speech at the White House calling for unity after Donald Trump's election as the next leader of the US. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea466a93d84200d0/6988adddf887dc4805e9828f/obama4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Speech Calling for Unity After Donald Trump's Election > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 9, 2016 7:14 PM UTC  President Obama delivers remarks on the victory of President-elect Republican Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 9, 2016. President Obama delivers remarks on the victory of President-elect Republican Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 9, 2016.Michael Reynolds—EPA by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 9, 2016 7:14 PM UTC President Obama delivered a [speech at the White House](http://time.com/4564407/president-obama-donald-trump-election-speech-watch-live/) on Wednesday addressing [Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4563946/election-2016-donald-trump-victory-how/) election as the next leader of the United States. With Vice President Joe Biden at his side, Obama offered congratulations to the Republican president-elect and called for a smooth transition of power. “We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country,” Obama said. Here is a full transcript of his remarks: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Speech Calling for Unity After Donald Trump's Election","datePublished":"2016-11-09T19:14:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:21.339Z","description":"Obama addressed his ally Hillary Clinton's loss","url":"https://time.com/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea466a93d84200d0/6988adddf887dc4805e9828f/obama4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea466a93d84200d0/6988adddf887dc4805e9828f/obama4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the victory of President-elect Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 election","caption":"US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the victory of President-elect Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 election","creditText":"Michael Reynolds—EPA","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/4564772/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript/","name":"Read President Obama's Speech Calling for Unity After Donald Trump's Election"}}]}] ```