--- title: Donald Trump and Barack Obama Meet in the Oval Office description: AP’s Pablo Martinez Monsivais captured a photo of the pair's first meeting canonical: https://time.com/4566620/barack-obama-donald-trump-white-house-meeting-photo/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-10T18:40:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:53:56.251Z article:section: Politics og:title: See President Obama and Donald Trump Meet for the First Time og:description: The pair have a complex relationship og:url: https://time.com/4566620/barack-obama-donald-trump-white-house-meeting-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce8a6da77368f616/6988ae06428a9e2690cd4f70/president-barack-obama-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3392 og:image:height: 1908 og:image:alt: Obama Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See President Obama and Donald Trump Meet for the First Time twitter:description: The pair have a complex relationship twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce8a6da77368f616/6988ae06428a9e2690cd4f70/president-barack-obama-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump Meet for the First Time > 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=ac1e5a1c-5bb9-4d8d-a15b-2aef6a8cf9d5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch President Barack Obama Meet President-Elect Donald Trump for the First Time [Watch (HLS stream): Watch President Barack Obama Meet President-Elect Donald Trump for the First Time](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zRemNoen.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2016-11-10. The meeting signals the beginning of the transition period during which Obama will help Trump, now the president-elect, prepare to take control of the country next year._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 10, 2016 6:40 PM UTC The meeting signals the beginning of the transition period during which Obama will help Trump, now the president-elect, prepare to take control of the country next year.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 10, 2016 6:40 PM UTC President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama [met in the Oval Office](http://time.com/4566594/president-obama-donald-trump-meeting-white-house/) Thursday morning to begin transition discussions. Both men were [sunny to the press after the meeting](http://time.com/4566234/barack-obama-donald-trump/), with Obama saying their discussion was “excellent” and he was feeling “encouraged.” Trump said he “had great respect” for Obama looked forward to his counsel. But the cheery outlook belied years of animosity between them. Since 2011, Trump was a leader of the birther movement, which claimed that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Obama mocked him as a lightweight at the White House Correspondents Dinner that year, with a joke that takes on new light now that Trump has won the presidency with no previous political experience. “We all know about your credentials and breadth of experience,” Obama said. “In an episode of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ — at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn’t blame Lil Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled.” All humor was taken out of their contentious relationship when Trump ran for president. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly criticized Obama and his policies as a “disaster,” and it wasn’t until September 2016 that [he said publicly](http://time.com/4497626/donald-trump-birther-address-transcript/?iid=sr-link8) that he believed Obama was born in the United States (while falsely claiming that it was Hillary Clinton who started that theory in the first place). In the final weeks of the general election Obama painted Trump has a threat to the republic itself. “I always felt as if John McCain and Mitt Romney were basically honorable people,” he said at a rally for Clinton in October. “I always felt as if, push comes to shove, they would do the right thing if they ended up occupying the position of president. I wasn’t concerned about the republic if they had won… Fundamental values are at stake in this election.” Still, as TIME editors and authors of _The Presidents Club_ Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy [write](http://time.com/4566273/donald-trump-barack-obama-white-house-meeting/?xid=tcoshare), “No matter how personally or politically hostile an outgoing and incoming president may be, once voters have selected a new member of The President’s Club, a different dynamic takes over. Only those who have held the job can understand what it does to you, or the help that you need to succeed at it. And so upon the election of a new president, the sitting president takes the opportunity to pull back the curtain, and give his successor a glimpse of the challenge that lies ahead.” Despite their years of public feuding, this moment, captured by Associated Press photographer Pablo Martinez Monsivais, was the first time Trump and Obama had ever met. ## Transcript Well I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President Elect Trump. It was wide ranging, we talked about some of the organizational issues in setting up a white house, we talked about foreign policy, we talked about domestic policy, and as I said last night My number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our President- elect is successful. And I have been very encourage by the. I think interest in president elect Trump's wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces. And I believe that. It is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of legal preferences, to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges that we face. And in the meantime Michelle has had a chance to greet the incoming first lady. And we had an excellent conversation with her as well. And we wanna make sure that they feel welcome as they prepare to make this transition. Most of all, I wanna emphasize to you, as president elect, that we, now are gonna, wanna do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed then the country succeed. Well thank you very much president Obama. This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and, we were just gonna get to know each other. We had never met each other. I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And it could have as far as I'm concerned, it could have gone in for a lot longer. We really We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future including council. He explained some of the difficulties, some of the The high- flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved. So Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you, and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future. Thank you [ INAUDIBLE ] Mr. President. [ CROSSTALK ] Thank you everybody, we are not going to be taking any more questions, thank you guys. Thank you. Here's a good rule. Don't answer their questions when their started yelling. It's always the last one. Come on guys. Yeah come on guys. Let's go. Very, very good man. Thank you Donald. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. 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