--- title: President Obama's Remarks on Donald Trump: Read Transcript description: President Barack Obama answered questions during a news conference on Monday, his first since Donald Trump won the presidential election canonical: https://time.com/4570480/read-obama-press-conference-transcript/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-14T22:27:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:49:05.276Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Remarks From His First Post-Election Press Conference og:description: The presidency "has a way of waking you up" og:url: https://time.com/4570480/read-obama-press-conference-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97b2ae32bd904cb6/6988ae70656a3f6c93bcddb7/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: U.S. President Obama holds news conference at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Remarks From His First Post-Election Press Conference twitter:description: The presidency "has a way of waking you up" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97b2ae32bd904cb6/6988ae70656a3f6c93bcddb7/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Remarks From His First Post-Election Press Conference > 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 [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 14, 2016 10:27 PM UTC  President Barack Obama holds a news conference in the White House press briefing room in Washington on Nov. 14, 2016. President Barack Obama holds a news conference in the White House press briefing room in Washington on Nov. 14, 2016. Jonathan Ernst—Reuters by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 14, 2016 10:27 PM UTC President Barack Obama answered questions during a news conference on Monday, his first since [Donald Trump won the presidential election](http://time.com/4569895/donald-trump-stephen-bannon-alt-right/) last week. Fielding questions from reporters about [Trump’s win](http://time.com/4569563/what-donald-trumps-staff-picks-mean/) and the future of America, Obama attempted to reassure people by saying the presidency [“has a way of waking you up” to the realities of daily governing](http://time.com/4570499/president-obama-donald-trump-press-conference/). “He’s going to be the next president and regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up and those – those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don’t match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself,” he said. “And some of his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history, those are ones that hopefully he will put to good use on behalf of all the American people.” Here are Obama’s full comments from the press conference: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4570480/read-obama-press-conference-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4570480/read-obama-press-conference-transcript/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Remarks From His First Post-Election Press Conference","datePublished":"2016-11-14T22:27:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:49:05.276Z","description":"The presidency \"has a way of waking you up\"","url":"https://time.com/4570480/read-obama-press-conference-transcript/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97b2ae32bd904cb6/6988ae70656a3f6c93bcddb7/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97b2ae32bd904cb6/6988ae70656a3f6c93bcddb7/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Obama holds news conference at the White House in Washington","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama holds a news conference in the White House press briefing room in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2016. 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