--- title: Barack Obama Urges Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia: Read description: President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a joint press conference on Thursday in Berlin. canonical: https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T19:40:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:38.199Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Comments Urging Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia og:description: The President had firm final words for the end of his last European trip in office og:url: https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a4b81fc8c429e79/6988aeed656a3f2336bcde59/merkel-obama-press-conference-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: merkel obama press conference transcript og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Comments Urging Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia twitter:description: The President had firm final words for the end of his last European trip in office twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a4b81fc8c429e79/6988aeed656a3f2336bcde59/merkel-obama-press-conference-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Comments Urging Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia > 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 17, 2016 7:40 PM UTC  German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) listens while US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference after their meeting at the chancellery in Berlin on November 17, 2016. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) listens while US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference after their meeting at the chancellery in Berlin on November 17, 2016.Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 17, 2016 7:40 PM UTC [President Barack Obama ](http://time.com/4573569/barack-obama-greece-trip-election/)and [German Chancellor Angela Merkel ](http://time.com/4484167/angela-merkel-germany-elections-refugees/)gave a [joint press conference](http://time.com/4575067/president-obama-donald-trump-russia/) on Thursday in Berlin, showing a united front in the face of global changes including [Donald Trump’s election](http://time.com/4574302/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-nuclear-weapons/) and stating the importance of being able to “stand up” to Russia. Obama finished his last trip to Europe with the press conference with Merkel, his longtime ally. He remained positive about the transition of power in the U.S. when he spoke to reporters, though he also described the negative effects of social media on recent political discussion in the U.S. Merkel and Obama held the conference at the German Chancellery in Berlin. Read the full transcript of their remarks below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Comments Urging Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia","datePublished":"2016-11-17T19:40:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:38.199Z","description":"The President had firm final words for the end of his last European trip in office","url":"https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/","keywords":["2016 Election","Barack Obama","White House","Germany","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a4b81fc8c429e79/6988aeed656a3f2336bcde59/merkel-obama-press-conference-transcript.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/blt1a4b81fc8c429e79/6988aeed656a3f2336bcde59/merkel-obama-press-conference-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"merkel obama press conference transcript","caption":"merkel obama press conference transcript","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—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":"https://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/","name":"Read President Obama's Comments Urging Donald Trump to Stand Up to Russia"}}]}] ```