--- title: President Obama Terror Speech Also a Warning to Donald Trump description: President Obama used his final national security speech to thank U.S. troops and send a message to President-elect Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4592640/president-obama-national-security-speech-muslims/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-06T22:33:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:55:58.297Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama: Stigmatizing Muslims ‘Feeds the Terrorist Narrative’ og:description: "We are a nation that—at our best—has been defined by hope, and not fear" og:url: https://time.com/4592640/president-obama-national-security-speech-muslims/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a64a50748fd567/6988b1f88fd2ee4b92355183/barack-obama-counterterrorism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4587 og:image:height: 2580 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama: Stigmatizing Muslims ‘Feeds the Terrorist Narrative’ twitter:description: "We are a nation that—at our best—has been defined by hope, and not fear" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a64a50748fd567/6988b1f88fd2ee4b92355183/barack-obama-counterterrorism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama: Stigmatizing Muslims ‘Feeds the Terrorist Narrative’ > 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=8084beb8-2b3b-488b-a091-245aba793359&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama Delivers Last Major National Security Speech [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Delivers Last Major National Security Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cHKOaLU0.m3u8) (2:22)  _Published 2016-12-06. President Barack Obama gave his last major national security speech as Commander-in-Chief on Tuesday. He summed up his administration’s counter-terrorism efforts over the past eight years._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 6, 2016 10:33 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 6, 2016 10:33 PM UTC President Obama used [his final national security speech](http://time.com/4591361/president-obama-national-security-speech/?xid=homepage) to not only thank U.S. troops for their work over the past eight years, but also appeared to send a message to his successor, President-elect Donald Trump. In his speech at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Obama seemingly touched on a variety of concerns about the president-elect that emerged during the campaign trail, including Trump’s support of torture and generalizations about the Muslim community. The president also said the U.S. should uphold its values both at home and abroad, explicitly saying that stigmatizing Muslims would be counterproductive to the larger goal of fighting terrorism. “We are fighting terrorists who claim to fight on behalf of Islam, but do they do not speak for over a billion Muslims around the world,” Obama said. “If we stigmatize Muslims, that just feeds the terrorist narrative.” The U.S., he added, is not “a country that imposes religious tests as a price for freedom.” Aides to the Trump transition team have suggested that under the incoming administration, there could be a [registry for Muslims](http://time.com/4578006/reince-priebus-donald-trump-muslim-registry/) in the U.S. Obama also said the U.S. is “a society where we can criticize a president without threat of retribution.” “We are a nation that—at our best—has been defined by hope, and not fear,” Obama said. The president also spoke to what he believes should be the path forward for the future administration, from keeping the threat “in perspective,” to upholding American values by favoring seeking justice instead of torture to remaining transparent. The president said his administration’s [decision to release a memo ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ahead-of-trump-white-house-obama-administration-releases-memo-outlining-use-of-force-rules/2016/12/05/5b234e3a-bb0f-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.86e382076dcd)that outlined the legal framework around military action—which many viewed as a hint to Trump—was an example of that in practice. At the beginning of his speech, Obama said the U.S. should be proud of the work his administration has done on national security during what is being billed as his [final speech on the subject](http://time.com/4591361/president-obama-national-security-speech/). “We should take great pride in the progress that we’ve made over the past eight years,” he said. In touting his record, the president said that there has been no “successful attack” carried out by a major terrorist organization on the U.S. homeland over the past year years and that new partnerships have been built overseas. “All of this progress is due to the work of men and women like you,” the president told the crowd of troops. “It’s thanks to you.” The president acknowledged that there have been setbacks. And though there have been no attacks at the same level as 9/11, he said, the threat of terrorism has and will endured due to the spiderweb reach of groups like ISIS that use social media to recruit and spread hateful ideology. Obama said the threat is compounded by the ease with which people in the U.S., including those with terrorist leanings, can get their hands on powerful weapons. “To say that we’ve made progress is not to say that the job is done. We know that the threat persists,” Obama said. “We have to take a long view of the terrorist threat, and pursue a smart strategy that can be sustained.” ## Transcript I was just told that was going to be the last Hail to the Chief on the road and it got me kind of sentimental. As we speak, ISIL faces an offensive on Mosul from Iraqi troops and coalition support. That's the largest remaining city that it controls. Meanwhile in Syria, ISIL's self declared capital in Raqqa is being squeezed. We have attacked ISIL's financial lifeline, destroying hundred of millions of dollars of oil and cash reserves. The bottom line is we are breaking the back of ISIL, we are taking away its safe havens and we have [ APPLAUSE ] And, and we've accomplished all this at a cost of $ 10 billion over two years. Which the same amount that we use to spent in one month at the height of the Iraq war. We should take great pride in the progress that we've made over the last state years No foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland. [ APPLAUSE ] And it's not because they didn't try. So rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs, or deploying more and more troops, or fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to take a long view of the terrorist threat. 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