--- title: Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." canonical: https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T19:12:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:07.990Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' og:description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." og:url: https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' twitter:description: "When you rattle someone that’s good." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled' > 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 [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 26, 2016 7:12 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. Spencer Platt—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 26, 2016 7:12 PM UTC Donald Trump is glad that world leaders are “rattled” by his candidacy. Fresh off securing the requisite number of delegates required to win the Republican nomination, the real estate mogul responded to [comments by President Obama](http://time.com/4349025/obama-world-leaders-rightfully-rattled-by-trump/) that he has heard from foreign leaders that the bombastic White House aspirant has them on edge. “They’re rattled by him and for good reason,” Obama said at a press conference at the G-7 summit in Japan. “Because a lot of the proposals that he’s made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what is required to keep America safe.” “That’s good. Is that right, is that good,” Trump told reporters at a press conference. “When you rattle someone that’s good.” ““If they are rattled in a friendly way that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” he added. Trump has turned heads among world leaders for [advocating a policy of “America First”](http://time.com/4273812/america-first-donald-trump-history/) and for reducing the role of the U.S. in the world. Trump has advocated dramatically reducing the role of the U.S. in NATO and ending other mutual defense relationships unless other countries make larger payments for their security. This week Trump repeated that Japan may need to seek out nuclear weapons of its own if it doesn’t pay the U.S. more for its safety. “I don’t want Japan to arm, but it’s possible if they don’t pay up they’re going to have to arm,” he said Tuesday in New Mexico. “Let them defend themselves,” he said of Japan and South Korea last month. “It’s time.” Trump went on to criticize Obama for speaking out against him while overseas, seeming to invoke the principle that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” “He is a man who shouldn’t really be airing his difficulties and airing what he’s airing where he is right now,” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled'","datePublished":"2016-05-26T19:12:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:07.990Z","description":"\"When you rattle someone that’s good.\"","url":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","Barack Obama","Foreign Policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a282a8deadb5f4e/698895353c1639c8fb45d6de/donald-trump15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Anaheim on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California.","creditText":"Spencer Platt—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":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4349691/donald-trump-barack-obama-world-leaders-rattled/","name":"Donald Trump Says He's Glad World Leaders Are 'Rattled'"}}]}] ```