--- title: President Obama Meets Donald Trump: Transcript description: President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump met in the Oval Office Thursday for a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation. canonical: https://time.com/4566631/donald-trump-barack-obama-white-house-meeting-transcript/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-10T18:34:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:53:55.789Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Obama and Trump's Remarks on Their White House Meeting og:description: A full transcript. og:url: https://time.com/4566631/donald-trump-barack-obama-white-house-meeting-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d2f825b9bc23576/6988ae0d196cf478a903df06/trump-meets-obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: President Obama Meets With President-Elect Donald Trump In The Oval Office Of White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Obama and Trump's Remarks on Their White House Meeting twitter:description: A full transcript. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d2f825b9bc23576/6988ae0d196cf478a903df06/trump-meets-obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama and Donald Trump's Remarks on Their White House Meeting > 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=df06ee20-e434-4ea9-b8c1-c5dfc2dad69d&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 [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Nov 10, 2016 6:34 PM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Nov 10, 2016 6:34 PM UTC President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump [met in the Oval Office](http://time.com/4566234/barack-obama-donald-trump/) Thursday for a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation about how the White House works. Afterward, the two spoke briefly to a group of reporters. Here is a complete transcript. --- > “” --- ## 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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