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President Barack Obama answered questions during a news conference on Monday, his first since Donald Trump won the presidential election last week.

Fielding questions from reporters about Trump’s win 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.

“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:

 

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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com.

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