--- title: Read What President Obama Told His Daughters About Trump Win description: President Barack Obama has opened up about the conversations he has had with daughters following the election of Donald Trump last week. canonical: https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-18T11:28:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:54.769Z og:title: Obama Had an Uplifting Message for Malia and Sasha After Trump's Victory og:description: "Your job as a citizen ... is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight" og:url: https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6451dae9aaab6b5/6988af06a988ca5bd36ba360/gettyimages-498724346.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Had an Uplifting Message for Malia and Sasha After Trump's Victory twitter:description: "Your job as a citizen ... is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6451dae9aaab6b5/6988af06a988ca5bd36ba360/gettyimages-498724346.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What President Obama Told His Daughters After Trump's Victory by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 18, 2016 11:28 AM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama with his daughters Sasha (L) and Malia in 2015\. The President reflected on Donald Trump's recent election victory in a new interview with The New Yorker. U.S. President Barack Obama with his daughters Sasha (L) and Malia in 2015\. The President reflected on Donald Trump's recent election victory in a new interview with The New Yorker.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 18, 2016 11:28 AM UTC President Barack Obama told his teenage daughters to “constantly affirm and lift up and fight” following the election of Donald Trump to the presidency last week. In a new interview with the [New _Yorker_](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/28/obama-reckons-with-a-trump-presidency?mbid=social%5Ftwitter), Obama said “What I say to them is that people are complicated,” reflecting on the results of the 2016 presidential election and the reports of an [increase in racist incidents ](http://time.com/4573130/racist-incidents-hate-crimes-us/?iid=sr-link1)that have followed. The [President](http://motto.time.com/4199637/barack-obama-daughters/?iid=sr-link4), who has described himself as a [firm feminist](http://time.com/4369002/barack-obama-united-state-of-women-summit/?iid=sr-link1), recalled speaking with his daughters Malia and Sasha after the election, where he said to them: “Societies and cultures are really complicated. . . . This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it’s messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding. And you should anticipate that at any given moment there’s going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish. And it doesn’t stop. . . . You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.” **_(Gifts:_** [**_The 100 Most Influential Images of All Time)_**](http://shop.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1039114.html?xid=cm-TIMEShopscTIMEArticle) Obama has been on his [final foreign trip](http://time.com/4575287/president-obama-donald-trump-speech-transcript-2/?iid=sr-link9) as President this week, where he has met with the leaders of Europe to discuss the world’s future under a Trump presidency. Meanwhile, many fans of Michelle Obama have been [calling for her to run](http://motto.time.com/4571334/michelle-obama-run-for-president/?iid=sr-link1) for the presidency at the next elections in 2020. _Read Obama’s interview in full at_ [_The New Yorker._ ](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/28/obama-reckons-with-a-trump-presidency?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/"},"headline":"Here's What President Obama Told His Daughters After Trump's Victory","datePublished":"2016-11-18T11:28:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:54.769Z","description":"“Societies and cultures are really complicated\"","url":"https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/","keywords":["motto","Barack Obama","Michelle Obama","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6451dae9aaab6b5/6988af06a988ca5bd36ba360/gettyimages-498724346.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suyin Haynes","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6451dae9aaab6b5/6988af06a988ca5bd36ba360/gettyimages-498724346.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","caption":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—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":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4576154/obama-daughters-trump-victory/","name":"Here's What President Obama Told His Daughters After Trump's Victory"}}]}] ```