--- title: Trump Tunes Into Democratic Debate From G20 to Attack Rivals description: President Trump took a moment during the G20 summit in Japan to check in on the Democratic debate and lob a Twitter attack at his rivals. canonical: https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-06-28T03:32:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:52:41.688Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Tunes Into Democratic Debate From G20 to Attack Rivals og:description: The president was a central topic from the start of the debate og:url: https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf551779419fb711f/6989ff5197cdff13936b92ed/trump-abe-g20-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Osaka Hosts The G20 Summit - Day One og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Tunes Into Democratic Debate From G20 to Attack Rivals twitter:description: The president was a central topic from the start of the debate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf551779419fb711f/6989ff5197cdff13936b92ed/trump-abe-g20-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Tunes Into the Democratic Debate From the G20 Summit to Lob Attack at Rivals > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f3bbdab6-3c3a-4883-985e-5d99bee0e4d4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 28, 2019 3:32 AM UTC  U.S President Donald Trump, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe and India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, take part in a trilateral meeting on the first day of the G20 summit on June 28, 2019 in Osaka, Japan. U.S President Donald Trump, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe and India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, take part in a trilateral meeting on the first day of the G20 summit on June 28, 2019 in Osaka, Japan. Carl Court—Getty Images by [Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 28, 2019 3:32 AM UTC President Donald Trump took a moment between meetings with world leaders in Japan to check in on the Democratic debate and lob a Twitter attack at his rivals. “All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!? That’s the end of that race!” Trump tweeted between meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. When he arrived to see Merkel, Trump said he “just passed a television set” on his way to the meeting. Trump was mostly a backdrop for Wednesday’s debate where his name was barely mentioned. But Thursday, he was a central topic from the start, and nearly every candidate disparaged his policies on taxes, health care and immigration. Senator Bernie Sanders called the president a pathological liar and a racist. Trump’s campaign is looking to highlight issues raised in the debates that they think will play poorly with swing voters, like eliminating private insurance, repealing the tax cuts, and offering health care to undocumented immigrants. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/"},"headline":"Trump Tunes Into the Democratic Debate From the G20 Summit to Lob Attack at Rivals","datePublished":"2019-06-28T03:32:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:52:41.688Z","description":"Trump was a central topic from the start of the debate","url":"https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/","keywords":["2020 Election","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf551779419fb711f/6989ff5197cdff13936b92ed/trump-abe-g20-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf551779419fb711f/6989ff5197cdff13936b92ed/trump-abe-g20-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Osaka Hosts The G20 Summit - Day One","caption":"Osaka Hosts The G20 Summit - Day One","creditText":"Carl Court—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/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5616750/donald-trump-g20-democratic-debate-2020/","name":"Trump Tunes Into the Democratic Debate From the G20 Summit to Lob Attack at Rivals"}}]}] ```