November 10, 2016

Trump and Obama Pledge Cooperation and Mutual Respect in First Post-Election Meeting

Yes, it was weird.

Pablo Martinez Montsavais/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump addressed reporters at the White House on Thursday following their first post-election meeting, with both men striking conciliatory tones and committing their respective teams to working together.

Obama told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “very encouraged by President-elect Trump’s interest in working with my team,” telling Trump directly that “we are now going to do everything we can to help you succeed.” Trump in turn praised his conversation with Obama and said he would turn to the outgoing president for counsel in the future. “It was a great honor being with you and I’m looking forward to being with you many, many times in the future,” Trump said, before the two men shook hands for the cameras.

Despite the bonhomie, the scene at the White House on Thursday was jarring. Trump spent years attempting to delegitimize Obama’s presidency by leading the birther movement, and he viciously attacked Obama on the campaign trail, calling him the “founder of ISIS” and routinely questioning his presidency. Obama also went hard after Trump in the final stages of the campaign, mocking him as unfit and dangerous.

Trump also broke with precedent by not bringing a pool of traveling press to document the meeting. Many reporters saw it as a preview of how the Trump White House may treat the press after a campaign in which Trump’s team was hostile to the media and Trump himself stoked abuse of reporters at his rallies. Obama and Trump’s time with the press even ended with an ominous joke by Obama: “This is a good rule,” he said. “Don’t answer any questions.”

 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate