The White House Will Be a Wake-Up Call for Trump: Barack Obama

He said that a president cannot get away with the controversial comment the way a presidential candidate can.

Donald Trump. (Photo: Reuters)

President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on 20 January, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican's surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

This office has a way of waking you up. 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.

Barack Obama

The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country's problems from an ideological perspective.

There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognises them and corrects them. When you’re a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial, it has less impact than it does when you’re president of the United States.

Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump's appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on Trump's appointments.

But Obama, who criticised Trump's temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign.

(With inputs from Reuters)