“I want to be respectful of the office and give the president-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off in every instance,” Obama said.

Obama urged his fellow Democrats to try to work with Trump’s team if what it’s doing is good for the country. But he cautioned that if the Trump administration begins to attack American values, he might be compelled to speak up, and so would the Democratic Party.

“As an American citizen who cares deeply about our country, if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle but go to core questions about our values and our ideals, and if I think that it’s necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals, then I’ll examine it when it comes,” he said.