In-town pool report #4: Quotes

House GOP leadership race: When asked if he was endorsing anyone in the House GOP leadership race, he said “we’re staying out of it. He went on to call Speaker Johnson “fantastic” and when asked if he asked him to step down from his leadership role, POTUS said “no.”

On Iran: Said he agreed with Vance saying the Iran War was the primary reason GOP lost last night.

“Well, I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short-term. And probably that's, probably it's true. But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again. Because long-term, it's the only answer. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Said he believed striking Iran was worth it , and said he will “probably get along with the Democrats” unless they want to be destructive.”

Added that Democrats (didn’t say who) have already called: “They’ve already called, and they want to talk about things, and that's fine. But yeah, people, the Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it. We have tremendous oil flowing out of the Hormuz right now. At the beginning, there was none. And probably that's the primary reason. The price, not the war, the price.”

On JD Vance: “I speak to him a lot of things but we will see what happens. You don’t know who’s talking about running….maybe nobody’s going to run, maybe he won’t run.”

On his past remarks saying the Iran War would end after the midterms: “No, I didn’t say that. I said their nuclear weapons would be destroyed.”

On whether he’s considering replacing Hegseth: “no I think he’s going a very good job.”

Said Hegseth would be “very popular” when asked if he wanted to fill Marsha Blackburn’s Senate seat.

“But I haven’t heard that at all.”