In town note #11 - Q&A

Pool left the Oval at 6:03 pm.

As always please check quotes against the official transcript and video playback.

On tariffs: “We're going to make deals, but they're going to be fair deals. They're not going to be rip off deals. & And by the way, if we don't have a deal with a company or a country, we're going to set the tariff. We just set the tariff. It's something that we think that will happen. I'd say over the next couple of weeks.”

China tariffs: “We’re dealing with almost all of them, too many to fully deal with, but we're going to be fair to them, but we're dealing with a lot of countries right now, and could be with China, but maybe we'll make a special a deal, and we'll see what it will be.”

More on tariffs: “I think we're going to make so much that we're going to be able to reduce taxes in this country by a lot, and we're also going to treat those countries very fairly, but if we don't make a deal, which is possible, we’re going to just set the price, because, you remember, they have to come in, they want to come in here, and they want to do business with the United States, so we want to set a fair price, and we'll do that. We're going to be very fair, but we'll set a fair price, and then they can make a determination as to whether or not they want to do business with the United States.”

Asked about the upcoming Rome trip, POTUS said he would have several meetings but declined to say with who. “Yes, I do. I have a lot of meetings set up.”

More: “I got every leader in the world, which tells you that we have a good product. It's called the United States of America.”

Asked who else would be in the US delegation: “We have a couple of people coming. We’ll announce it probably this evening, and tomorrow. The First Lady's going, and some people are coming with me from staff, but we'll have a number of people going to be I'm sure it's going to be a beautiful ceremony.”

Asked about a Ukraine deal: “If I can solve it because of a certain ability, that will be great. And if it doesn't happen, I will say that I think Russia is ready. And a lot of people said Russia wanted to go for the whole thing. And I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky, and I hope that Zelensky, I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far, it's been harder. But that's okay. It's all right, but, but I think we have a deal with both. I hope they do it, because I'm looking to save and, you know, we spend a lot of money, but this is about a lot of humanity. This is the worst. I get the pictures, the satellite pictures, I've never seen anything like it, of the fields after these, some of these battles, it's horrible that it's going for nothing. We would have never had this problem. You would have never had that war if I were president, I guarantee you that.”

Asked if he’ll meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia: “It’s possible, but most likely not. I think we'll meet with him shortly thereafter.”

On Jerome Powell: “I haven't called him. I might call him. I haven't called him, but I believe he's making a mistake by not lowering interest rates. & He's keeping rates too high. He historically has been late, except when it came to Biden. He was recommended by a certain person that I'm not particularly happy with. But he will hopefully do the right thing. The right thing is to lower interest rates. So we'll see what happens.”

Elon Musk: “Well, first of all, I can't speak more highly about any individual. He's an incredible guy. He's a brilliant guy. He's a wonderful person. I've seen him with his family. I've seen him with a lot of his children. He's got a lot of children. He treats him good. He loves His children, but he's a brilliant guy, and he was a tremendous help, both in the campaign and in what he's done with DOGE.”

More: “Makes everything he does is good, but they took it out on Tesla. And I just thought it was so unfair, because he's trying to help the country, but he has helped the country. I also want him to make sure that he's going to be in great shape. And I know he is.”

On Canada election: “Oh, I don't want to predict other nation’s elections. It's tough enough doing this one. Look, I love the Canadian people. I like Canada, but it's costing us $200 billion a year to support Canada.

Asked if the Ukraine deal includes recognizing Crimea as Russia’s: “Well, everything is good. I just want to see the war end. I don't care what if they're both happy, they both sign an agreement. I have no favorites. I don't want to have any favorites. I want to have a deal done. I want to save their lives.”

Asked if he would raise car tariffs on Canada: “We're not considering it now, but at some point it could go up, because, again, we don't really want Canada to make cars for us.”

Otter link: https://otter.ai/u/exHZH-Q2wnSW4gzfKFWwX-EvxLE

Emily Goodin

Senior White House Correspondent

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Daily Mail | Washington, DC

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