Pool report #5 / GCC remarks

We were brought into a room where GCC members were seated around a round table. POTUS was speaking when we arrived, and he referenced his meeting earlier with the Syrian president.

He indicated that leaders from Saudi and Turkey were also included in the meeting, and referenced the US dropping sanctions and the applause it received last night.

“I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,” he said. “Gives them a good, strong chance…it was my honor to do so.

“We are currently exploring normalizing with Syria’s new government,” he said.

Trump also said there’s a “once in a generation opportunity” to forge a Lebanon that is peaceful and prosperous.

“I’ve seen such progress,” he said of the whole region. “The whole world is watching the Middle East.”

He criticized his predecessor, saying, “The Biden administration created bedlam by basically being incompetent.” He said Biden “turned his back” on the region, and he would not. “He had no capability, no ability,” he said.

On Iran negotiations: “I want to do something if possible.”

On the release of Edan Alexander, the American hostage released by Hamas, he said “it was a very important.”

“We thought Edan was dead three weeks ago,” he said. “It was a very good thing” that he is alive and free.

At one point he went into election rally mode, boasting to them about the size of his election victory and taking 2,750 voting districts: “The whole map was red, red meaning Republican.”

Trump also kept complaining about what he calls the “rigged election” of 2020 and tells the Gulf leaders his 2024 victory was the most consequential in 129 years.

Toward the end he motioned to reporters covering the event. “Look at the fake news,” he said. “The whole world is taking about what you’re doing.”

One note that the Saudis appeared to try to restrict CNN’s Kaitlan Collins after she shouted a question at the earlier family photo. But Karoline Leavitt intervened and she was admitted.

Also seated near POTUS were several US officials including Susie Wiles, Scott Bessent, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Howard Lutnick.

Many thanks to copooler Jonathan Swan of NYT for assisting in the flurry.

We left at 11:21, about 11 minute after entering, and are now heading to vans.

Please check quotes, and here is my otter: https://otter.ai/u/NIeh02qUGiTck23WkDg4pl34lgQ

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Matt Viser

The Washington Post

White House Bureau Chief

Cell: XXX-XXX-XXXX (tel:XXX-XXX-XXXX)

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