In town pool report 4 - Trump Oval Q&A part 1

Another notable in the room: Sergio Gor, head of White House PPO; Steve Witkoff, Trump special envoy

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Pirro was sworn in as USA-DC by AG Pam Bondi

Trump on Bondi: “Pam Bondi is doing an unbelievable job as our real leader, leader in the fight against crime. And Pam heard about this, and Pam said, I'll have to find time for Janine. She doesn't have time to do this, but for Janine, she did, and she's going to be doing the swearing in. So Pam, thank you very much for the great job you're doing and for swearing In our friend justice, Janine”

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Trump Q&A rush quotes - check stream for accuracy

Was Russia being disrespectful and does Putin want to end the war?

“I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks. Within two weeks, we're going to find out very soon. We’re going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not, and if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. But it'll take about a week and a half. Two weeks we have Mr. Widkoff is here, who's doing a phenomenal job. Is dealing with him very strongly right now, they seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed, I can't tell you. Nobody can.”

Putin playing with fire?

“we're not, we're not happy about that situation. I think we're we're doing very well with Iran. We're doing very well with Gaza, but we are doing very well with Iran. And I think we're going to see some, some, something very sensible, because there are only two outcomes. You know, the two outcomes is a smart outcome, it is a violent outcome. And I don't think anybody wants to see the second but I think we're, we've made a lot of progress, and we'll see. You know, they still have to agree to the final stages of a document, but I think you could be very well surprised what happens there, and it'd be a great thing for them, and it can have a great country into the future.”

Elon criticized Big Beautiful Bill?

“Well, the reactions a lot of things. Number one, we have to get a lot of votes. We can't be cutting, you know, we need, we need to get a lot of support, and we have a lot of support. We had to get it through the house. The house was, we have no Democrats. You know, if it's up to the Democrats, they'll take the 65% increase. Oh, that doesn't get approved, this country is going to have a 65% increase in taxes and lots of other problems, big problems, almost bigger than that, but we'll have a 65% increase, as opposed to the largest tax cut in the history of our country.

We will be negotiating that bill, and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it. That's the way they go. It's very big. It's the big, beautiful bill. But the beautiful is because of all of the things we have, the biggest thing being, I would say, the the level of tax cutting that we're going to be doing, we're going to make people really be able to have one of the one of the lowest tax rate we've ever had in the history of our country, and tremendous amounts of benefit are going to the middle income people of our country, low and middle income people of our country. So we're going to see what happens, because the Senate, as you know, is negotiating with us, and they have to then go back to the house, and you know, it's got a way to go, but I have to say, Speaker Johnson and Thune has done an incredible job.”

More to come

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Hugo Lowell

White House Correspondent

The Guardian

Washington DC Bureau

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