In-town pool note 4: transcript of AF1 gaggle

Please see attached doc w/transcript of POTUS gaggle on AF1.

Many thanks to Darlene Superville of AP for sharing!

Trump - en route to NATO

Speaker 1 [08:17:11] They were entitled to, but nobody thought that would have happened. But they had a very hard time that should have happened. And then, as you know, Iran hit them very hard last night because I don't think they would have, except for the first hard hit. And, I guess a missile was launched a couple of minutes afterwards, which went nowhere, did nothing, and there was going to be a retaliation this morning by Israel. And,, I said, you got to go back two planes. It's enough is enough. And, they did, which I respect very greatly. So nobody was killed.

[08:17:45] That was a that was see, sorry for that.

Speaker 1 [08:17:48] A lot of planes going in the wrong direction. You know that, right? Do you want any consequences for Israel or Iran for breaking or anything? No, I didn't do anything they would have if they I put out a statement of truth and they didn't do anything.

[08:18:03] And this might not happen again. They in a couple weeks they got tired of it. I think they don't want it to happen again.

Speaker 1 [08:18:12] And Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon. By the way, I think it's the last thing on their mind right now.

Speaker 2 [08:18:17] It's a question did Ron make any commitments yesterday about uranium enrichment of uranium enrichment?

[08:18:24] They're not going to have enrichment and they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

Speaker 1 [08:18:27] And they know that they're going to get on to being a great trading nation. You know, they're very good traders, and they're going to be a great trading nation. And they have a lot of oil.

[08:18:37] They're going to do well.

Speaker 1 [08:18:38] They're not they're not going to have a nuclear weapon to do so. [08:18:42] They promise on Iran's mind right now, there's no clear weapons.

Speaker 1 [08:18:47] Can you clarify what you meant when you mentioned the regime change in your truth social post the other night? Which regime change do you want to see? Regime change in Iran? If there was, there was. But no, I don't want to read like that and see everything calmed down as quickly as possible., regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don't want to see someone scared, so we'll see how it does. You know, the Iranians are very good traders, very good business people, and they got a lot of oil. They should they should be fine. They they should be able to rebuild and do a good job. They're never going to have nuclear. But other than that, they should do a great job, which is exactly what I've been saying for years. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, but we're going to be with where's Marco? I think Marco's here. So, you know, I agree with Secretary of State, but we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. They won't have a nuclear weapon. And I will tell you, the last

thing on their minds is if their weapons. They don't even want to think about nuclear. And our B-2 pilots made this all possible. They had a magnificent hit in the dark of night with no moon, no light, no nothing. They hit the target

perfectly, wiped it out, and, the press is very disrespectful. I saw to CNN fake news going, oh, well, maybe it wasn't a perfect kill.

[08:20:05] It was perfect.

Speaker 1 [08:20:06] They said maybe it did destroy it. We agree it did destroy it, but maybe it could have destroyed it more. No, no, it could just destroy everyone. It. And it's very disrespectful to those great geniuses and patriots that flew those planes through tremendous danger. So CNN and MSM, DNC are disgrace and so are the others. I mean, they're pretty much all in for sports, but, it's,, it's an amazing period of time. Now we're going to narrow and we'll get a new set of problems. We'll solve a new set of problems.

[08:20:40] Do you think you'll meet with Zelensky when you're there?

Speaker 1 [08:20:43] Yeah, probably, I say. Yeah, you seem to have a lot to say.

[08:20:46] How you doing? Tough.

Speaker 1 [08:20:50] Is it a tough situation? Should have never been there days ago.

Speaker 2 [08:20:54] That you didn't think the U.S. should have to agree to a 5% increase in GDP on defense?

Speaker 1 [08:21:00] Well, do you think I was the one that said that what they should be paying is, you know, no, I, I should do something. And they're having a problem with Spain. No, there's a problem with Spain. Spain is not agree. Which is very unfair to the rest of the people.

Speaker 2 [08:21:16] The U.S. will be increasing our GDP to 5%.

Speaker 1 [08:21:19] We should pay what everyone else, you know, there in Europe, when, you know, a lot of that money goes to rebuilding their bridges, their roads, so it can take heavy equipment. And, you know, we don't have any roads in Europe. We don't have any bridges in Europe. So, no, I wouldn't be quite the same thing for us, but we're with them.

[08:21:36] Are you. So I think it's article five of NATO.

Speaker 1 [08:21:39] Depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of article five. You know that, right? But I'm committed to, being their friends. You know, I've become friends with many of those leaders, and I'm committed to helping them. What do you want the role of leader to be going forward? Once these other countries are standing by having a unified system? I think we're going to have stronger peace, better peace. And I think we have that. You know, when I went to NATO, they were broke. When I first started this whole thing seems like a long time ago, nine years. But they were broke. I knew it immediately. I see you guys tomorrow. They weren't paying their dues. Seven of the 28 countries at the time, who's 28, were paying their dues, but they weren't paying very much. NATO was broke and I said, you're going to have to pay.

[08:22:28] And we did the whole thing, and now they're paying a lot.

Speaker 1 [08:22:31] Then I said, you're going to have to lift it to 4% or 5%. That 5% is better. And they just I guess they're voting on that today, but they're going to be lifting it to 5%. That's good. It gives them much more power.

Speaker 2 [08:22:43] Mr. president, if there's language in the final summit declaration about aggression by Russia, would you be okay with that kind of language? I'll have to take a look at it.

Speaker 1 [08:22:52] But, you know, I'd like to see a deal with Russia. As you know, Vladimir called me up. He said, can I help you with Iran? I said, no, I don't need help with Iran. I need help with you. And, I hope we're going to be getting a deal done with Russia. It's a shame 6000 soldiers died last week. More 6500 soldiers died last week. Russia, Ukraine. A war that never would have happened if I was president. So enjoy your play. I'm asking one more.

Speaker 3 [08:23:20] Follow up is in your comments just now about article five. That will probably make some people in Europe concerned. Can you clarify what you mean? Are you still committed to mutual defense?

Speaker 1 [08:23:31] I'm committed to saving lives. I'm committed to life and safety. And I'm going to give you an exact definition when I get there. I just don't want to do it on the back of an airplane.

Speaker 3 [08:23:42] And one other question on energy. What's your take on the oil price situation right now? And are you concerned?

Speaker 1 [08:23:48] I love that it dropped almost $10 yesterday. I put out a statement, get it down. Because a lot of people are able to do things when the energy goes down. You're gonna have a lot less conflict. So it came down and our energy Department's doing a great job. We're. We're drilling like we've never drilled before. We're keeping it down. We're gonna keep it down until all these wars are settled. Thank you very much, everybody. Sleeper cells in the United States. I think that a lot of invaders, an incompetent president, had no idea what he was doing. He hardly ever signed a document. Other people signed documents for him. When the European. There was gross incompetence. And among everything else, he let a lot of super cells in. Many from Iran, but hopefully will take care of what Biden did to this country should never be forgotten. You'll get the Nobel Peace Prize now, sir.

[08:24:53] For full protection. A lot of it is going out now. There was one, right?

--

Linda Feldmann

Washington Bureau Chief

The Christian Science Monitor

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