In-town pool report #8a: quotes from oval office

Splitting quotes into two since there was so much said. This is primarily Ukraine with the DOGE questions. More Ukraine + tariffs to come.

Trump:

"A lot of progress has been made. We've had some very good talks with Russia; we've had some very good talks with others and we're trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine."

"We've come a long way in a short period of weeks."

Macron:

"Our common objective is to build peace -- a solid and longstanding peace" in Ukraine.

"We are personal friends, as you'd imagine, because we work well together."

"Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more on defense and security on this continent, as well as to be a reliable partner."

Trump:

"We're getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time."

US has spent $350 billion on Ukraine: "How we got there, I don't know, but that's a lot of money."

"We had nothing to show for it, it was the Biden administration's fault."

Europeans have spent about $100 billion on Ukraine

Will an agreement include security guarantees for Ukraine

"Europe is going to make sure that nothing happens. I don't think it's going to be much of a problem. I think once we settle there's going to be no more war in Ukraine."

Media reporting that the US agreed to shut down military base in Greece at the request of Turkey and Russia, is that true?

"It's a no" - Hegseth

"If I didn't become president, Ukraine would right now still be at a level where they're not even thinking about peace. It's a sad thing that this happened. This would have never happened - this war - if I were president."

"On a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody, savage problem solved"

"It could lead to World War Three, if it's not stopped. There'll be a point at which it's not going to stop at those two countries."

"Once the agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business."

Macron (translated):

"We want to build peace with Ukraine. As President Trump mentioned, there are already 1 million dead and wounded in Ukraine since the war began."

Trump on DOGE email:

"I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week?' What he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?' And then if you don't answer like you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist."

"We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far. And we've just started - we're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold."

Q: Some heads of departments told employees not to respond

"That was done in a friendly manner. Only things such as perhaps Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they're working on confidential things. And they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week. "

--

Shira Stein

Washington correspondent

The San Francisco Chronicle

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