In-town Pool Report #3

More quotes and details on the president’s South Lawn departure for Florida. He emerged from the White House at 7:57. He was tieless but wearing a red ball cap with GULF OF AMERICA in large letters and, in smaller type, “Yet Another TRUMP Development.” He took questions until 7:59, boarded Marine One and lift off was at 8:01.

A reminder that these quotes are not as reliable as the official White House transcript:

Good morning. We're going out to Alligator Alcatraz….it should be very exciting and very good. Worked very hard on it with Ron and everybody and I think it's going to be great. And then I'll be back here fighting for the bill. And I hear it's going okay, we're moving along, but we'll be back here pretty early.

Warning Republicans not to go too crazy with the cuts. Are there parts of the bill or amendments that you think cuts too much?

We're going to have to see the final version. I don't want to go too crazy with cuts. I don't like cuts. There are certain things that have been cut, which is good. I think we're doing well. We're going to have to see, it’s some very complicated stuff. Great enthusiasm as you know. And I think in the end we're going to have it. What do you think Karoline?

Mamdani having a hard time condemning the global intifada?

I think he's terrible. He's a communist. The last thing we need is a communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States. So we have a communist? I think he's bad news and I think we're going to have a lot of fun with him watching him because he has to come right through this building to get his money. And don't worry, he's not going to run away with anything. I think he's, frankly, I've heard he's a total nut job. I think the people in New York are crazy. If they go this route, I think they're crazy. We will have a communist for the first time. Really? A pure, true communist. He wants to operate the grocery stores, the department stores. What about the people that are there? I think it's crazy.

What happened to Elon Musk?

Nothing. He's upset that he's losing his EV mandate and he’s upset.. He's very upset about things. But he could lose a lot more than that. I can tell you right now, Elon can lose a lot more than that.

Ceasefire?

We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week.

We want to get our hostages out. We want to get the hostages out.

If the bill doesn’t pass, will you go item by item?

I think we're going to get there. It's tough. We're trying to bring it down, break it down so it's really good for the country. Trying to get a lot for everybody. And it's a big bill. And smaller bills would've been easy, but they wouldn't have been as good. I think it's going to do okay.

Alligator Alcatraz that you get eaten by an alligator if you try to escape?

I guess that's the concept. This is not a nice business. I guess that's the concept. …you know, the snakes are fast, but alligators, we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator. Okay? If they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line. Look like this. And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%. Not a good thing.

What will you talk to Netanyahu about on Monday?

He’s's coming here. We're talk about a lot of things. We're going to talk about the great success we had. I mean we had an incredible, in Iran, we had an incredible success like really nobody's had in many, many years. That was a precision war strike. And the word obliteration can now be used because the Atomic Energy Commission said you can't even get into the place. It was demolished. It was really demolished. It was a great, brilliant strike and how to go forward. We’re also going to talk about Gaza. We want to get the rest. We got a lot of hostages back, but we're going to talk about gaza.

Inaudible question

I dunno, we'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies, Peter. But Elon's very upset that the EV mandate, iss going to be terminated. And you know what? When you look at it, who wants, not everybody wants an electric car. I don't want an electric car. I want to have maybe gasoline, maybe electric, maybe a hybrid, maybe someday a hydrogen. You have a hydrogen car. It has one problem if it blows up. So I'm going to give that one to Peter. Let Peter test it up Hydrogen. And when they blow up, it's serious. They find you five blocks away…

Are there any countries we can expect to see before the July ninth deadline on tariffs?

Everything's going well. Honestly, everything. This is very complicated because it's very big. A lot of different areas. Look, the Republicans have their heart in it. The Democrats, they just want to destroy our country. A Democrat wants to destroy the country. They won't vote on it. They don't vote on anything. It’s the biggest tax start in history. Everything. Everything is the biggest in history. It's the best bill we've ever had. We can't get one Democrat vote.

When do you think you’ll have final passage?

Hopefully soon. Hopefully today if we can final passage. I say final is let's take Senate at a time. Okay. But I think Senate should be today and we go over to the House

Senator Murkowski. Is there any way to placate her?

Who knows? You tell me. You tell me. Alaska's done so well with me. There's never been a president better to Alaska than me. But it doesn't mean people appreciate it.

Asked if he was worried about the opposition of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

We're going to have a good relationship with the Catholic Bishops. As you know, I won the Catholic vote by a lot. That's by a lot and we have very good relationships and we'll see what happens. We deal with them and we deal with them well. But I won the Catholic population by a lot.

Mr. President, what's your message for republicans that are not yet on board?

I think it would be very wise for them to get on board. I really do. It's a great bill. Nothing's easy because we made a great big, we added everything in there for everybody and it's also a beautiful economic development bill. Great for the border, great for low taxes, and I would say that they have to do it.

Can you do it by the July 4^th deadline?

We want to keep it to the July 4th.

You're open on that?

I'd love to do July 4th, but I think it's very hard to do July 4th. It was two months ago, I would think maybe July 4th, but somewhere around there

Elon Musk? Elon is not getting his mandate. He wanted an electric mandate and he should have known. I wouldn't do that. I couldn't do that. I campaigned to this thing for two years. I never understand why he did what he did, but he's not going to get his mandate and he better be careful. He might not get anything else.