In town note #6 - POTUS Q&A on economy, Russia/Ukraine

Asked how long Americans could feel pain from tariffs, POTUS said it hasn’t been that bad yet:

“There could be some disturbance, a little bit of disturbance.”

“I solved a little bit of that because I have respect for our auto companies, and I gave them a little bit of a one month reprieve, because it was a it was unfair, although I'm sure they'll take advantage of it.”

On the on/off nature of tariffs:

“There will always be changes and adjustments.”

“If you have a wall in front of you, sometimes you have to go around the wall instead of through it.”

Why do you want to overturn the bipartisan Chips act?

“Because it's hundreds of billions of dollars and it's just a waste of money.“

Do you still believe Putin when he says he wants peace?

“I believe him. I think we're doing very well with Russia, and right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. They don’t have the cards.”

He asks Waltz to speak briefly, then says he thinks “we’re gonna get it settled and stopped.”

Is Putin taking advantage of pausing US military aid to Ukraine?

“I think he’s doing what anybody else would do& And I think he's hitting him harder than he's been hitting him. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now.”

Why not give Ukraine air defenses to prevent Putin from pounding them?

“I have to know that they want to settle. I don’t know that they want to settle. If they don't want to settle, we're out of there because we want them to settle.“

Still going at 12:22&

Eli Stokols

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