In-town pool report #7: Trump remarks over

POTUS spoke for about 47 minutes at the lunch on a wide range of topics. He did not appear to be using a teleprompter and only briefly looked down at his prepared remarks. Some highlights:

On the “big beautiful bill” he signed: “The Senate was tougher than the House … Actually, amazingly, shouldn't have been. We had a slightly bigger margin than the Senate proportionally, but it was brutal. They said that, sir, we have 12 hard nos. You know, hard no is not recoverable, right?”

He singled out a few lawmakers: “Rand Paul, who always votes no. They call him just say no. I got him elected. I had to go to Kentucky twice to do rallies to get him elected. But they forget. A lot of politicians forget … Tillis was a no. They said he was brave. But he resigned the following morning.” (Note: Tillis did not resign - he said he would not run for re-election).

Trump also joked: “I said to one guy, he's a very, very unattractive man, but he's smart and he's rich and I said, you better hope we get this thing passed because your wife will be gone within about two minutes.”

He criticized policies that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports: “As you probably know, we ended the woke stuff”

On Fed chair Powell: “We have a bad fed chairman, really bad… I tried being nice to the guy. It doesn't help. He's like a knucklehead. No, he's a knucklehead. Stupid guy. He really is.”

On faith: “We have to bring religion back into the country, and we're starting to do that, I think, at a very high level.”

He added that “We're getting rid of the Johnson Amendment that didn't let the pastors speak.”

“We’re going to continue the fight for Judeo Christian values of our founding fathers.”

On Democrats: “They're evil people in many ways, but they stick together.. you don't have a Mitt Romney in the midst who makes you suffer.”

He spoke about his past indictments: “I was under investigation more than the late, great Alphonse Capone … I got indicted five times and impeached two times. All bullshit, right?”

On the attempted assassination in Butler, Pa. on July 13, 2024: “It’s remarkable to think that it was only one year ago this week that my time on Earth nearly ended… I do believe that my life was saved by God to really Make America Great Again.” The crowd stood up and clapped.

Trump’s remarks were live streamed.

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