In town pool report #11 - quotes on Ukraine and tariffs

Correction: previous report said this was a Business Roundtable annual meeting. It is a quarterly meeting, not an annual meeting.

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CEO Chuck Robbins of Cisco: "Congratulations on the ceasefire from Ukraine and Russia today. That was hugely significant."

President Trump: "Well it's Ukraine. But we hope to get Russia. You know, I've been saying Russia is easier to deal with than Ukraine, which is not supposed to be the way it is but it is. We hope to get Russia."

Robbins asked what the thread is that ties together his actions on trade and tariffs and the "large scale effort to root out wasteful spending in the federal government."

Trump: "Well, it's basically Make America Great Again. We have a bloated, very dishonest, in many cases, federal government and bureaucracy. That's been a long time coming. Somebody should have done this a long time ago. And we're cutting numbers nobody's ever seen before."

Trump describe his effort to get companies to build more factories in the US.

Trump: "Also very importantly, the tariffs. They don't want to pay 25% or whatever it may be, it may go up higher, maybe go up higher. Look, the higher it goes the more likely it is they are going to build and ultimately the biggest win is not the tariff. That's a big win. That's a lot of money. But the biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs. That's a bigger win than the tariffs themselves."

As the pool was being ushered out, Robbins asked what is strategy was to lower the overall cost of living and make everyday expenses more affordable. Your pooler could not hear Trump's answer.

Brian Bennett

Senior White House Correspondent

TIME

@ByBrianBennett

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