Out-of-town pool report #4 - arrival at JBA

POTUS boarded AF1 at 6:48 pm, we were wheels up at 6:56 pm.

Some quotes from gaggle below, h/t and many thanks to co-pooler Hugo Lowell:

Charlie Kirk funeral:

“A very sad weekend. We lost a great person. I'll be going on early Sunday morning. We're going to Arizona, taking some people with us, on Air Force One. Maybe you people are going to be with us, I don't know, but we're going to be going Saturday early, early on Sunday morning.”

Rationale for Venezuela strikes?

“A lot of drugs are coming out of Venezuela. A lot of Tren de Aragua. They're trying to get out but we’re stopping them successfully at the border. In Venezuela, we have a tremendous amount of security. They send the Tren de Aragua. That's the gang, probably the worst gang in the world than MS-13 now, I think they're probably considered worst. And we don't like what Venezuela is sending us, whether it's their drugs or whether it's their gang members. We don't like it. We don't like it one bit.

Message to Qatar Prime Minister?

“Look, we're with them. They've been a great ally. A lot of people don't understand about Qatar. Qatar has been a great ally. They also lead a very difficult life because they're right in the middle of everything. So they have to be a little bit politically correct in their terms. But I will tell you, they've been a great ally for the United States.”

Anticipate more strikes w Venezuela?

“Well, we’ll see what happens. There's certainly not a lot of boats out there I'll tell you … the first strike, and then, to a lesser extent, the second. We don't see any. I mean, we are going to see no boats out there, which is fine as far as I’m concerned. There's been very little boat traffic. I can't imagine why.”

Strikes on mainland Venezuela?

“Look, Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It's not acceptable. An option is that it made on that little an option right now, this is what happened? Not an option or not. He had an election that was wrong. It was almost as corrupt as our election in 2020 you know that? You know what I'm talking about. I wouldn't say theirs was much more corrupt, but it was certainly corrupt, but ours was corrupt also.”

Extend Tiktok deadline?

“I may I may not. We’re negotiating Tiktok right now. We may let it die, or we may, I don't know. It depends, up to China. It doesn't matter too much. I'd like to do it for the kids. They like it. I mean, selfishly speaking, I did very well with Tiktok, and I got the youth vote. I got numbers that nobody's ever even come close to in the Republican Party, nobody, if you look back to Romney and all these people who got practically no votes, I got a lot. And some of it was attributed to Tiktok, and a lot was attributed to Charlie.”

Message to Bibi?

“They have to be very, very careful. They have to do something about Hamas. But Qatar has been a great ally to the United States. A lot of people don't know that. I told the Emir, who I think is a wonderful person, actually. I said you need better public relations, because you don't really get the public relations. I mean, people talk of it so badly, and they shouldn't be. Qatar has been a very great ally, so Israel and everybody else, we have to be careful. When we attack people, we have to be careful.”

What leftist orgs to investigate?

“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It's not on the right, like some people like to share the right, the problem we have is on the left. And when you look at the agitator, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burning all over the place, that's the left. That's not the right.

Who are you investigating?

“We’ll see. We’ll be announcing. They’re already under investigation. They’re already under major investigation.”

Of which groups?

“A lot of the people that you would traditionally say are on the left, they're already under investigation.“

Any progress on Fed chair?

“Well, other than I don't like them? Oh, he's incompetent. The Fed chairman is incompetent. Sure, I have three people that I like a lot. Any one of them would do a good job, I think you have a big cut. Because I really, I don't think he can help with cutting. It's perfect for cutting. And the thing that he's hurting most is housing for people, but because we're doing well and everything, energy is way down, groceries are down, everything, almost everything, is way down. But housing, because of the Fed, is not what it should be, but it's not what it is.”

What to expect ahead of UK trip?

“Nothing. The trip to UK is going to be incredible. They've never done it before, twice honored, and that's because we had non consecutive terms. But back in the days of Grover Clinton, they did this for me, so we'll see. But this is the first time it's ever happened that Windsor is supposed to be amazing. They've never used Windsor. They've never had Windsor. And they're going to be doing Windsor Castle. It's going to be very exciting. I think a lot of you are going with you.”

Venezuelan PM called strike illegal?

“What's illegal are the drugs that were on the boat and the drugs that are being sent into our country and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs.”

Is he telling truth it was just fisherman?

“You could see it. You saw the bags of white everything right through the bags. It's nonsense. So we knew it before they even left. We knew it before they had even left. We knew exactly where that boat, where it came from, where the drugs came from, and where it was heading. And the problem is nobody is getting on boats anymore. So maybe that's a good problem.”

Expect NATO to issues sanction Russia?

“They're not doing the job. NATO has to get together. Europe has to get together and do look, Europe is my friend, but they're buying oil from Russia. So we can't be expected to be the only ones that are, you know, full full bore Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don't want them to buy oil. And the sanctions that are putting that they're putting on are not tough enough. And I'm willing to do sanctions, but they're going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I'm doing. Just to clarify, you wouldn't move ahead until NATO moves ahead. Well, I'm ready to move ahead, but they have to do it. I think they will. But right now they're talking and they're not doing. Look, they're buying oil from Russia. We're not buying oil from Russia. They're buying a lot of oil from Russia. That's not the deal.”

European nations still buy LNG from Russia, should they pull back?

“It's not the deal, though. The deal is they're not supposed whether it's natural gas or whether it's cigarettes, I don't care. They're not supposed to be buying from Russia.”

To clarify, will you have to hold a summit to mediate Russia Ukraine?

“Whether you call it a summit or just a get together, doesn't matter, but I'll probably have to get they hate each other so much they almost can't talk. They're incapable of talking to each other.“

Maggie Haberman

New York Times

@maggienyt

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