WH in-town travel pool report #7/ Some more highlights

POTUS has now been speaking for an hour. Some more highlights:

"We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us and so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us."

"We are bringing back a focus on fitness, ability, character, and strength... The purpose of our military is not to protect people's feelings. It's to protect our republic and it's a republic that we dearly love...We'll not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom."

"I've committed to spending over $1 trillion on our military in 2026... That's a hell of a lot of money."

"We've brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military’s first and most important priority. Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far-reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America is under invasion."

"Washington DC went from our most unsafe city to our safest city in just about a month... The Democrats run most of the cities that are in bad shape... The radical left Democrats."

POTUS criticised crime in Chicago. "They need the military desperately."

He said Portland "looks like a war zone" and he told the governor it looks like a "nightmare".

On allowing the military to retaliate against protesters: "I say they spit, we hit."

Trump noted that last month he signed an executive order to establish a National Guard quick reaction force. "This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it's the enemy from within. And we have to handle it before it gets out of control."

Circling back to Washington DC, POTUS claimed: "We haven't had a crime in Washington for so long."

"America is respected again as a country. We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs."

POTUS claimed that Biden fell down stairs "every day" and riffed on the perils of this for presidents. He admitted that President Obama dealt with stairs well.

On the Ukraine war: "I'm so disappointed in President Putin. I thought he would get this thing over with." POTUS said he asked Putin: "Are you a paper tiger?"

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