WH Travel Pool Note #41: POTUS gaggle

The President giggled for about 14 minutes right as the AF1 was taxing for take off (the gaggle slightly delayed departure).

He was asked if the peace can hold when he’s no longer President:

“I can't answer it. I know this, and you are all witness, we go, and I get 25,000, 35,000. if you look at a normal president, we'll get 300 people, and that's not bad, you know? They’ll go to a ballroom, they get 300 people, we get 35, we had 117,000 people in New Jersey. And so I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I'll be out there fighting for whoever it may be.

On his impromptu remarks about giving Bibi a pardon he said he didn’t warn Bibi ahead of time:

“No, I told him I didn't want to bring up the pardon, but it was just a perfect spot. It was good timing. Wouldn't you say? He was getting a very good hand, and when they stopped, I said, "Why didn't you give this guy a pardon? If he didn't get a good hand, I wouldn't have done that." But the timing was right…// It's a little risque, you know, to bring it up a pretty sore subject in Israel, but the people were fantastic.

On crime in cities like Chicago and his message to Dem governors and mayors: “I want them to admit they have crime.”

Will he use the Insurrection Act:

Well, I could use it if I wanted to, I could use it. Look, that's a very simple answer. I'm allowed to use the insurrection Act. In fact, that was on Stefopoulis today, is Slopadopoulos Show.

They asked Sloppy Kris Christy about the Insurrection Act. He said, "Well, if you're talking about the insurrection Act, he's got the absolute right to use that." And he said a couple of things and he said, 50% of the presidents that served in office have used the insurrection Act. And the insurrection Act, according to all of them, said, "I can't even be challenged. I'm not I don't have to go there yet because I'm winning on appeal. You know, you're right. We're losing with radical and left judges generally, radical left judges, and we're winning on appeal. So we'll see what happens.

His message to Governor Pritzker:

Trump: Well, I think he should beg for help, because he's running a bad operation, and he's letting people be killed in his city because he doesn't in Chicago. And I love Chicago. Chicago can be a great city again, and very quickly, I would have Chicago cleaned out, the criminals removed, we would remove them.

He was asked for updates on the shutdown and whether he’d have meetings with Republican leadership this week. He reiterated his message that it’s about Democrats wanting to give healthcare to illegal immigrants. And said he talks to Thune and Johnson all the time.

He praised Bill Clinton for praising him on Gaza: “I’ve always gotten along with him… He used to be a friend of mine, came to my wedding, you know. So did she. A lot of people don't know that.”

Asked about some states like Egypt wanting a two state solution he said: “They are talking about different plan. I'm talking about something very much different. We're talking about rebuilding Gaza....//I mean, a lot of people like the one State Solution, some people like the two state solutions. We'll have to see. I haven't commented on that…//I will decide what I think is right, but I'd be in coordination with other states and other other countries.”

He bristled at a reporter’s question about some people calling the declaration of peace in the Middle East premature.

He said Erdogan might be able to help with Russia. And added: “You know, when NATO has a problem with Erdogan, which they often do, they call me to talk to him, and I've never failed in working it out like immediately.”

He confirmed Zelenskyy will be in the White House on Friday.

FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Wasn't it amazing? Even that last meeting, when you see the heads of those countries, as, those are serious countries,. But it was I thought it was fantastic.

I thought– And seeing, though, I mean, the so called hostagesages with those kids come back home, the way their parents just went…just went crazy. Your father would not be that way with you.

It'd be okay, but he wouldn't be like that.

Reporter: I would get a hug.

Trump: A hug?

A minor hug, okay.. Let's go. No, he wouldn't.

I'm only kidding. So, uh, how are you doing? Everybody okay?

Reporter: How are you feeling?

Trump: I feel good, good.

It's a long day. It's a long day, and we live a couple of big ones. At first one was getting great reviews.

Yeah, we'll tell you. there's a lot of meat in there. been dissecting it and just playing it all night long. It's's been very good. I think it's it's a very important day.

It's nobody thought this was possible. Very good. And the press has been very respectful for a change.

Doesn't happen often. Go ahead, Peter. Let's go.

Reporter: What does it tell you about the world that it seems like you got a much better reception in Israel than you would get in, like, New York City right now.

I think I get a great reception in New York City.

Reporter: I'm not saying that you don't, but it was like it was on another level today.

Well, yeah, you're right. It was incredible, but I went to the Bronx, and we had 30, 311,000 people in a park in the Bronx in New York City during the campaign, 31,000, you remember that, and it was the friendliest grad you've ever seen. and very diverse, but it was friendly. I mean, New York is good, it's good.

Reporter: New York City, bad example, but it was, I don't know if you can see.

Are you admitting you made a mistake? I don't believe it. This is breaking news.

Reporter: No, first rules of politics Never admit a mistake. But it was in the motorcade, I don't knosw if you can see, there were people hanging out of every apartment balcony inside the Kneeset.

Okay, so I've heard, like, they said, if you did Russia or if you did, you know, lots of different combinations, they say the Middle East blows it away, and I said, Why? Experts say– It's just thousands of years, nothing's been done. It's a whole thing with the.

Arabs, Jewish people, this and everybody. It's just it's just never been done before. And there's a certain mystery to the Middle East.

I mean, look, it's only because of Redings, you know, you're only as good as the ratings, right? If they weren't getting ratings, your people at Fox and by the way, Trey is excellent.

We did it very quick interview. I was running to the second one where we were pretty late.

Rerporter: Something that we heard from some Israelis on the ground. They want to know how the piece holds when you are not the president. So, three years from now,

I can't answer it. I know this, and you are all witness, we go, and I get $25,000,35,000 if you look at a normal president, we'll get 300 people, and that's not bad, you know? They’ll go to a ballroom, they get 300 people, we get 35, we had 117,000 people in New Jersey. And so I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I'll be out there fighting for whoever it may be..

Reporter: Did you tell Bibi beforehand that you were gonna go off script and –

No, I told him I didn't want to bring up the pardon, but it was just a perfect spot. It was good timing. Wouldn't you say? He was getting a very good hand, and when they stopped, I said, "Why didn't you give this guy a pardon? If he didn't get a good hand, I wouldn't have done that." But the timing was right what do you think, Katie?

Good timing for that one, right?

Reporter: I think people thought it was pretty funny.

Yeah, it was good.

It worked out well. It's a little risque, you know, to bring it up a pretty sore subject in Israel, but the people were fantastic.

Reporter: Mr. President, you spoke to –

Oh here we go you’re gonna can ask more questions this one, yeah? Go ahead.

Reporter: I have some good questions.

You do, you were very nice today. Go ahead.

Reporter: You talked to President El-Sisi and you spoke about in that room how Egypt has a little crime, and you said, it's all about leadership. You talked about..

Well, they're very strongly crime.

Reporter: You talked about some of the governors.

You wouldn't believe her strong, but they are very strong, but they don't have the kind of crime. They don't have the violence.

They may have other kinds of crime, but they are a violent crime. You can actually walk down a park and not get mugged or hit over the head with a basement.

Reproter: Do you want to see some U.S. governors be more like Egypt?

No, I want them to be stronger and tougher and not allow us to have record breaking crime in Chicago in different places. I want them to admit they have crime, so there were 4,000 shootings in Chicago. murders over a fairly short period of time, meaning like a year and a half, I think, 4,000 murders. Many, many thousands of you're hit by a bullet, but don't die."

I want him to say we have a problem. Could Trump bring in the troops and solve the problem, like I did in D.C., like, I'm doing in Memphis? Have you seen the crimes way down in Memphis, and we've only been there seven days?

way down.

Reporter: The courts have been standing in your way here. It's held up..,

Trump: the lower courts.

Reporter: Are you thinkin about using the insurrection Act.

Trump:

Well, I could use it if I wanted to, I could use it. Look, that's a very simple answer. I'm allowed to use the insurrection Act. In fact, that was on Stefopoulis today, is Slopadopoulos Show.

They asked Sloppy Kris Christy about the Insurrection Act. He said, "Well, if you're talking about the insurrection Act, he's got the absolute right to use that." And he said a couple of things and he said, 50% of the presidents that served in office have used the insurrection Act. And the insurrection Act, according to all of them, said, "I can't even be challenged. I'm not I don't have to go there yet because I'm winning on appeal.

You know, you're right. We're losing with radical and left judges generally, radical left judges, and we're winning on appeal. So we'll see what happens.

Reporter: I'll be speaking to Governor J.B. Pritzker tomorrow. Do you have any messages or questions for him?

Trump: Well, I think he should beg for help, because he's running a bad operation, and he's letting people be killed in his city because he doesn't in Chicago. And I love Chicago. Chicago can be a great city again, and very quickly, I would have Chicago cleaned out, the criminals removed, we would remove them.

You know, in D.C., we took out 1,700 career criminals, hard line criminals. That's why you're so good right now. D.C setting records the other way.

It's never been so safe, and the restaurants have never done better business. They're opening up new They were closing restaurants, now they're opening new restaurants. I can do the same thing on a larger scale in Chicago.

And Pritkka should ask me to do it, but when you mention insur I mean, you were the one that mentioned one of you mentioned Insurrection Act? I mean, I could do that, and many presidents have. Do you 50%, Katie, 50% of the presidents have used the insurrection because they don't want to go through this stuff where somebody said, there's no crime in 4,000 people got shot.

You know, right? Maybe I'll have to use that? You don't have to convince because she's tends to be on the conservative side.

Reporter: Do you hae an update on the Schumer shut down the Democrats still continuing to...

Trump: Well, it is a Schumer shutdown. I mean, it's, look, they want to have health careare for illegals that have come in.

Many of these people are criminals, and they want to have healthcare. And what it also does is, you know, we have nobody coming in now. We haven't really locked out.

If they start winning cases like this, we're gonna have a …because they're going to come up for health care, and the other things that they're, well, look at this education, healthcare, gives everything away. People come up for that. People come from other countries for that, so we can't have it, we can't have that.

We have people coming into our country, but they're coming in legally.

Reporter: Do you have any more meetings?

We have the strongest board that we've ever had, but they are coming in, Katie.

They're coming in legally, through a process.

Reporter: Do you have any planned meetings with House and Senate leadership on the Republican side figure out this week?

I talk to them all the time, John's been great, and Mike has been great.

Those two guys have done a great job. But we're dealing with a bunch of radical left lunatics that have lost an election in a landslide that don't even admit that. I mean, think of it, they lost the election 2,700 in terms of counties to 525.

That's where the map is entirely, right. They lost all seven swing stes, they lost the popular vote, and then they say, "Oh, the election was closed." She says the ele election was a landslide, but they lie.

You know, they can take any subject like Newsome. He says, "Oh, no, Los Angeles is doing great." If we didn't go into Los Angeles, you would have had they would have had to cancel the Olympics.

And the head of law enforcement said, and he said it very strongly, "We could not have handled this if Trump didn't bring those people in." Two weeks later, he said, ", we could have," because he was told to say that. But we did a great job in Los Angeles.

You wouldn't have First of all, you lost half of it with the fires, and this would have been. I think this would have been maybe even worse. They had no control.

When we went in, they had the police had totally lost control. And he admitted it. The head, whoever he is, whatever his name is, he admitted it, very strongly.

Reporter:

What’s your reaction to your President Bill Clinton giving you credit for ending the war on Gaza?

I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with him.

He used to be a friend of mine, came to my wedding, you know. So did she. A lot of people don't know that.

But, uh, no, he's I've always liked him. I thought he was very nice, actually. And what is he doing?

He's telling the truth. Because nobody else has been able to do talking about the Middle East, yes.

Reporter: Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about your conversations with world leaders today. You said that everybody is unified over your plan, but we heard from President El-Sisi calling for a two state solution an independent Palestinian states.

They are talking about different plan. I'm talking about something very much different. We're talking about rebuilding Gaza. I'm not talking about single state or double state or two state. We're talking about, the rebuilding of Gaza.

Reporter: What’s the road ahead of governing Gazaision?

I mean, a lot of people like the one State Solution, some people like the two state solutions. We'll have to see.

I haven't commented on that.

Reporter: How do you see bridging that? Because you have the Arab countries.

I will decide what I think is right, but I'd be in coordination with other states and other other countries.

Reporter: Some people might say, if it was a premature declaring peace for the whole Middle East, you know, 3,000 years a piece.

You want more people to be killed? What do you want another three, 400,000 people to be killed?

Is that what you're looking for?

Reporter: In terms of the risks in Gaza are you have already seen..

So, you mean let' fight on for another couple of years and lets a more buildings fall down on top of people and keep it going on we did it the right way.

We did it. I think our timing was perfect, actually. How many times You don't really mean that.

You mean you want them to fight on, right?

Reporter: I'm just asking about the phase issue of the negotiations and how confident you are that those can get underway in.

You know, we have a lot of power.

That was a power room. Those people, those are the richest countries. I think now with tariffs, I think we're the richest country in the world, actually, in the United States.

We're taking in hundreds of millions of dollars, but those are, you really seriously rich countries, and they can handle it.

Reporter: Some of those players are particularly Erdogan, but they also help in the war between Russia and Ukraine?

Yeah, Erdogan can. He's respected by Russia, Ukraine, I can't tell you about, but he is respected by Putin. And he's a friend of mine, you know, you can see. I get along with the tough ones.

I don't get along with the weak ones. I get along with the tough ones. I don't know what that is, but Erdogan’s been great with me.

You know, when NATO has a problem with Erdogan, which they often do, they call me to talk to him, and I've never failed in working it out like immediately. Is that right?

Karoline Leavitt: It's true.

How's Karoline doing? Is she doing good? How you doing?

KL: Doing great.

Should Karoline be replaced?

REporter: That's up to you, sir.

It'll never heappen.

KL: Nobody wants to stick up for me. No, great.

Reporter. She’s doing a great job.

KL: Thank you, Katie

And those lips, they move like a machine gun, right?

Reporter: you on the leaders you who are in that you think are weak?

No, I won't comment to that, but you know probably who they are. There were a couple in the room, but but overall, overall, I thought, that was an amazing group of people. I don't think they've ever seen an assemblance like that.

Between power money, you know, et cetera, et c. There's never been anything like that.

But you know what? I have to, because the plane is going to take off.

Reporter: Is Zelensky at the White House on Friday?

I think so, yeah. Yes.