Out of town report #14: Transcript

Transcript of gaggle below. Also according to the White House, this was the first time the Emir of Qatar has ever greeted the President aboard Air Force One.

We will be wheels up to Malaysia momentarily.

Q: What did you talk about?

He’s a great guy and a great leader. He helped us a lot. It was very nice that he came. We were just refueling and he came. It was very very nice. Great man. Great gentleman too. We talked about peace in the Middle East. We have great peace in the Middle East. He thinks it enduring. He’s never seen anything like it. And is very happy that I got involved. And he helped. We had a lot of help. We had 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on. This should be an enduring peace.

Q: What’s different this time?

That everybody agrees. A year ago it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power Iran, we took out that nuclear capability. Which would have happened over the next month to two months. That made a whole big difference in the Middle East. It made it possible to do the deal.

Q: Did you talk with them about the new security arrangement between the US and the Qataris will work?

We talked to them about it. We covered a lot of territory. It’s working very well. It’s all smooth. The US doesn’t have to get much involved they’re able to take care of it. Very substantial nations. We have Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar. We have the three and then you have many behind them and even with them. Turkey is involved. Indonesia is involved. Jordan, Egypt. It’s an amazing gourd. And many others that are a little further away or not as close to the situation. Everybody is on board.

Q: Did they express confidence that the ceasefire in Gaza would hold?

I think it will hold. Well if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their world on something so I think it’s going to hold and if it doesn’t then they’ll have a very big problem.

Q: When will the stabilization force be in place - weeks? Months?

Pretty quickly. Yeah, a period of time. I don’t want to give you specifics. They’re doing it right now. They’re actually picking leaders right now. You’re going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace. This has never happened before. 3,000 years this has never happened . Great respect when he came to the airport, came onto the plane. That’s never happened either. He’s a highly respected man.

Q: Have they sent peacekeeping troops into Gaza?

Yeah they’ll do it at the time they need to. By the way, Israel will go in there very easily. You know that, right? Right there you have a country. But you have the Arab countries. Everybody. Muslim, Arab everybody on board. It’s been really an amazing thing. It’s a great success. It’s going to be a long lasting. Hopefully ever lasting peace.

Q: What will Russia have to do for you to reschedule your meeting with Putin?

I’m going to have to know that we’re going to have a deal. I’m not going to be wasting my time. I’ve always had a very great relationship with Vladimir Putin but this has been very disappointing. I thought this would have gotten done before peace in the Middle East. We have Azerbaijan, Armenia - that was very tough. In fact, Putin told me on the phone he said, ‘Boy, that was amazing’ because everybody tried to get that done and they couldn’t. I got it done. There are others. If you look at India and Pakistan. I could say almost any one of the deals that I’ve already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine but it didn’t work out that way. There’s a lot of hatred between the two.

Q: Will you discuss purchases of Russian oil with Xi?

I may be discussing it. You probably saw today, China is cutting back substantially on the purchase of Russian oil and India is cutting back completely. And we’ve done sanctions.

Q: What did do you hope to walk away with from the Xi meeting?

I think a complete deal. I want our farmers to be taken care of. And he wants things also.We’re going to be talking about fentanyl of course. Fentanyl is killing a lot of people. It comes from China. I think we have a really good chance of making a really comprehensive deal.

Q: Have you seen NBA gambling investigation?

Yeah, terrible. I think it’s very bad. Terrible.

Q: How was your call with the Japanese PM?

It was great. She’s beautiful. We’re going to be seeing her very soon. She’s very friendly with Abe.

Sophia Cai

White House Reporter

POLITICO

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