← All pool reports
pool report

in-town pool report #5 — WMD / POTUS quotes

From
John Bennett
Sent
Monday, December 15, 2025, 3:32 PM

President Trump announced at 3:29 p.m. that he would shortly sign an executive order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. There is a document on the Resolute Desk in an open blue binder/folder. Trump yielded the lectern to Secretary Hegseth at 3:29 p.m. and moved behind the desk.

POTUS started by giving an upbeat assessment of peace talks related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

TRUMP: “And at this moment, Russia wants to get it and the problem is they'll want to get it ended, and then all of a sudden they won't, and Ukraine will want to get it ended, and all of a sudden they won't.

“So we have to get them on the same page. But I think that's working on very good talk.

Trump said drugs coming into the U.S. by sea is down 94 percent. He called drug flows “a direct military threat to the United States of America.” U.S. military forces have, to date, conducted 13,000 patrols along the U.S.-Mexican border.

He criticized Colorado Gov. Polis over the Tina Peterson case

“Think of that: 3 million pills amounted to billions of dollars worth of drugs, and last month, received another 1.7 million fentanyl pills in the state of Colorado, the poorly run state of Colorado, with a governor who's incompetent, and frankly, with a governor that won't allow our wonderful Tina to come out of a jail, in a high intensity jail, because she caught people cheating on an election, and they said she was cheating. She wasn't cheating.”

Ongoing. More TK.

**

John T. Bennett

White House Correspondent & Editor-at-Large

Roll Call & CQ | FiscalNote publications

| RollCall.com | FiscalNote.com

@bennettjohnt