Out of town pool report #12 -- Detroit speech over + summary

The president's remarks ended at 3pm. They lasted about 45 minutes and ran the gamut from the economy to domestic politics to foreign policy. It seemed that no news was broken about Iran, mostly just a reiteration of what he’d already posted on truth social.

Summary:

"Even Venezuela wasn't too bad, was it, huh?" POTUS asked this crowd of businesspeople; maybe a few hundred (only a few hands went up when POTUS asked how many of them work in the car industry). At this mention of his administration's strikes on Venezuela, the crowd began to clap. POTUS continued that anyone who doesn't like his attack on Venezuela must hate America. He later said: "We're bringing Venezuela back."

He also made jokes about his strikes on what his administration has said are drug smuggling boats.

The businesspeople giggled when he called Biden "a real dope." They laughed a lot more when he ticked off his accomplishments and said he was so successful and so hot that they were all lucky just to be in the same room as him today. There was some low chuckling at a hint of the Jerome Powell uproar, when POTUS said, "We have a real stiff in the fed, but that's for another day."

POTUS then talked about growth, inflation, and how "sickening" the Fed policy is and then, alluding to Bessent, who is seated just offstage, POTUS cracked: "Scott agrees, so I'm very happy about this." The audience laughed.

"That jerk will be gone soon," he said later in the speech, to some more chuckles.

There was clapping when POTUS said fraud in Minnesota was being rooted out, and that there would be no more payments from the administration to sanctuary cities.

The crowd listened quietly as POTUS gave a history lesson about tariffs that touched on McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, the great depression, policies from the 1800s, the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Panama Canal -- mosquitoes, malaria, and a snake were invoked at this point -- and Jimmy Carter.

A bit later he acknowledged that he has a tendency to go off teleprompter. The crowd erupted into cheers and laughter when he added: "But isn't it nice to have a president that can go off teleprompter?"

POTUS vented his frustration against Republicans who've been "against" him, including Senators Murkowski and Collins ("disasters," he called them) and Mitt Romney and Rand Paul; POTUS seemed particularly incensed that any Republican could be opposed to his actions in Venezuela. He said Democrats were "smart" and "evil" and "vicious" but that they stick together like glue. This led to a lengthy section of his speech about transgender athletes. "It's a crazy time we're leaving in," he said, ruefully.

Earlier, POTUS sized up the room and made a self-deprecating crack about his age. He's probably the oldest person in the room, he said. He preferred the days when he was the youngest person in the room, he said.

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Shawn McCreesh

White House correspondent

The New York Times

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