In-Town Press Pool #4 - POTUS AF1 gaggle - More toplines

Here's some more toplines from this evening's AF1 gaggle with POTUS.

I forgot to offer the otter earlier. My apologies.

https://otter.ai/u/dPKEoZToeoH-fXDPD2NBV86i8_I?utm_source=copy_url

What's the main hold up to getting a [Urkaine-Russia] deal?

Main hold up is the same things that have been holding it up for the last year. Look, this is a war. This Biden's war. This isn't my war. This is a war that should have never happened, but it's complex, because you have beats and bounds, you have streets, you have rivers, you have everything.

Where does it end? So it's a little bit complicated, but I've had that in five of the other wars. You know, there are beats and bounds. It's a location, it's boundaries. And I got them done fast in days, and this one is just going on. And you know what's happened here is there were times when Putin didn't want to make a deal, times when Zelensky didn't want to make a deal, and it was like opposite times. Now I think they both want to make a deal, but we'll find out

Did something change that makes you think that Putin and Zelensky are now serious about it?

I'm not making any predictions. There are no changes. I think that President Putin would like to make a deal. I think that President Zelensky would like to make

a deal.

What did Zelensky say today? He came all the way there to meet you. What did he say?

He said he'd like to make a deal. Because people know the parameters. It's not like, you know, we're discussing things that have been discussed for six or seven months. And he came and he said he wants to make a deal. Because I wasn't necessarily sure. I think he should want to make a deal. It's, it's pretty tough. It's really tough for the people of Ukraine,

They live without heat where it's 20 degrees below zero. It's very cold...that's a colder climate, for the most part, than Canada, and they live without heat. I asked him, 'How do they do that?' And he gave me an answer. It's pretty amazing what they do to live. That's no way to live.

Can you elaborate more on [the Greenland framework deal]? We're trying to understand what exactly the concept is here. Is the US going to actually take ownership?

We'll have something in two weeks. There's a good spirit to get something done, and we have to have a strong freedom. We have to have the ability to do exactly what we want to do. We have a great military.

I built a great military. I did this in my first term. And continuation, big continuation. I think what we did with the defense companies was very important too, because we need things faster. We have the best weapons in the world by far. We showed that last week with Venezuela. We have the best weapons in the world. We have to make them faster.

You mentioned Venezuela. You've expressed optimism in your relationship. Are you obliged to let her stay in power?

Well, right now, they're very strong leadership. I mean, they're showing very strong leadership. I also spoke with Maria today, and you know who I like a lot, but Delci, she's shown very strong leadership so far, I have to say. And we're moving in, you know, to the United States, millions of barrels of oil as we speak.

You know that you see it. You see what's happening. Over 50 million barrels of oil is already moved or moving into the United States, and much more to come. And we're working with them, and they'll get some of that, and we're going to get some of that, and it will be divided up, and our country will become richer, and that means our taxes are going to be going down and they will do better. Venezuela is going to do better than they've ever done.

So if that could change it, even with us. You know, taking a very fair piece of it, Venezuela will do better by far than they've ever done. They're going to be very rich, and she has done a very good job.

Have you spoken to Jamie Dimon since the lawsuit?

No, I haven't spoken to him. He debanked me. So we'll see if that means anything, but I think it should. You shouldn't be debanked. You get the bank if you don't have money or if you default. I have this great company. And all of a sudden I was told, No, you can't do that. It's so wrong. I don't know what their excuse would be. Maybe their excuse would be the regulators. I don't know. But regardless, I guess it's a good lawsuit, because every pundit has come out and said, Trump has a great lawsuit here. You're not allowed to do what they did. Jamie Dimon, what he did. He's not allowed to do that.

Where do things stand with Iran? The US has got sizable military assets.

You know, we have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case, we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we'll see what happens. We have a big force going toward Iran. I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely. I stopped 837 hangings on Thursday, they would have been dead. Every one of them would have been hung. This is like from 1000 years ago.

This is an ancient culture. Very smart people, by the way. It's an ancient culture. 837 mostly young men were going to be hung on Thursday. And I said, if you hang those people, you're going to be hit harder than you've ever been hit. It'll make what we did to your iran nuclear look like peanuts. And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place. They canceled it. And they actually said they canceled it.

They didn't postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign. But we have a an armada. We have a masive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won't have to use it.

You said today they want to talk, and we'll talk. So if you set something up and they asked you?

We've talked to them a lot. They should have made a deal before we hit them with the nuclear because we really that was a devastating hit. That whole area is out of play, and if they try to do it again, they have to go to another area. We'll hit them there too, just as easily, much more easily, because that was very advanced. They were building that for 10 years, and they'd have to start anew. That was a total Obliteration

On potentially being chairman of the board of peace past his second term in office

I have the right to be if I want. I mean, I'll decide, see what happens, but they'd like me to be. It's in theory for life. But I'm not sure I want that but, but it's going to do great work with Gaza and maybe other things, you know, could be beyond Gaza, and we'll work with with the United Nations, who I've always said the United Nations has great potential, great potential.

On taking money out of a 401K to help on purchasing a home. Is that something that the administration is working on?

I'm not a huge fan but other people like it. They're talking about taking money out to put a deposit down on a home. And one of the reasons I don't like it is that their 401 k's are doing so well, you know, 401 k's are up 80 90% in some cases.

And you know, you're talking about a lot of people, we're talking about very mainstream, and they're really doing and the housing market is good, but the 401 k's are doing much better than the housing market. I like keeping their 401 K's in great shape.

Kerry Picket | White House Correspondent

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3600 New York Ave NE | Washington, D.C. 20002

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