Out-of-town pool report 18: Wheels down JBA

AF1 touched down at JBA at TK. POTUS came back to gaggle right before landing. Some notes from gaggle, more tk -- please compare to audio feed.

On Iran

“We had some pretty good news 20 minutes ago, but it seems to be going very well in the Middle East with Iran.”

“We’ll be negotiating over the weekend”

“The blockade’s been very successful, and of equal success has been the five weeks before the blockade, the combination nis pretty lethal.”

“So we’ll know pretty shortly”

Repeated that much of this has been negotiated. Wouldn’t say what the “good news" is but that we’d be hearing “very soon”

POTUS said they hadn’t agreed to sanctions relief for Iran

Said Iran has to “say something differently” because they “have people they have to cater to”

“Main thing is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon”

Is he the negotiator? “I guess”

“I have people representing me”

On pentagon preparing military action Cuba:

“Depends on what your definition of military action is”

Event tomorrow?

“We have something tomorrow, it’s a little bit of a surprise… something I feel strongly about. Somebody’s coming to the White House who’s very good, very smart, a be try caring person who cares about the country and beyond.” Said it’s a little “unusual” and said “everything is about Iran”

“Tomorrow is unrelated, but it’ll be a form of a news conference”

On turning over nuclear dust: “we’re taking it. We’re going in with Iran.”

More tk

Flagging updated daily guidance. During the flight, a White House official told the pool that POTUS

will have an Oval event at 9 am tomorrow. Pool asked for additional details on the topic, who will be attending, etc, but no additional information was provided.

Myah Ward

White House reporter

POLITICO

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