Out of Town Pool Report #9 -- Gaggle

Trump Gaggle – on AFI

President Trump gaggled with reporters on AFI for roughly 20 minutes, taking questions on the jobs report, who will be the permanent DNI, the Knicks and other topics.

Here are some of the questions and answers

We had incredible job numbers today. The job numbers came out and they are fantstic.Far better than even anticipated.

Do you think the fed should cut rates given the job numbers?

I’m going to let Kevin make that decision. I’d like to see lower interest rates because each point is $600 million dollars.

We have more auto plants than we’ve had before. We have more oil plants than we’ve ever had before. When the numbers are good they should be allowed to grow.

Who is under consideration for permanent position of Director of National Intellgience

I’ve have five interviews and a very good person watching things, Bill Pulte. But I have five interviews.

On how long Bill Pulte will serve as DNI director

It depends on how long it takes to get somebody in there. Bill Pulte is very good. He’s very talented.

The presidnet also said he “wouldn’t mind” staffing cuts at ODNI

Are you consdering the possibilty of the U.S. government taking stakes in AI companies?

I did it with Intel so I made a deal with Intel. I made for the country $50 million. I took a stake in Intel and it was given to us. And it was just 9 months ago and we made $50 million on the deal.

Trump says he has a meeting in “the very near future” with AI companies to discuss a potential partnership withi US equity stakes. He confirmed it was “all of them” when asked which iones.

“There’s so miuch money and its so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the AMerican public essentially becomes a partner.

On the Knicks in the NBA finals

I’ll be going to game 3. I thought it was amazing. I thought the knicks were an amazing team the way they played. They started off slow and they just got stronger and stronger. Wemby looks like he’s going to be a great player, but [the Knicks] played well.

On his favorite Knick

Brunsons if fantastic. Townes if fantastic. They have a great team.

On the cost of tickets for the game reaching $8,000

They can watch it on television. You’re sort of semi free to watch it on television. That’s the way life goes. If the team wasn’t a big success you, you could go very easily.

Sen Tillis has said he won’t confirm Todd Blanche unless he condemns Jan.6. Do you have a reaction to that

Sen Tillis is a loser. That’s why he didn’t run. He didn’t run because I wouldn’t support him. He’s just an angry man because he’s not going to be a senator any longer. He wasn’t respected anymore. He fought a lot of people. He fought Pete Hegseth who turned out to be a gem. Sen. Tillis is a loser. He’s an angry man. He was forced to leave the senate because I wouldn’t support him and he quit. So now he’s trying to make trouble. Todd Blanche is brilliant guy who every body likes and everybody respects.

Tom Tillis is like ‘I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna do that.” He needed my support and i said I can’t give you my support. He’s not qualified. He’s not good for the position for senator.

On the IPO of Fannie and Freedie

We are thinking of doing an IPO

Salary cap for baseball

“I know so much about sports. THey should have done that a long time ago.”

Have you been briefed Any updates on the FBI probe into cocaine found in the White House during the Biden adminsitration?

No. But I might ask about it.

Have you made a decision on the arms sales to Taiwan and have you talked to the Taiwan president about it.

We’re looking at it.

On John Bolton pleading guilty on the classified documents case

I was never much of a fan of John Bolton. I never thought he was a smart person. He’s was radical right in terms of war. Not in terms of other things. He wanted to go to war with anybody who opened thier mount. He was involved with Bush….He created a lot of problems. But he always wanted to kill people. He’s a bad guy. John Bolton. He’s a dirty guy and they caught him.

If you look at that case, it;s a great honor to have helped from the standpoint of

John Bolton is someone who is a very dishonest guy. And I guess he’s paying the price for certianly being dishonest.

How do you want to be involved in Kennedy Center going forward?

Same thing. Chairman. Somebdy has to do it. It’s lost hundreds of millions of dollars for years.

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Jeff Mordock

White House Reporter

The Washington Times

3600 New York Avenue

Washington, DC 20002

Ph: XXX-XXX-XXXX

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