WH in-town pool report #8/ POTUS on Air Force One, data centers and China in detail

Some more detailed comments from POTUS in the Oval Office on three topics:

Air Force One

Question: "Does the new Air Force One still need to be maxed out? Is it safe to fly to Ireland?"

POTUS: "Yeah, it's going to go away and it's a magnificent plane. Interior-wise, the best. Engine is the best. Oh yeah, no, it's, well, it has a lot of stuff, but to max it out, meaning you can go into any territory, it'll take about 60 days and it's being sent in October to be maxed out."

Question: "And what do you plan to do with the plane after you leave office?"

POTUS: "It'll probably go to the museum."

Question: "Probably. Is that up in the air at this point?"

POTUS: "I haven't made a decision, but it will probably go to the museum. It's scheduled to go to the museum.""

Question: "If it doesn't go to the museum, what would you do with it?"

POTUS: "I think it's going to the museum."

Data centers

Question: "What is your message to communities who say they don't like data centers?"

POTUS replied: "Well, I look at data centers very, very carefully. I mean, being formerly in the real estate business, I was really good at real estate, and I can tell you, if I were running a state or a town, if I was a mayor or governor, I would want as many data centers as I can because they throw off tremendous amounts of money. They don't take any energy because the new ones that I approved all create their own energy. We're giving them the right to build their own power plant so they don't have to use the grid.

"They're actually taking their excess energy and they're building some incredible plants along with the building, so they're building their own generation plant and the excess is going back into the grid. So we're actually making money on that. It's going to bring energy costs down. The data centers: you want to put them in the right location, but if you want to get rich as a state or as a town and if you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you're going to want a data center. If you want to go through poverty, crime, and squalor, I would say don't approve data centers, you know, you have your choice.

"So I'm all for people approving them or not, but if you look at places that have really gotten wealthy and rich and lower taxes, it's where properly approved data centers have been allowed to go up. Now, if they don't approve them, there's a lot of places that want them, both in this country and in particular in China. All over the world they want them. So I don't like seeing where that opportunity would be squandered, and the people that squandered are going to come back in five years and say, wow, we made a big mistake because that place is located at a different location and everybody's gotten rich. So I think if you want success, you have to go with the data center.

"You want them to be proper. You want to check them for sound and all the different things. But again they create their own electricity, so you're not going to have a problem there. The water is, is going to be, they do them in so many different ways, including desalinization and everything else. These data centers are making a fortune for people that live relatively near them. It doesn't mean you want to be right in their backyard, but for people that live in the area of data centers they've been an unbelievable success."

Question: "Do you have any concerns about AI veering out of control and launching cyber attacks?""

POTUS said: "No, we watch it very carefully. We're leading China in AI and, whoever wins AI, wins. That's the power. This is bigger than the internet. This is a revolution. We've had a few of them over the last 200 years but this is a revolution. I've seen some results that are incredible medically. We're coming up with things medically that we wouldn't have maybe in 100 years. Whoever wins with AI wins and right now it's really between China and us."

China

Question: When President Xi of China visits, what do you hope to accomplish?

POTUS said: "Well, President Xi is coming on September 24th. We look forward to it. He's a great gentleman. We get along great. We have a very good trading relationship and you know they're a competitor and all of that, but we have a very good relationship with President Xi. He's coming with his beautiful wife. She's a beautiful woman and a great woman, respected all over the world.

"They're coming together and we have a beautiful heliport should you want to use a helicopter, just open. In fact, if you want to go outside and check it out, it's beautiful. Just was completed under budget, ahead of schedule, and beautiful.

"But he is coming on September 24th and we're going to have a state dinner, and we're going to do great things with China. We've been doing very well with China. China took advantage of us for years. I don't blame them; we had people that were not smart sitting behind this desk, but we've done very well with China. China and I have a very good relation - he and I have a very good relationship."

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David Smith

Washington bureau chief

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