Pool Reports of April 27, 2025

Out of town pool #1 - POTUS headed toward airport

Greetings from Morristown airport where, after a good weather call, POTUS is taking Marine One from his Bedminster golf club to here. 

He was wheels up from the club at 5:28 pm. 

Pool is waiting at airport for his arrival. 

More tk.. 

Out of town note #2 - POTUS gaggle

Marine One landed at Morristown airport at 5:41 pm. POTUS stepped off at 5:45 pm. 

He took a few questions. 

On the meeting with Zelensky: "I think the meeting went well ."

More: "It was a nice meeting. It was a beautiful meeting. The nicest office I've ever seen. It's a beautiful, beautiful scene, but we're just very he wants to do something good for his country, doing a good job, and he's working hard. We'll see what happens."

If Zelensky willing to give up Crimea: "I think so." 

He also said Zelensky is calmer now. His message to Putin was to stop shooting: "I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal."

More tk come. AF1 is rolling. 

Otter: 

https://otter.ai/u/6fivHIttQ6dz-COyKxnLDXXo7K4

From the White House:

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is flying on Air Force One. Barkley walked off Marine One with POTUS. 

Out of town note #3 - More quotes from POTUS gaggle

Air Force One was wheels down JBA at 6:45 pm. 

Plane is taxing. 

More quotes from the gaggle with POTUS. Apologies for the bad audio on the otter. The wind was very bad at the Morristown airport. 

As always please check against official transcript and video playback. 

POTUS was wearing a blue suit with no tie. He had on a white hat that read "Make America Great Again" in gold print. 

POTUS started by talking about how great Saquon Barkley is. The two walked off Marine One together. Barkley boarded AF1 while POTUS gaggled: "I wanted to race him, but I decided not to do," Trump joked. 

Zelensky meeting: "I think the meeting went well. I think what happens over the next few days we'll learn a lot. I was very disappointed that missiles were flying by Russia."

More POTUS: "On the Iran situation I think we're doing very well. I think a deal is going to be made there. That's going to happen pretty soon."

More on Ukraine: "We have a tough road ahead. Okay, and we had a good meeting. It was a nice meeting. It was a beautiful meeting. I'll tell you it was the nicest office I've ever seen. It's a beautiful, beautiful scene, but we're just very - he wants to do something good for his country, thinks he's doing a good job, and he's working hard. We'll see what happens."

On what Zelensky said to him: "He told me that he needs more weapons, but he's been saying that for three years. He needs more weapons. And we're going to see what happens. I want to see what happens with respect to Russia, because Russia had been surprised and disappointed, very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places after discussions."

Did Zelensky talk to him about Crimea: "Well he did very briefly, but Crimea was given away by Barack, Hussein Obama and by Biden. That's 11 or 12 years ago. That's a long time ago. I don't know how you can bring up Crimea. That's been a long time." 

More: "Maybe go back to Obama, ask them why they gave it up. They gave it up without a shot being fired, by the way."

What he wants from Putin: "Well, I wanted him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal. We have the confines of a deal I believe. And I want him to sign it."

What action may he take against Russia: "I think we're more respected now as a country, maybe than ever before. There's no more games. You have somebody that knows what he's doing, not like the previous person."

More: "I just want to end that. I want to end the Iran situation, if we can. And we have other things too. We got plenty of problems."

Asked if Zelensky is ready to give up Crimea: "I think so. Crimea was 12 years ago. That was President Obama. They gave it up without a shot being fired. So don't talk to me about Crimea. Talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea."

On Zelensky: "I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal."

On Virginia Guiffree suicide: "Well, it's a very sad situation. That whole situation is very sad for her and others and so certainly that's a horrible thing. Horrible."

Asked if he talked about tariffs with any leaders in Italy: "I think every foreign leader approached me. … A lot of good relationships. And we're going to be taking in a tremendous amount of money. We're going to be taking in a lot of jobs, a lot of plants and factories."

More: "We're going to make a lot of money, and we're going to cut taxes for the people of this country. It'll take a little while before we do that, but we're going to be cutting taxes, and it's possible we'll do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax. Now, we have a lot of debt that's been left to us. You know, unfortunately, over many years, we'll take care of that with the tariffs. … We're going to be giving people of this country a tremendous tax cut. And we're going to start with people making less than $200,000 a year."

Asked if there has been any movement on China: "A little bit. They want to make a deal, obviously, right now they're not doing business with us. You know, people talk about going cold turkey with China, just forget about it. We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year with China, and now they're not doing any business with us. You know, because, not because of them, because of me, because at 145% you can't do business."

Asked if he and the First Lady had a nice birthday dinner: "We had a great dinner. She's a great First Lady."

On the Wisconsin judge being prosecuted by the FBI: "I think the whole thing is horrible with judges - with what's going on, and they shouldn't be doing that."

Otter link again: https://otter.ai/u/6fivHIttQ6dz-COyKxnLDXXo7K4

Out of town note #4 - JBA departure

POTUS stepped off Air Force One at 6:55 pm. 

Saquon Barkley and a few others followed POTUS off the plane and onto Marine One. 

Marine One was wheels up at 7:01 pm. 

Thanks to Meghan Messerly, Danny Kemp, and Steve Holland for their help with the gaggle and for being great colleagues during a long weekend trip with a lot of travel. 

Handing off to the in town pool.

In-town pool report #1: Pool gathering for South Lawn arrival

[APP Note: No additional text was included in this report.]

In-town pool #2: Marine One arrival

Marine One landed on the South Lawn at 7:13pm. President Trump, Saquon Barkley and a few others disembarked Marine One at 7:15pm.

There were three people (a young boy carrying a football and two women) who exited the White House to greet the president. They weren't immediately familiar to your pooler, other reporters or photographers. The president hugged the young boy and then answered a few questions about Rwanda and the Congo, critical minerals and judges; quotes to come.

There was confusion about which side the president was entering so the pool had to run back and forth from the South Portico entrance to the Oval entrance. President Trump pointed to let us know which side to enter. He took photos with some of the people and then he went inside at 7:18pm.

In-town pool report #3: Quotes

Huge thank you to NPR's Asma Khalid for her help with clearer audio.

"We do we have a great news, I believe, coming up with Rwanda and the Congo. And I think you're going to be seeing peace in Rwanda and the Congo and a few other nations right around, and that would be a terrific thing, so we hope that's going to happen."

Asked about the Wisconsin judge's arrest and cleaning up the courts:
"What happened was terrible. That that could happen with a judge is so ashamed. And we have to — look we have to bring our country back from all these criminals that Biden allowed to come in. These are world class criminals and people that are insane, people from jails, murderers, drug addicts, drug dealers. And you know, we have a country. We have to be proud of our country. We can't let these people stay, and the courts are allowing them to stay. And we're not going to — we're just not going to allow it so, hopefully, the Supreme Court will come to the rescue of our country."

As always, check the official transcripts.

In-town pool report #4: Lid

We have a lid at 7:40pm. I have asked about the names of the other folks present at arrival and will share if we receive them.