Pool Reports of July 1, 2025

In-town Pool Report #1

Pool is gathering for South Lawn departure

In town pool report 2

The president took several questions before Marine One took off at 8:03. He voiced optimism about the bill passing the senate today. Asked how to placate Sen. Murkowski, he said, "who knows. You tell me." He added, "there's never been a president better for Alaska. " He attributed Elon Musk's opposition to loss of the EV mandate. He added, "He could lose a lot more than that, a lot more than that."

Looking ahead to his meeting with Netanyahu, he said they will be talking about Iran and Gaza and their recent victories. More to come from what couldn't be heard by pool.

In-town Pool Report #3

More quotes and details on the president's South Lawn departure for Florida. He emerged from the White House at 7:57. He was tieless but wearing a red ball cap with GULF OF AMERICA in large letters and, in smaller type, "Yet Another TRUMP Development." He took questions until 7:59, boarded Marine One and lift off was at 8:01.

A reminder that these quotes are not as reliable as the official White House transcript:

Good morning. We're going out to Alligator Alcatraz….it should be very exciting and very good. Worked very hard on it with Ron and everybody and I think it's going to be great. And then I'll be back here fighting for the bill. And I hear it's going okay, we're moving along, but we'll be back here pretty early.

Warning Republicans not to go too crazy with the cuts. Are there parts of the bill or amendments that you think cuts too much?

We're going to have to see the final version. I don't want to go too crazy with cuts. I don't like cuts. There are certain things that have been cut, which is good. I think we're doing well. We're going to have to see, it's some very complicated stuff. Great enthusiasm as you know. And I think in the end we're going to have it. What do you think Karoline?

Mamdani having a hard time condemning the global intifada?

I think he's terrible. He's a communist. The last thing we need is a communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States. So we have a communist? I think he's bad news and I think we're going to have a lot of fun with him watching him because he has to come right through this building to get his money. And don't worry, he's not going to run away with anything. I think he's, frankly, I've heard he's a total nut job. I think the people in New York are crazy. If they go this route, I think they're crazy. We will have a communist for the first time. Really? A pure, true communist. He wants to operate the grocery stores, the department stores. What about the people that are there? I think it's crazy.

What happened to Elon Musk?

Nothing. He's upset that he's losing his EV mandate and he's upset.. He's very upset about things. But he could lose a lot more than that. I can tell you right now, Elon can lose a lot more than that.

Ceasefire?

We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week.

We want to get our hostages out. We want to get the hostages out.

If the bill doesn't pass, will you go item by item?

I think we're going to get there. It's tough. We're trying to bring it down, break it down so it's really good for the country. Trying to get a lot for everybody. And it's a big bill. And smaller bills would've been easy, but they wouldn't have been as good. I think it's going to do okay.

Alligator Alcatraz that you get eaten by an alligator if you try to escape?

I guess that's the concept. This is not a nice business. I guess that's the concept. …you know, the snakes are fast, but alligators, we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator. Okay? If they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line. Look like this. And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%. Not a good thing.

What will you talk to Netanyahu about on Monday?

He's's coming here. We're talk about a lot of things. We're going to talk about the great success we had. I mean we had an incredible, in Iran, we had an incredible success like really nobody's had in many, many years. That was a precision war strike. And the word obliteration can now be used because the Atomic Energy Commission said you can't even get into the place. It was demolished. It was really demolished. It was a great, brilliant strike and how to go forward. We're also going to talk about Gaza. We want to get the rest. We got a lot of hostages back, but we're going to talk about gaza.

Inaudible question

I dunno, we'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE  is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies, Peter. But Elon's very upset that the EV mandate, iss going to be terminated. And you know what? When you look at it, who wants, not everybody wants an electric car. I don't want an electric car. I want to have maybe gasoline, maybe electric, maybe a hybrid, maybe someday a hydrogen. You have a hydrogen car. It has one problem if it blows up. So I'm going to give that one to Peter. Let Peter test it up Hydrogen. And when they blow up, it's serious. They find you five blocks away…

Are there any countries we can expect to see before the July ninth deadline on tariffs?

Everything's going well. Honestly, everything. This is very complicated because it's very big. A lot of different areas. Look, the Republicans have their heart in it. The Democrats, they just want to destroy our country. A Democrat wants to destroy the country. They won't vote on it. They don't vote on anything. It's the biggest tax start in history. Everything. Everything is the biggest in history. It's the best bill we've ever had. We can't get one Democrat vote.

When do you think you'll have final passage?

Hopefully soon. Hopefully today if we can final passage. I say final is let's take Senate at a time. Okay. But I think Senate should be today and we go over to the House

Senator Murkowski. Is there any way to placate her?

Who knows? You tell me. You tell me. Alaska's done so well with me. There's never been a president better to Alaska than me. But it doesn't mean people appreciate it.

Asked if he was worried about the opposition of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

We're going to have a good relationship with the Catholic Bishops. As you know, I won the Catholic vote by a lot. That's by a lot and we have very good relationships and we'll see what happens. We deal with them and we deal with them well. But I won the Catholic population by a lot.

Mr. President, what's your message for republicans that are not yet on board?

I think it would be very wise for them to get on board. I really do. It's a great bill. Nothing's easy because we made a great big, we added everything in there for everybody and it's also a beautiful economic development bill. Great for the border, great for low taxes, and I would say that they have to do it.

Can you do it by the July 4th deadline?

We want to keep it to the July 4th.

You're open on that?

I'd love to do July 4th, but I think it's very hard to do July 4th. It was two months ago, I would think maybe July 4th, but somewhere around there

Elon Musk? Elon is not getting his mandate. He wanted an electric mandate and he should have known. I wouldn't do that. I couldn't do that. I campaigned to this thing for two years. I never understand why he did what he did, but he's not going to get his mandate and he better be careful. He might not get anything else.

In town pool report #4

A bad weather call has been made. The in town pool is gathering at 1:55 foe trip to Andrews.

In town pool report 5

From the White House:

POTUS is currently gaggling with the travel pool on Air Force One - this will be played in the briefing room.

In town pool report 6

AF One touched down at 3:16. The president descended the steps at 3:24 and into limo.

Back at White House after uneventful -- but wet -- motorcade at 3:46

In town pool report 7

We have a travel/photo lid at 6:01 p.m.

Travel pool report #1 — JBA

Marine One touched down at Joint Base Andrews at 8:11am ET. 

POTUS, wearing a red RED GULF OF AMERICA hat and no tie, exited M1 at 8:15am. He did not ask questions but appeared to ask if we would "be on the plane" before giving a thumbs up and boarding at 8:16am. 

Prior to M1 arrival, co-poolers Alex Leary of WSJ and Marc Caputo of Axios spotted Corey Lewandowski, chief advisor to DHS Sec. Kristi Noem, onboard AF1. He briefly walked out of the front stair entrance to field a call at 7:56am. Pool has requested a full roster of travelers. 

We're in the small plane today, wheels up for Ochopee, Florida shortly 

Tktk

Travel pool report #2 — more travelers/in-flight gaggle

Co-pooler also spotted Karoline Leavitt, Will Scharff, Will Nauta, and Dan Scavino boarding after POTUS. 

And clarifying POTUS' remarks… he appeared to tell the pool that he planned to gaggle on the flight to Florida. 

Tktk

Travel pool report #3 — wheels down Ochopee

AF1 touched down at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport at 10:30am

Moving into position under wing for Trump's deboarding…

Programming note: POTUS did not gaggle during the flight like he alluded to before boarding. Karoline Leavitt told pool the president now plans to take questions during the roundtable briefing following his tour. 

Tktk

Travel pool report #4 — DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis, wearing a dark jacket, jeans, and white Oxford shirt, is waiting on the tarmac to greet POTUS as he deplanes. 

Pool is still holding under wing 

Tktk

Travel pool report #5 — POTUS gaggle

After POTUS deplaned, he, DeSantis, and Sec Noem gaggled with reporters for roughly 10 min

POTUS complemented DeSantis on the completion of the new ICE facility, saying he did a "fantastic job"

POTUS also downplayed GOP opposition to the reconciliation bill: "It's going to get in, it's going to pass, and we're going to be very happy"

Pool will endeavor to send full quotes when available, but here's an otter for now

https://otter.ai/u/ox7VwlxVe4x8CYoHX6NxUtqKopY

Tktk

Travel pool report #6 — tour begins

POTUS arrived at the first stop on the tour, an intake facility, at 11:14am. Pool is located more than 100 yards away so it's impossible to catch conversation. 

The second stop is a medical facility, where pool is moving to join POTUS, and the third is a stop to chat with construction workers involved in the build. 

Tktk

Travel pool report #7 — medical facility

POTUS invited pool into the medical facility, where we joined him at 11:19, and is again gaggling

POTUS notably asked pool if the reconciliation vote has happened yet, adding that he would normally have stayed in DC to monitor

Otter:
https://otter.ai/u/h2zbzmkpoNoXBG3nNrVSppoRYdk

Tktk

Travel pool report #8 — stop 3

POTUS arrived at the third stop on the tour at 11:25am, where he shook hands and greeted roughly 20 Florida FEMA employees and construction workers 

Pool was moved to the roundtable location at 11:27 while Trump was still visiting 

Tktk

Travel pool report #9 — Trump knocks Newsom

Trump, in response to a question, said that CA Gov. Newsom can take a lesson from Alligator Alcatraz. 

"The first thing you should do is come here and learn something. Because they don't do this, they wouldn't know where to begin. And if they did it, it would cost them 100 times more. So I would say you should call the Governor and Kristi"

Tour ongoing

Travel pool report #10 — deportation exemptions/Trump on his relationship with DeSantis

Trump told reporters he would be making a decision on exemptions from deportation agenda for construction/ag workers and potentially more in the next few weeks. 

Asked about the current state of his relationship with DeSantis, Trump responded "10 out of 10. Maybe 9.9"

Programming note… POTUS made a 4th stop inside a migrant housing building en route to the roundtable, where he made these comments. Pool is now moving to the roundtable location 

Otter or remarks apologize for the AC/white noise: 
https://otter.ai/u/g0eadJDFzCldsv5mhDsU-xWGr_Y

Travel pool report #11 — roundtable begins

POTUS entered the room and began talking at 11:44am. 

Remarks are being streamed here: 
https://www.youtube.com/live/CW8mA6Q9SyU?si=Pikgglkj8E45WqxY

Tktk

Travel pool report #12 — room color

The roundtable is being held in a white, climate controlled temporary building a short walk from the migrant housing center. 

There are roughly 30 people seated in the audience, with a greater number of press arranged along the back and sides of the room. 

POTUS is seated at the center of three tables, arranged in a U, and is flanked by Noem and DeSantis. 

Behind the tables, two American flags and two Florida flags are arranged in front of a Florida FEMA step & repeat. 

Florida AG James Uthmeier, WH deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Rep. Byron Donalds are also seated at the table, among others

Tktk

Travel pool report #13 — roundtable ends

… at 12:55pm, lasting just over 1hr10. POTUS and company left the room at 12:57, and pool is being moved back to the plane

Tktk

Travel pool report #14 — wheels pain

Motorcade arrived back at AF1 at 1:02pm, just as the rain started. POTUS had already boarded when pool arrived. Wheels up shortly

Travel report #13/14 — departure/gaggle/arrival

*** resending departure details (#13) because it's unclear if it actually sent… Motorcade arrived back at AF1 around 1:15pm, in steady rain, and POTUS boarded before pool got out of the vans. 

AF1 touched down at JBA at 3:16pm, and pool is prepping to move into position for POTUS deplaning. 

POTUS did gaggle for roughly 10 minutes during the flight back to JBA, covering what's next for reconciliation, he wants LARA TRUMP TO RUN FOR THILLIS seat, trade deals, and more

It's unclear if that was streamed, so pool will send full quotes shortly

Tktk

Travel pool report #15 — in the Beast

POTUS stepped off AF1 at 3:24pm, waved to the pool and hopped immediately in the Beast. 

Handing back off to in-town pool, but you'll still get one more report from me with Otter/quotes from in-flight gaggle

Travel pool report #16 — full gaggle quotes/otter

Apologies for the delay... it looks like this last note got caught up in my outbox, but Otter and quotes of Trump on AF1. POTUS is bolded

https://otter.ai/u/-dL1wXB10TP-V3ptKNvS-6xtiOI?utm_source=copy_url

We had a big day today. The bill passed, and I think it's going to do very well in the house. We'll see how that works out, but it looks like it's ahead of schedule. We'll see what happens. I'm happy about it. This was great today, going down to Florida and seeing what Homeland and Ron and everybody else have been able to do in a very short period of time. I'm happy about it. I hope you enjoyed it. Go ahead.

Give us an update on Massie.

What about?

Just give us a little idea of not only who you want — 

I just don't think he does a good job for the country. He's always a no. They call him Rand Paul JR. He's always a no. Nothing constructive at all, at all. Just terrible. Thomas Massie from Kentucky, and nothing constructive. I don't think he's a very smart guy, good education, but that's about it.

I guess, what I should have asked is, to what degree are you trying to make an example out of him?

I don't think about him. If I oppose somebody, I oppose somebody. For some reason, voters almost always — they seem to go along with me because they know I'm working hard. I have a nice high IQ they like that. You know, we like high IQ people, but they know I make good decisions. That's why we have to add Trump was right about everything. But, you know, I don't like guys like they just keep saying no, I vote, no, I vote, no. There's no, nothing. Let him do something. Let him get what he wants to vote to vote yes, but if you look at his voting record it's always against.

So who do you like? 

he's going to have a big opponent, a good opponent, who's going to win. A poll just came out and it showed anybody I endorse against Massie. Massie loses by 25 points. So he's going to be history.

Sir, how much arm twisting do you have to do to get it past the House now. What's your game plan for that?

I felt the Senate was going to be tougher than the House. We got there, we got pretty much what we wanted. It's an amazing, in fact it's the biggest bill ever passed if we get this done. You know, most of the people wanted seven or eight different bills, and I thought that was tougher, because it'd be 100% this bill has something for everybody by doing it this way. I'm happy about it. I'm happy with the result

Are you concerned they're going to make further changes in the House?

Well, they're going to ask for certain changes. I don't know. I mean, I guess what would happen if that happens? You'd have to run it fast pass the Senate so, you know, it never ends. I don't know if that's going to happen.

Do you think it's so possible to get this done by Friday?

On occasion that will happen when they'll make a change and they'll get it passed, so it can go pretty quickly. But I think the Senate was very big, and they worked very hard. I didn't get along with Tillis, and he resigned.

Who do you want to run for that seat, sir? Thom Tillis's seat.

Somebody that would really be great is Lara. She grew up there, but they live in Florida. They have a very good life, and they, you know, they're great people. She did fantastically running the RNC. She's even got a show that's like the number one show, and Mark Levin is, likewise. I mean, they have the number one number two show over the weekend. She's a great person. Lara Trump, I mean, that would always be my first choice, but she doesn't live there now, but she's there all the time, her parents, and, you know, she really knows North Carolina well, I won it three times. I don't know who the candidates are going to be. I think you're gonna have one of the congressmen
step up but she'd do very well.

So has she talked to you about it at all?

No, no. It's too soon. I had it out with this guy two nights ago, and he resigned, which I was happy about. He did us all a favor.

Sir, you spent a lot of time with Secretary Noem today, obviously. Did you discuss with her at all this report about an $80,000 dark money payment she received in '23 and appears to have been kept off her federal disclosure forms?

No. I didn't. You're telling me this for the first time. I think she's done an amazing job.

On Secretary Noem you talked about —

Who are you with?

Washington Examiner, sir. Christian Datoc.

Good paper, actually.

Thank you. Are you concerned right now, again, with the speed of the deportations? Obviously Tom Homan, Stephen Miller have talked about how this isn't enough. What exactly is enough?

It's going to take a long period of time. We're gonna do a lot of — we have a lot of angst, because it's a tough, it's a tough thing. But no, I think they're doing an amazing job. And, you know, we're doing a lot of own deportations. We're doing a lot of deportations, or self deportations, where they come in and they deport, and then they want to come back into the country, and they can only come back into the country under no circumstances, unless they go out the proper way, or unless they never come back. No, I think it's going very well. Look, Biden did us a tremendous disservice when he allowed this to happen to our country. And I always said it's the toughest thing. You know, I had inflation, and I got rid of it. We don't have inflation. We had a bad economy, and we got — we set a new stock market high. Today, we're doing unbelievable. The country is doing unbelievable. I always said the most difficult thing is what happened at the border, allowing 21 or 25 million people to come into our country. I think we're doing a fantastic job at getting them out, and you have a lot of self deporting, a lot more than people understand that those people are eligible maybe to come back in.

Mr. President, are you thinking of extending the pause on tariffs beyond July 9?

No, no, no, I'm not thinking about it. I'll be writing letters to a lot of countries, and I think you're just starting to understand the process. We've dealt with Japan. I'm not sure we're going to make a deal. I doubt it with Japan, they're very tough. You have to say they're very spoiled. I love Japan. I really like the new prime minister too. Abe was one of my closest friends, as you know. The new prime minister is great. He's a very strong guy, but they and others are so spoiled from having ripped us off for 30,40 years that it's really hard for them to make a deal. But as an example with Japan and they won't take rice. And yet they desperately need rice, you know that? But they won't take rice. They won't take other products. But think of it, they need rice so badly, but they won't take rice. I think that was an easy one. Well, the cars, as you know, they send out millions. We didn't give them one car in 10 years. They won't take any cars, but they'll sell millions. So we tell them, sorry, you can't do that. And they have a great relationship, great reliance, and really a great sort of a partnership, in a way. But on trade, they've been very unfair, and those days are good. So what I'm going to do is I'll write them a letter and say, we thank you very much, and we know you can't do the kind of things that we need, and therefore you pay a 30%, 35% or whatever the number is that we determine, because we also have a very big trade deficit with the Japan as you know, and it's very unfair to the American people. So they maybe will be happy, they maybe won't be happy, but some countries we won't even allow to trade. But for the most part, we're going to determine a number just very simply write them a nice letter, probably one page or a page and a half at the most. And it's going to be essentially, congratulations. It's going to be an honor to allow you to go and do business in the United States of America, because it really is [intelligible] in there. We never viewed it that way in this country. And you saw we took in $129 million in tariffs already. We haven't even started, no inflation. Our country is strong. Our interest rate should be three points low. If our interest rate was three points low, that's almost a trillion dollars in cost understood just by the signing of a pen. But we have a moron at the head of the Fed. He's a moron.

Speaking of Jay Powell, do you have a top choice for someone at the Fed?

I do. I have two or three top choices.

Can you tell us those?

No. 

Are there other trade deals that are close to being done that you think you will announce over the next week?

I think we're going to have a deal with India, possibly. And that's going to be a different kind of a deal. It's going to be a deal where we're able to go in and compete. Right now, India doesn't accept anybody yet. I think India is going to do that, and if they do that, we're going to have a deal for less, much less, tariffs. Thank you for telling me, by the way.

Oh, you're welcome. You mentioned Alejandro Mayorkas. He was impeached in the House. Cleared the Senate. Investigating him? I mean, investigate the auto pen. What's your status on that?

Well, the auto pen is under investigation. The auto pen's a serious thing. I think it's one of the most serious things I've heard. Mayorkas was a terrible, terrible secretary, but he was given orders to do things, and the people that gave those orders probably have pardons. You know, Biden pardoned a lot of people. The only one he didn't pardon was himself. But I don't know, about you, to him, what he did to me. The problem is he wouldn't understand what happened. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

There's a video where Speaker Johnson is telling him about how he stopped the LNG gas and she thought he was something else. How many more examples are there that Speaker Johnson — or President Biden just didn't know what he was doing?

President Obama was a terrible president. President Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. President Bush should not have gone into the Middle East and blow the place up, so I don't give him high marks either. Thank you very much, everybody. I give Trump very high marks. Goodbye.