Pool Reports of July 8, 2025

Pool Report 1/Waiting

The pool is still waiting to gather for the Cabinet meeting.

Pool Report 2/Heading in

We are lining up to head into the Cabinet Room.

Please pull up CSPAN or the WH YouTube feed for full footage. It will be streamed live.

Pool Report 3/Cabinet meeting

The pool entered the Cabinet Room at 11:49.

President Trump asked Kristi Noem to speak first about DHS's work on Texas flooding. She spoke about victim families visiting the camp disaster site and about how she had toured a cabin where young girls had died.

"Congratulations on a great job," Trump said, confirming plans for a Friday trip to the area

Trump then spoke about the economy and asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss tariffs. He said that the US is on track to earn "well over $300 billion" in tariff revenue this year.

Hegseth then discussed the airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites, saying it "reestablished deterence." Trump added that "our enemies were watching" before attacking a CNN report on a preliminary damage assessment.

Trump then took questions after saying he was not happy with Vladimir Putin.

He spoke about Sen. Graham's Russia sanctions bill and expressed approval of it being at his discretion.

Trump said that Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell should consider resigning for allegedly lying to Congress, and he repeated his call for him to lower interest rates.

Trump expressed disapproval about a question being asked to AG Bondi about Jeffrey Epstein, asking aloud if people still cared about the case.

Bondi said her prior remarks about a client list were misunderstood. She also said she was unaware of whether Epstein was an intelligence agency asset and that a missing minute of footage on the night of his suicide is being sought, attributing the issue to a daily loop on the tape.

He said that the tariff talk deadline hasn't changed and the date for payments was always Aug 1.

On EU tariffs, he said that he expects to send them "a letter" in about two days.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum touted the impact of lower oil costs on consumer costs.

Trump said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin may be the most important man in the room for speeding up business permitting, saying the US needs to double its electric generation for AI.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said of green energy credits that "we were subsidizing something and paying more for it." Trump expressed greater approval of solar power than wind in subsequent remarks.

Trump slammed "Palestinian" Sen. Schumer for blaming the Texas flooding deaths on his administration. "I hear AOC is going to beat him," Trump said.

Agriculture Secretary Rollins praised states for showing "leadership" on restricting Chinese ownership of farmland near military bases and called on Congress to pass a law to do it nationally. She said there was an EO coming on the subject.

Trump repeated remarks about sending defensive weapons to Ukraine, but declined to say who ordered the initial pause.

Labor Secretary Lori DeRemer-Chavez said the immigration enforcement reprieve for farm workers would not be an amnesty program.

Trump said he expects pharmaceutical tariffs to come soon with a one year grace period to reshore.

Copper tariffs of 50% are coming today, he said.

He confirmed that he was meeting with Netanyahu again at the White House tonight to talk "almost exclusively about Gaza." Steve Witkoff said he believes there will be a ceasefire this week. There were four issues and now talks are down to one, he said.

Trump said he thinks a possible Elon Musk third party could help Republicans.

HHS Secretary RFK Jr does not appear to be present.

Meeting is ongoing as if 1:02....

Pool Report 4/Cabinet meeting over

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said new fiber lines have been successfully laid to Newark Airport and that last month was the most on-time June. He also said the department is working to find a company to rebuild the country's air traffic control system.

On the NYC mayoral election, Trump said Zohrab Mamdani has "a good line of bullshit."

"I'm not getting involved," he said when asked whether Curtis Sliwa should drop out.

Trump called Mamdani a "communist" and said the White House has special power to "run places when we have to" and mentioned "we're thinking about doing it" in DC.

"We're going to bring New York back," Trump said. "You have a lot of crooked things going on in New York... We're going to do something for New York."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she was "negotiating hard" with Harvard and Columbia.

Trump ended by mentioning new art he just picked for the Cabinet Boom including portraits of Andrew Jackson, James Polk, George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, FDR, John and Abigail Adams and Lincoln and Grant in the civil war.

He told stories about each artwork, which he said he personally selected from the vaults. He referred to Polk as a real estate man and mentioned his role acquiring California. He said Eisenhower cracked down on illegal immigration so harshly that farmers nearly went bankrupt, which he said was an important lesson.

Trump concluded his narration by saying he took a large grandfather clock from Secretary Rubio's office for the room, joking about how he as president can take any office furnishings he wants.

He also mentioned new medallions for thr room's three ceiling lamps, military service flags including Space Force and decorative gold items including plates and urns on a fireplace mantle.

"The cost was almost nothing... The only question is will I gold leaf the corners."

He asked the Cabinet to vote on gold leafing. McMahan and Hegseth raised their hands, as did a couple others, but it appeared to be a minority. Please check the tape for the precise vote count.

As we lef5, Trump said he would go to the club world cup on Sunday.

We left at 1:35.

Pool Report 5/Netanyahu arrival

PM Netanyahu's motorcade has arrived at the White House. We did not see him enter, however, since it wasn't from the north.

His meeting with President Trump currently remains closed press.

Pool Report 6/Lid

We have a travel/photo lid.

The Netanyahu meeting remained closed.