Pool Reports of July 9, 2025

Pool Report #1 -- gathering

Good morning everyone, I'll be your print pooler today. No updates to the president's schedule. Heads up that we are gathering now to go to the state dining room for President Trump's lunch with African leaders who are visiting the White House from the following nations: Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal.

The event will be livestreamed from all the usual places. I will send along some atmospherics and any particularly newsworthy developments.

Pool Report #2 — meeting begins

After a one hour delay, the pool has now been led into the state dining room. We've been given translation headsets to listen in as the conversation will apparently involve several different languages.

President Trump is sitting in the middle of the table. Jamieson Greer and Stephen Miller are to his left. Massad Boulos is to his right. Among others.

The White House passed along the following names of leaders visiting today:

Gabon – President Nguema
Senegal – President Faye
Liberia – President Boakai
Guinea-Bissau – President Embalo
Mauritania – President Ghazouani

More to come.

Pool Report #3 — meeting progresses

President Trump's translation headphones are in as the leader of Mauritania kicks off the meeting, thanking him for the invitation to the White House.

Mr. Trump is squinting and nodding along with interest as the Mauritanian leader tells Mr. Trump that he is a pacifist who is working hard to solve conflicts around the world from Africa to Pakistan-India and the Middle East.

The Mauritanian leader says his is not a very prosperous country, but nonetheless, it is a great country because of its "strategic position" and that it has "many many resources" and "a lot of opportunities to offer in terms of investments. Mr. Trump grins. "We have minerals," the Mauritanian leader says. "Rare earth. Rare minerals."

Mr. Trump thanks him says he appreciates it but then says, "We're going to have to go a bit quicker than this."

Message received. The other leaders at the table are now saying hello and giving what amounts to an elevator pitch length description of their respective nations. ("You can count on Guinea Bissau… Liberia is a longtime friend of the United States and we believe in your policy of making America great again….")

Trump compliments the Liberian leader on his "beautiful english" and asks where he was educated.

The leader from Gabon talks about rare earth and minerals "we are not poor countries we are rich countries" when it comes to these resources he said. "I often listen to your remakes and speeches… we also want our raw materials to be processed locally in our country…" He talks of maritime piracy in the gulf of guinea and says they need a reliable partner, militarily. He calls Mr. Trump "pragmatic" and says he is welcome to come and invest.

"Thank you very much, good job," Mr. Trump says.

On it went down the table in this way…

Pool Report #4

At about 1:20pm, President Trump has started to take questions. An African reporter asks the leaders at the table if they intend to nominate Trump for a Nobel peace prize; Nguema says he sees no problem with a Nobel Peace Prize and that in fact President Trump deserves one.

"Very nice, I didnt know Id be treated this nicely, we could do this all day long," Trump says, eliciting chuckles from some at the table.

Now the Mauritanian leader says his country would not be opposed to a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump. "Our world needs more peace."

Another leader (I believe from Senegal, but hard to see from where your pooler is positioned) more or less concurs.

Trump was also asked if he would ever take a trip to Africa and he said he would like to, yes.

Pool Report #5

I forgot to put a subject line for the last dispatch, which should have been Pool Report #4. Sorry about that.

At about 1:48pm, President Trump stopped taking questions and the pool was ushered out of the state dining room.

He dodged questions about the munitions pause to Ukraine but did say he was unhappy with Russia over the latest attack on Ukraine. He took some other questions about tariffs, John Fetterman, Gaza, the IRS saying that churches can now endorse political candidates, and a few more subjects.

Will be sure to update if anything else gets added to the schedule.

Pool Report #6 — lunch lid

A lunch lid has been called until 3pm.

Pool Report #7 -- lid called

Lid was called at 6pm.

Foreign pool report #1 - backgrounder

Hello all and happy Wednesday!

I will be your foreign pooler for the African leader's visit to the White House.

Today, President Trump will host the leaders of 5 Western and Central African nations: Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal.

The leaders:
Gabon - President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema
Guinea-Bissau - President Umaro Sissoco Embaló
Liberia - President Joseph Nyuma Boakai
Mauritania - President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani
Senegal - President Bassirou Diomaye Faye

As part of a multi-day visit, the African leaders will meet with President Trump for a discussion and a luncheon which will cover a range of topics including future economic partnership. One US official told Reuters, "President Trump believes that African countries offer incredible commercial opportunities which benefit both the American people and our African partners."

The US' closing of international development agency USAID has impacted African countries, many of whom relied on US money to fund public services. In Liberia, for example, US support accounted for around 2.5% of the gross national income - with 48% of the country's health budget coming from US assistance. The US has overhauled what Secretary of State Marco Rubio called a charity-based model of international aid, with the new approach favouring "those nations that have demonstrated both the ability and willingness to help themselves." Rubio said recently that the new model would "prioritize trade over aid" and "investment over assistance," with the aim being to target resources in areas which will spur investment from the private sector - including American companies. All five of the countries invited enjoy rich natural resources - including manganese (a critical mineral in the production of batteries and stainless steel), iron ore, gold, diamonds, lithium, cobalt and more. The US' global competitors - particularly China - have made significant in-roads on the continent in recent years, becoming a top trading or investment partner of many of those nations invited. Gabon, for example, provides 22% of China's manganese used in batteries - the country holds around a quarter of the global known reserves.

For their part, some of the countries are hoping the meeting will foster stronger relations with the United States. In a post on their website, the Liberian embassy said "this invitation highlights the strengthening diplomatic ties between Liberia and the United States and sets the stage for important multilateral discussions."

The regional security situation will also play a role in the talks. West Africa faces a very complex security situation which is constantly evolving but is dogged with threats from terrorist groups (particularly in the Sahel region), organised crime and political instability brought about through numerous coups d'état. Those coups have also impacted the security situation in the region as growing discontent led Western nations like the US and France to withdraw counterterrorism troops from the region. Liberia's embassy says "this multilateral gathering aims to foster collaboration in addressing regional security challenges and strengthening economic partnerships […] These discussions present an opportunity for Liberia to position itself as a key player in regional stability and economic development […] The outcomes of these discussions are anticipated to shape the future of U.S.-Liberia relations and have a lasting impact on the political and economic landscape of the region."

Mauritania also thinks that the meeting will reaffirm its relationship with the US. Diplomatic sources said "the visit of His Excellency the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania reflects Mauritania's commitment to strengthening its partnership with the United States. While this summit marks the first direct engagement between the two Heads of State, Mauritania and the United States maintain a constructive and ongoing relationship through regular diplomatic and strategic dialogue. We consider this summit a timely opportunity to reaffirm our shared priorities and to explore further avenues of collaboration."

Foreign pool report #2 - quotes

Hello again all,

Some quotes from the African leaders and some from Trump and Jamieson Greer during the Q&A at the end. As ever, please check against the tape/livestream for clarification.

Gabon - President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema

'We are not poor countries. We are rich when it comes to raw materials, but we need partners. That is our wish.'

'We have focused on transparency. We have worked on agreements with the EU and wanted to review them because they weren't win/win opportunities.'

President Nguema said that Gabon's market was 'open' and that they wanted to process manganese - a key raw material in batteries and stainless steel - locally so as to combat youth unemployment and curb emigration abroad: 'We also want our raw materials to be processed in our countries - to help youth unemployment and to stop them from leaving and migrating elsewhere.'

He said that piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is an issue and that he wanted US equipment to help combat it: 'You said you had the best equipment and that's what we would like to have. We can't do it alone. We need a reliable and strong partner, one that takes real action. We need to be pragmatic and that's what you are.'

Asked whether Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, he said he thinks that he does 'for all the things he's done'.

GUINEA-BISSAU - President Umaro Sissoco Embaló

President Embaló said Guinea-Bissau is a 'peaceful country who is a small country but a great state. We have been following your dynamics and you can count on Guinea Bissau.'

LIBERIA - President Joseph Nyuma Boakai

President Boakai spoke to the long history between the US and Liberia and said 'Liberia is a long time friend of the US and we believe in your Make America Great Again policy.'

He added 'Liberia has a lot of minerals, and one other thing we ask as good friends for a long time is the opportunity to do a survey of minerals.' 'We want to encourage American involvement in the investment in Liberia. I would like to see that happen.'

MAURITANIA - President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani

President Ghazouani spoke first and said 'Trump is sending a generous message to Africa, and we receive this message. We are delighted to see President Trump's commitment to our continent.'

Like the other leaders, he praised POTUS for his peace efforts in DRC/Rwanda, Israel/Iran and elsewhere. On his own country, he said Mauritania was 'a small country depending on the criteria you apply. It's a small country in terms of population…and theinfluence it has around the world. But it's a great country in terms of strategic position - it's what links northern and subsaharan Africa. But we have a great deal of resources and a lot of opportunities to offer in terms of investment.'

SENEGAL - President Bassirou Diomaye Faye

President Faye was perhaps the most forthcoming with his praise for POTUS, saying of the DRC/Rwanda conflict 'thankfully you were there to put an end to this 30 year war.'

'As you've seen, you can only do business when there is peace and security and you build peace everywhere in the world.'

He said 'I want to reassure all American investors about our countries political stability.' He then raised 2 investment opportunities for American businesses, one in conjunction with the USGS centres around oil and gas. The other is to start a tech city in Senegal which would be open to US businesses and open to Africa. President Faye ended by praising POTUS' golf skills saying 'golf requires concentration and precision, perhaps an investment could be made in a golf course in Senegal.'

At the Q&A, Trump said there were no plans to put tariffs on those countries present at the meeting, saying that they were all his friends now.

Your pooler asked about the prospect of the US extending the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - a trade program which allows duty-free access to the US market for thousands of sub-Saharan African products which is set to expire in September. President Trump initially said 'we'll take a look at that' before Jamieson Greer added 'That's up to Congress to take a first crack at. We know that program has been in place for about 20 years, and at the end result of that, we see a lot of other countries operating in Africa. We still see a lot of tariff and non tariff barriers in Africa. So I think anything any discussion about that act, would also have to think about how we address those kinds of barriers.'

That's it from me, have a great rest of your day!