Pool Reports of May 12, 2025

In-town pool report #1 - checking in

Good morning from the White House! I'll be your in-town pooler today.

The President will be holding a press conference with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 9:30am in the Roosevelt Room. He will then depart for Saudi Arabia at 10:35am. The White House is not tracking any changes to the schedule as of now. See below for the full schedule:

EDT
8:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time
9:30 AM Out-of-Town Pool Call Time

9:30 AM THE PRESIDENT holds a Press Conference with the Secretary of Health and Human Services
Roosevelt Room
White House Press Pool

10:35 AM THE PRESIDENT departs The White House en route Joint Base Andrews
South Lawn
Open Press

10:45 AM THE PRESIDENT arrives Joint Base Andrews
Joint Base Andrews
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

10:55 AM THE PRESIDENT departs Joint Base Andrews en route Royal Air Force Mildenhall
Joint Base Andrews
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

GMT
11:15 PM THE PRESIDENT arrives Royal Air Force Mildenhall
Royal Air Force Mildenhall
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

In-town pool report # 2 - gathering for press conference in 5 minutes

The pool is gathering now for President Trump's press conference. We will head to the Roosevelt Room in 4 minutes.

In-town pool report #3 - press conference underway

Pool entered the Roosevelt Room at 9:31am.

President Trump entered at 9:49am and began speaking immediately.

POTUS is standing at a podium in front of a fireplace. There is a small signing table next to him, where he is expected to sign an executive order on drug prices. Trump is flanked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and others.

There are three posters to left of the podium: one titled "Biden's Bad Drug Price Deal" outlining negotiated price % above similar countries for certain drugs, and two others of a "Golden Dome for America" along with a quote from Trump: "This is a Very Dangerous World. We're going to protect our citizens like never before."

The event is being live-streamed by the White House and other channels.

In-town pool report #4 - press conference notes

President Trump continues to give remarks in the Roosevelt Room. Here are some initial notes. The event is livestreamed so please double check against the recording.

He began his remarks by saying: "Great things happening. It's been a very strong week and a very strong weekend."

On India/Pakistan, POTUS said his trade policies helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire between the two nuclear powers. Full quote: "We helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. I said, Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you, and all of a sudden they said, I think we're going to stop and they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one."

On China trade talks in Geneva, Trump announced that "both sides now agreed to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2 to 10% for 90 days, as negotiators can to continue with the largest structural issues."

He added that he plans to speak with
President Xi "maybe at the end of the week." POTUS confirmed that fentanyl is a key part of the talks: "They'll be rewarded by not having to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, so the fentanyl should stop… there's a big incentive for China to stop and I take them at their word they're going to work on that, I think, very hard."

On the drug price announcement, Trump explained that the US will "no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from big pharma."

He said his drug price policy will "easily pay for the Golden Dome, and we have a lot of money left over." On the Golden Dome, he adds: "By the way, in this world, although this world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago, and all that safer than it was six months ago, we had people that had no clue what they were doing."

Trump announced that he recently called Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader John Thune: "I said, You're gonna have to score two things: number one, score that hundreds of billions of dollars of tariff money is coming in. But even bigger than that, you can have to score that your cost for Medicaid, Medicare, and just basically pharmaceuticals and drugs, is going down at a level that nobody has ever seen before.

In-town pool report #5 - remarks and presser over/ gathering for M1 departure

POTUS took about a dozen questions from reporters before he signed the most favored nation drug pricing order. He ended at 10:54am. Please check the livestream.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary all gave remarks touting the order. Kennedy said "he never thought it would happen in his lifetime" and that some of his kids — who he said are Democrats and Bernie Sanders supporters — had tears in their eyes when they heard about it.

Pool is now standing by on the South Lawn for Marine One departure. More notes from the presser TK.

In-town pool report #5b - additional quotes from press conference

Here are some additional quotes from this morning's press conference, which ended at 10:54am, and was live-streamed to the public. POTUS took about ten questions from reporters before he signed his executive order that aims to lower drug prices.

On tariffs: Trump said that tariffs on Chinese imports are not expected to go back to 145% even if the U.S. and China are at an impasse after the 90-day pause. "No, but they would go up substantially higher" than the 30% rate during the pause, he said. "At 145%, you're really decoupling, because nobody's going to buy; but [the duties] got very high because of additional tariffs that were applied because of fentanyl and other things," he said when asked if the US tariffs would return to 145%. "But no. But they'd go substantially higher."

On his Middle East trip: Trump said he would consider flying to Turkey for the potential meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. "I was thinking about actually flying over there," he added. "There's a possibility of it, I guess," adding that he would go "if I thought it would be helpful."

Trump also said he "may very well relieve" sanctions on Syria. "We're going to have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve," Trump said. "We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start."

On the Qatari aircraft: POTUS was asked about his plan to accept a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family, which he described as a "contribution" that the U.S. can't turn down: "I think it's a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.' But it was, I thought it was a great gesture." Trump added that the plane will "go directly" to his presidential library after he leaves office: "I wouldn't be using it."

On hostages: Trump said he's hoping for more hostage releases from Hamas on his Middle East trip, after Hamas announced it would be releasing Edan Alexander. "We hope that we're going to have other hostages released, too," Trump said, adding that he believes about 20 living hostages are still being held by Hamas.

On South African refugees: Asked about granting an expedited path to refugee status for white South Africans while not allowing refugees from other countries, Trump replied in part: "Because they're being killed. And we don't want to see people be killed ... it's a genocide that's taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white."

Thanks all.

In town pool report #6: M1 departure / no questions

POTUS departed from the South Lawn on Marine One at 11:15am. He waved his fist at reporters but did not take questions before leaving.

Travel pool report 1 - Trump at JBA; wheels up soon

Greetings from sunny JBA, where President Trump will embark on a trip to the Middle East, with visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and U.A.E.

Marine One landed at 11:23 am. POTUS — who gave extensive remarks and took questions earlier at the White House — motioned to press but didn't stop and boarded Air Force One at 11:28 am.

We will be wheels up momentarily for a roughly 7:20 hour flight for refueling in the U.K.

Rolling at 11:32 am.

Traveling with the president:

Secretary Pete Hegseth
Secretary Howard Lutnick
Secretary Chris Wright
Susie Wiles
James Blair
Taylor Budowich
Stephen Miller
Dan Scavino
Steven Cheung
Karoline Leavitt
Will Scharf

Travel pool report 2 - AF1 lands at Mildenhall

AF1 landed at Royal Air Force Mildenhall at 11:18 pm GMT. (JBA wheels up: 11:39 amlocal.) Uneventful flight and no visits from POTUS or staff. Fox News on the TV.

Refueling scheduled for 90 minutes to before continuing to Saudi Arabia.

Early in the flight, after lunch was served, Sean Hannity briefly appeared in the press cabin and exchanged pleasantries. Hannity is interviewing Trump for Fox News segments.

Travel pool 3 - AF1 departing Mildenhall

AF1 is rolling from Royal Air Force Mildenhall at 12:57 am GMT.

We will now make the roughly 7 hour flight to King Khalid International Airport.

In the event President Trump gaggles, audio will be piped back to the White House briefing room, per aides. It was unclear whether that would be streamed on the WH YouTube page.