Pool Reports of May 25, 2025

Travel Pool Report 1/Q&A

Marine One landed at Morristown airport at 5:56 and rolled over to Air Force One.

President Trump got out and boarded AF1 at 6:13 after answering many questions.

He said he had "very good" talks about Iran today and yesterday. He said he is ok with potential Senate changes to the reconciliation bill. He said he hoped the DOJ investigation into Cuomo won't be "serious" for him. He said he agreed to delay EU tariffs. He said he's not happy with Putin killing people and he's absolutely considering more sanctions. He also spoke about Harvard. 

Fuller quotes when we land.

We will be en route to JBA soon.

Travel Pool Report 3/Rush transcript

Below is a rough transcription of President Trump's Q&A in Morristown. Please use with caution, a word or two may be off.
On Iran and Gaza:
We had some very good talks with Iran yesterday and today and let's see what happens, but I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on Gaza. We want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible. 

But having to do with nuclear, we've had some very, very good talks with Iran. And I don't know if I'll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling i might be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good. We've had some real progress, serious progress.

On Senate changes to reconciliation:
I want the Senate and the senators to make the changes they want. It will go back to the House and we'll see if we can get them. In some cases, the changes may be something I'd agree with, to be honest. But we've had a very good response from the Senate and I don't know how Democrats can't vote for it.... We'll be lowering the cost of drugs from 50-85% under Trump and it's going to have indirectly something to do... with the bill.... So I think it's going to get there.... I think they are going to have changes. Some will be minor, some will be fairly significant.... John Thune and Mike Johnson have done a fantastic job....

On Andrew Cuomo investigation:
I was surprised. I didn't know exactly. I just read about it just like you did having to do with Andrew. I've known Andrew. We've had an on-off relationship. He was saying the greatest things about me... and then the next day he'd hit us. And I did a lot for them... But I hope it's going to be OK, I hope it's not going to be serious for him. We'll see what happens.

On EU 50% tariffs:
She asked for an extension from the June 1date and she said she wants to get down to serious negotiations... And we had a very nice talk and I agreed... July 9 would be the day. That was the date she requested... And I agreed to do that. And she said we will rapidly get together to see if we could work something out.

On US Steel ownership:
It will be controlled by the United States, otherwise I wouldn't make the deal... I'm doing it because all of the congressmen came in — about five of them... and they asked that I do it. Everybody seems to want it... they're going to invest billions of dollars in steel... It's an investment and it's a partial ownership, but it will be controlled by the USA.

On American Saad Almadi (unable to leave Saudi Arabia over tweets):
I haven't heard about it at all... Give me the information. I'll see what I can do... Let me take a look.

On Russia/Ukraine:
I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people. And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don't like it at all. We're in the middle of talking and he's sending rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

I'm very surprised. We'll see what we're going to do.... I don't like what Putin is doing... he's killing people. Something happened to this guy and I don't like it.

On Hegseth acting chief of staff Ricky Buria criticizing Trump/Vance:
I have no idea who he is. But if he did say that, I would recommend that we don't take him.... Buria? I'll check it out.

On Harvard:
Part of the problem with Harvard is they're about 31%... foreigners coming to Harvard. We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which we're probably not going to be doing... grants anymore to Harvard.... They're at 31% but they refuse to tell us who the people are. We want to know.... A lot of the foreign students we wouldn't have a problem with... But it shouldn't be 31%, it's too much. Because we have Americans who want to go there and other places and they can't go there... No foreign government contributes money to Harvard. We do. So why are they doing so many? Number two, we want a list of those foreign students and we'll find out whether or not they're OK. Many will be OK, I assume, and I assume with Harvard many will be bad. And then the other thing is they're very antisemitic, everybody knows they're antisemitic and that's got to stop.

On reciprocal tariffs/textiles:
I tend to agree [with Bessent]. We're not looking to make sneakers and t-shirts. We want to make military equipment, we want to make big things, we want to make... AI... with computers and many, many elements. But textiles? You know, I'm not looking to make t-shirts, to be honest, I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well in other locations. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things...

More on Iran:
The Iran talks, I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. I can tell you the Iran talks have been going very well. And I'd love that to happen. I'd love to see no bombs dropped and a lot of people dead. I really would like to see that happen. And I think there's a good chance that it could happen.

On whether he's considering more Russia sanctions:
Absolutely. He's killing a lot of people. I don't know what's wrong with him. What the hell happened to him, right? He's killing a lot of people and I'm not happy with that.

Travel Pool Report 4/JBA

President Trump disembarked Air Force One at 7:19.

He walked to Marine One, which was in the air at 7:26.

It appears my second pool report, which merely relayed that AF1 had landed, didn't go through.

In-town pool report No. 1 - heading to the South Lawn

Good evening - I'm your in-town pooler for President Trump's arrival on the South Lawn.

We're heading outside - more TK!

In-town pool report No. 2 - South Lawn arrival

Marine One touched down on the South Lawn at 7:35 p.m. 

President Trump disembarked at 7:38 p.m.after chatting with the pilot. He acknowledged the Marine. Didn't talk, though mouthed hellos to the pool after a shout of "Mr. President."

He stepped into the White House at 7:38 p.m. followed by aides including Steven Cheung and Natalie Harp.

In-town pool report No. 3 - lid

As of 7:44, we have a travel/photo lid. Have a great night!