Pool Reports of October 25, 2025

Out of town pool report #1 - JBA

Good evening from Joint Base Andrews. M1 touched down at JBA at 11:02pm.

POTUS boarded AF1 at 11:06, wearing a dark overcoat. He waved twice but did not take questions. We are wheels up momentarily.

AF1 Travelers on background:

Susie Wiles
James Blair
Beau Harrison
Stephen Miller
Karoline Leavitt
Will Scharf
Ross Worthington
Ambassador Monica Crowley
Walt Nauta
Margo Martin

Secretary Marco Rubio will join us at the refuel in Qatar

There will be two refueling stops: one in Ramstein Air Base and another at Al Udeid.

Out of town pool report #2: AF1 wheels up

AF1 is wheels up at 11:15pm to Ramstein Air Base.

Trump will gaggle on board in twenty minutes. White House will stream the audio. Your pooler will send a pool report upon arrival.

Out of town pool report #3: Gaggle

POTUS gaggled for roughly 14 minutes last night shortly after departure. Transcript below.

Q: What are you expecting from your meeting with President Xi?

A: We have a lot of things to discuss, including our farmers. Various trade deals that have been made in the past — some broken, some not broken. We have many many things. I think it's going to turn out to be a good meeting.

Q: Will China need to make concessions to get a deal?

A: Sure they'll have to make concessions. I guess we will too. We're at 157% percent tariff for them. I don't think that's sustainable for them. They want to get that down, and we want certain things from them.

Q: What are the odds that you go ahead with that 100% tariff?

A: I don't know. I have no odds. I don't think they would want that. It would not be good for them. I wouldn't like to see it.

Q: What do you think Canada needs to do to get things back on track?

A: Canada lied. They made up a fake statement by President Reagan. Reagan was a big supporter of tariffs when needed. We need tariffs for national security and they totally turned it around because they're getting hurt by tariffs, and we're gaining by tariffs. They've used tariffs on us when we've had different presidents very successfully. They've taken a lot of money out of our country and now we've taken it all back. So they went out and they made a fake commercial. The Reagan Foundation went crazy with it because it was the opposite.

Reagan liked tariffs and when necessary, he would use tariffs. It's made us a very rich country. It's also made us, when it was used against us, not good for us. But we've used them very successfully. We have the highest stock market we've ever had. We have great national security. I've settled wars because of tariffs, and a president has the right to use tariffs especially when it comes to national security. We need it for national security even including our own wealth and paying down debt. We're in very good shape with that but they took a commercial saying the exact opposite, so I'm very disappointed in Canada. They lied. It was a fraud what they did.

Q: But what can they do to get it back on track?

A: I don't know, I'm satisfied with the deal we had. We have a deal right now that's very good for us and any deal that would have been made would have been better for them than the one they have right now that's why I'm surprised they did this. They did this to try and influence the Supreme Court, and many foreign countries aren't particularly happy but they took advantage of us for year and years they took advantage and presidents shouldn't have allowed it to happen but they did so really I don't think there's really much they can do. So I assume leave it the way it is. If you leave it the way it is, it's very good for us.

Q: Will you meet with PM Carney during this trip?

A: I don't have any intention, no.

Q: What do you expect of your meeting with the new Japanese PM Takaichi.

A: I think good. I hear great things about her. I think she's going to be great. She's a great friend of Mr. Abe who was a great man. Prime Minister Abe was a great friend of mine as you know who is just a fantastic person. He liked her a lot. She liked him a lot. So that's a good sign. I look forward to meeting her.

Q: She's reportedly bringing plans to buy Ford F150 pick-up trucks —

A: Oh good. That's good. They're great trucks. Are you saying I have that plan or she has that plan?

Q: She has that plan.

A: Well that's great, she has good taste. That's a hot truck.

Q: Are you concerned she might eventually try to negotiate the trade deal?

A: She might, she might. Look, I'm open to whatever they — we have a great relationship with Japan, and we're going to have a fantastic relationship with her.

Q: Do you believe that China played a role in establishing peace between Cambodia and Thailand in their recent conflict?

A: They weren't involved. Malaysia was involved. Malaysia helped. It's one of the reasons I'm going to Malaysia is they were very much involved in that, the whole thing.I told the leader of Malaysia who's a very good man, I said, 'I think I owe you a trip,' and that's why we're stopping in Malaysia for that reason. Malaysia was very much involved.

Q: While you're in South Korea, do you have any plans to meet with Kim Jung Un?

A: Well I would if he would contact. The last time I met him, I put it out over the internet that I'm coming to South Korea and if he'd like to meet I'm open to it. I'd do it. If you want to put out the word, I'm open to it. They don't have a lot of telephone service. They have a lot of nuclear weapons but not a lot of telephone service. I'm open to it. I had a great relationship with them. He probably knows I'm coming, right? If you want to put out the word, I'm open to it. There's not a lot of ways other than the internet. They have very little telephonic service. But he knows I'm coming. Yeah, I'd be open to it, 100%. I got along very well with Kim Jung Un.

Q: Do you expect to finalize your tariff deal with South Korea on this trip?
A: It's pretty close to being finalized. If they have it ready, I'm ready.

Q: How about Malaysia and Cambodia those trade deals, are you ready?

A: Yeah sure, if the papers are ready. We have deals with a lot of people. And they're very good deals. I hope they're very good for everybody.

Q: There's a report that the Thailand prime minister might not attend due to a death in Thailand.

A: There was a change. There was a death. So I don't know.

Q: How did you manage to find somebody to pay for our troops during the shutdown?

A: He's a great gentleman. He's a patron. He's obviously a very substantial man, and he contributed $130 million for the military in order to make up any different so he wanted to see the military get paid. So did I. And he's a wonderful man. He doesn't want publicity. He prefer that his name not be mentioned which is pretty unusual in the world I come from and in the world of politics you want your name mentioned. He doesn't. He's a great patriot. He really is. He put up $130 million in order to make sure — that's a lot of money — in order to make sure that the military got paid, and he's a big supporter of mine.

Q: Is it an American citizen?

A: It is, yeah. A great American citizen.

Q: Do you want Congress to pass a bill to allow 42 million Americans to continue to get food stamps this shutdown. I'm going to let some other people talk to you. I will have a comment on that later. But Democrats are stopping it. All they have to do is agree to let's go and we're ready. We voted for it many times. All we need to do is find Democrats. Republicans voted for it but we'll see what happens. But really, this is purely Democrats. They're doing some very bad things. I think they're lost souls, do you know what that is? They are lost souls.

Q: After this trip, do you think you'll sit down with Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer?

A: I would, I'd be willing to. I would have now too. I left, I said come on over, just put the government back. All they have to do is say yes, then it's over. And then we go into negotiations. Look Obamacare has been terrible, we can make it better I'm all for that but they want to allow many many illegals. People who came into our country illegally from prisons from mental institutions from all over the world. They want them to get paid and that's going to hurt the citizens of our country and I just can't do it.

Q: What influence do you want China to exert on Russia?

A: Well I'd love China to help us out with Russia. We put very big sanctions on Russia. I think those sanctions are going to be very biting, very strong but I'd like to see China help us out. I have a very good relationship with President Xi, very good. We're going to have a good meeting, I'm pretty sure we're going to have a great meeting, maybe a great meeting. I think we're going to do some good business. One of the things we'll talk about is Russia Ukraine, they're killing 7,000 people a week. Solders mostly solders and we'll certainly be talking about that.

Q: Do you worry that the sanctions are too biting that you might push Putin to far?

A: I don' t think so. Uh I don't think so. He's saying that they won't have that much of an effect so I don't know. That's what he says. I don't think he's right about that.

Q: Earlier you said you don't know think China will any moves on Taiwan.

A: I hope they won't. We'll have to see. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. I hope they won't. It would be very dangerous for them to do.

Q: Are you open to changing US policy on Taiwan?

A: Well I don't want to talk about that now, I don't want to create any complexity. The trip is already complex. I think China wants to have 10 great years and they can, they can. Or they could have some bad years and they don't want that. We're going to have very good meeting.

Q: If you don't get a deal, what will you do for US farmers who are being impacted?

A: We're going to subsidize them. We're going to give them some money because it's not their fault. They've been doing very well. They did very well under me, even if you look at the ranchers, the ranchers for the first time in years have made some money. The beef prices are up a little big so we'll have to make a determination, but the ranchers are very happy because for many years they suffered now they're making a little money and that's a good thing

Q: North Korea says that to have talks with the US they have to be recognized as a nuclear power?

A: Well I think they are sort of a nuclear power. I know how many weapons they have and I know everything about them. But I've got a very good relationship with Kim Jung Un. When you say they have to be recognized as a nuclear power, well they got a lot of nuclear weapons I'll say that.

Q: What kind of land targets in Venezuela do you want to strike and how do you decide which ones to strip?

A: We're going to see with Venezuela. I can tell you one thing. We stopped all drugs from coming in by sea. I will stop all drugs from coming in by land very shortly. You'll see that starting. They're not going to want to do it. You're going to see drugs stopping into our country. Just like we stopped prisoners and drug dealers and drug addicts, drug everything. We have stopped virtually everybody from coming in, other than people who want to come in legally. We have a lot of people coming in legally, passing tests going through a process but we don't have people coming from prisons and mental institutions. Nobody. For five months in a row they had zero people come in and we used to have 1 million and 2 million and 3 million people come in.

Q: Will you meet with Brazil's president on this trip?

A: I believe we're meeting yeah. We met at the United Nations briefly just before I went on and there was no teleprompter. They didn't allow my teleprompter to work, how about that? Well I gave a good speech anyways.

Q: Are you open to reducing the tariffs on Brazil?

A: Yeah under the right circumstances.

Q: Do yon plan to talk about AI with President Xi?

A: We're leading in AI, we're leading China in AI we're leading everybody in AI. We're doing very well. We have plants being built all over the country. We're going to have maybe $21 trillion dollars by the time my first year is up. Nobody's ever had that. We've already hit 17 trillion dollars. No country has ever hit numbers like that. That is investment into our country.

We have auto factories open. You saw General Motors yesterday and Ford - they took a big leap forward because of tariffs, but they took a big leap. They went way up. We're really respected as a country and a lot of that has to do with tariffs. Tariffs are giving us national security and strength.

Q: Are you going to sleep?

A: I don't know. I'd love to. I don't know if I'm capable of it. I'm going to try. The answer is: I would imagine so. Have fun.

Out of town pool report #4: wheels down Ramstein

AF1 is wheels down at 6:16am local time at Ramstein for refueling. Pool did not see POTUS for the remainder of the flight.

Out of town report #5: Qatar meeting

White House shares that POTUS will meet with the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar who will board AF1 at the next refueling stop at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Secretary Rubio will join for the meeting and stay with us to Asia.

The Emir and PM will leave after the meeting.

The meeting is expected to be closed press but pool may see them arrive.

Out of town report #6: AF1 wheels up

AF1 is wheels up at 1:35 to Qatar.

Flight time is approx 6 hours.

Out of town report #7: AF1 wheels down

AF1 is wheels down 8:04pm local time.

POTUS is expected to meet with the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar on the plane as we refuel. It is closed press.

Secretary Rubio will join us at this stop.

Out of town report #8: Qatar spray

Pool being brought up to POTUS cabin for spray.

Out of town report #9: Qatar spray

Pool was brought into the conference room of the plane at 8:25pm.

POTUS was seated in the middle with the Emir to his right and the PM to his left.

Trump called the Emir "one of the great rulers of the world" who is "beloved and respected."

He added that the PM "has been my friend to the world" and that the duo play a crucial role in peace to the Middle East.

Did not take questions. Pool ushered out at 8:27pm. Transcript to come.

Thanks to Erica Green and Trevor Hunnicutt for the assist.

Out of town report #10: Transcript

Transcript below. Photo attached.

The meeting, which started at 8:27pm local time, is still ongoing. There are two other U.S. planes parked on the tarmac to the right of AF1. One of them is Secretary Rubio's.

Transcript

Emir: I'm starting to because you're in my country, so I want to welcome you, Mr. President. And as soon as I found out that he's coming to refuel, I said, I'm not going to allow him to take off, unless I come and say hello to him so thank you very much, Mr. President.

POTUS: Well, the Emir is one of the great rulers of the world, not just the Middle East. He's loved, being beloved and respected by his country. I don't know what's more being beloved or respected? Both without a preference, because you have both. And the Prime Minister has been my friend and a friend to the world. We have done a lot together in the last — especially in the last year, what we've done is incredible peace to the Middle East, and they were a very big factor in it. So I just want to thank you. I was thinking, we're landing here, and we’re going to fuel up, and it's such an honor to have you on the plane, I don't think he's ever done this, actually, but it's, it's an honor. We have a great he's a great ally. They are a great ally. And these are two great men. And as long as we're together and you have those cameras rolling, I want to just say we express our thanks, and we have a safe Middle East and we want to keep it that way for a little longer.

Out of town report #11: Color

Also in the AF1 conference room with POTUS and his guests: Secretary Rubio, Susie Wiles, and Margo Martin. They were all standing. A UFC fight was playing on the TV.

Thanks to Andrew Harnik for capturing.

Out of town report #12: Meeting ends + Japan call

POTUS meeting with the Emir and PM just wrapped at 9:16pm.

Also the White House confirms that POTUS had a call earlier with the new Japanese PM Takaichi and shares they had a nice conversation and that he looks forward to seeing her in Japan.

The Japanese PM posted on X about it while we in the air: https://x.com/takaichi_sanae/status/1982089778494574921?s=46

Out of town report #13: Gaggle

POTUS came back and gaggled again on a range of issues for 5 minutes after his meeting with the Qataris.

"We talked about peace in the Middle East."
"This is an enduring peace" with 59 countries

Said what's different this time around is that "everyone agrees"

Confirmed they spoke about the new security agreement as they covered a lot of ground.

if ceasefire doesn't hold, that would be Hamas, which won't be hard "to take care of"

Stabilization force will be in place "pretty quickly"

On Russia and how Putin can get meeting rescheduled, "I'm going to have to know we're going to have a deal." "Not going to waste my time"

China and India cutting back on purchases of Russian oil

NBA gambling scandal "terrible"

Transcript to come

Out of town report #14: Transcript

Transcript of gaggle below. Also according to the White House, this was the first time the Emir of Qatar has ever greeted the President aboard Air Force One.

We will be wheels up to Malaysia momentarily.

Q: What did you talk about?

He's a great guy and a great leader. He helped us a lot. It was very nice that he came. We were just refueling and he came. It was very very nice. Great man. Great gentleman too. We talked about peace in the Middle East. We have great peace in the Middle East. He thinks it enduring. He's never seen anything like it. And is very happy that I got involved. And he helped. We had a lot of help. We had 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on. This should be an enduring peace.

Q: What's different this time?

That everybody agrees. A year ago it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power Iran, we took out that nuclear capability. Which would have happened over the next month to two months. That made a whole big difference in the Middle East. It made it possible to do the deal.

Q: Did you talk with them about the new security arrangement between the US and the Qataris will work?

We talked to them about it. We covered a lot of territory. It's working very well. It's all smooth. The US doesn't have to get much involved they're able to take care of it. Very substantial nations. We have Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar. We have the three and then you have many behind them and even with them. Turkey is involved. Indonesia is involved. Jordan, Egypt. It's an amazing gourd. And many others that are a little further away or not as close to the situation. Everybody is on board.

Q: Did they express confidence that the ceasefire in Gaza would hold?

I think it will hold. Well if it doesn't hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their world on something so I think it's going to hold and if it doesn't then they'll have a very big problem.

Q: When will the stabilization force be in place - weeks? Months?

Pretty quickly. Yeah, a period of time. I don't want to give you specifics. They're doing it right now. They're actually picking leaders right now. You're going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace. This has never happened before. 3,000 years this has never happened . Great respect when he came to the airport, came onto the plane. That's never happened either. He's a highly respected man.

Q: Have they sent peacekeeping troops into Gaza?

Yeah they'll do it at the time they need to. By the way, Israel will go in there very easily. You know that, right? Right there you have a country. But you have the Arab countries. Everybody. Muslim, Arab everybody on board. It's been really an amazing thing. It's a great success. It's going to be a long lasting. Hopefully ever lasting peace.

Q: What will Russia have to do for you to reschedule your meeting with Putin?

I'm going to have to know that we're going to have a deal. I'm not going to be wasting my time. I've always had a very great relationship with Vladimir Putin but this has been very disappointing. I thought this would have gotten done before peace in the Middle East. We have Azerbaijan, Armenia - that was very tough. In fact, Putin told me on the phone he said, 'Boy, that was amazing' because everybody tried to get that done and they couldn't. I got it done. There are others. If you look at India and Pakistan. I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine but it didn't work out that way. There's a lot of hatred between the two.

Q: Will you discuss purchases of Russian oil with Xi?

I may be discussing it. You probably saw today, China is cutting back substantially on the purchase of Russian oil and India is cutting back completely. And we've done sanctions.

Q: What did do you hope to walk away with from the Xi meeting?

I think a complete deal. I want our farmers to be taken care of. And he wants things also.We're going to be talking about fentanyl of course. Fentanyl is killing a lot of people. It comes from China. I think we have a really good chance of making a really comprehensive deal.

Q: Have you seen NBA gambling investigation?

Yeah, terrible. I think it's very bad. Terrible.

Q: How was your call with the Japanese PM?

It was great. She's beautiful. We're going to be seeing her very soon. She's very friendly with Abe.

Out of town report #15: AF1 wheels up

AF1 is wheels up at 10:04pm to Malaysia.

Flight time is just under seven hours.