Pool Reports of February 24, 2025

In-town pool report #1: Gather for French President's arrival

Good morning! Your pool is gathering for the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron.

In-town pool report #2: Macron arrived

French President Macron arrived at the West Wing at 7:52am. He waved and went inside without answering questions.

In-town pool report #3: Macron greeter

Macron was greeted by Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley

(H/t to the outstanding WH photogs for their assistance on this.)

In-town pool #7: Macron arriving

President Trump exited the West Wing at 12:29pm. French President Macron arrived at the West Wing at 12:29pm via car. Y

In-town pool #7a: Macron arriving

Apologies, that sent before I finished typing. Your pooler was unable to see the interaction between the Presidents. President Trump answered a question, but I was unable to hear the answer. Checking with TV pooler.

In-town pool report #7b: Trump on Pope Francis

Trump was asked about Pope Francis. "I wish him a speedy recovery, it's a very tough situation"

(H/t Bloomberg's Jordan Fabian)

In-town pool report #8a: quotes from oval office

Splitting quotes into two since there was so much said. This is primarily Ukraine with the DOGE questions. More Ukraine + tariffs to come.

Trump:
"A lot of progress has been made. We've had some very good talks with Russia; we've had some very good talks with others and we're trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine."
"We've come a long way in a short period of weeks."

Macron:
"Our common objective is to build peace -- a solid and longstanding peace" in Ukraine.
"We are personal friends, as you'd imagine, because we work well together."
"Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more on defense and security on this continent, as well as to be a reliable partner."

Trump:
"We're getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time."
US has spent $350 billion on Ukraine: "How we got there, I don't know, but that's a lot of money."
"We had nothing to show for it, it was the Biden administration's fault."
Europeans have spent about $100 billion on Ukraine

Will an agreement include security guarantees for Ukraine 
"Europe is going to make sure that nothing happens. I don't think it's going to be much of a problem. I think once we settle there's going to be no more war in Ukraine."

Media reporting that the US agreed to shut down military base in Greece at the request of Turkey and Russia, is that true?
"It's a no" - Hegseth

"If I didn't become president, Ukraine would right now still be at a level where they're not even thinking about peace. It's a sad thing that this happened. This would have never happened - this war - if I were president."

"On a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody, savage problem solved"
"It could lead to World War Three, if it's not stopped. There'll be a point at which it's not going to stop at those two countries."
"Once the agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business."
Macron (translated):
"We want to build peace with Ukraine. As President Trump mentioned, there are already 1 million dead and wounded in Ukraine since the war began."
Trump on DOGE email:
"I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week?' What he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?' And then if you don't answer like you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist."
"We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far. And we've just started - we're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold."
Q: Some heads of departments told employees not to respond
"That was done in a friendly manner. Only things such as perhaps Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they're working on confidential things. And they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week. "

In-town pool report #8b: rest of oval quotes

Part 2 of oval office quotes.

Trump:
"The first thing that we want to do, the first element of the overall transaction is ending the war. But just as we're doing with Ukraine, we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want."

Q: US voting against UN resolutions from Ukraine and US?
Trump: "I would rather not explain it now, but it's sort of self-evident"

fuller quote about EU tariffs: "Well, it's not increasing. It's reciprocal. So, whatever they charge us, we're charging them. So, it's not a question of increasing. Yeah. If they charge us 20%, we charge them 20%."

"At some point" Russia will agree to a ceasefire

Macron spoke about deterrents, I was unable to hear the full translation.

Trump:
"There was great unity in that room today" (for the G7 call)

Q: Will Putin accept European troops as peacekeepers?
Trump: "Yeah, he will accept that."
"He has no problem with it."

Q: Will France lift block on $300 billion in frozen Russian assets
Macron: We've used them to back loans negotiated at G7.
"You can take the proceeds of the frozen assets, but not the assets themselves."
"It's part of the negotiation at the end of the war."
"This war cost all of us a lot of money. And this is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia. So at the end of the day, these frozen assets should be part of the negotiation."
Support Ukraine being compensated first because they lost citizens

In-town pool report #10: Gathering for presser

[APP Note: No additional text was included in this report.]

In-town pool report #11: 2 min warning

For the press conference

In-town pool report #12: presser started

President Trump and French President Macron entered the East Room at 2:49pm and began the press conference.

I will only send newsy quotes since most folks will be carrying live.

In-town pool report #13: Trump remarks and some color

Each president began with remarks, repeating much of what they said in the Oval Office earlier today.

Members of both delegations are seated in the East Room directly in front of the presidents. 

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff are both in the East Room, as they were in the oval earlier. Vice President JD Vance is seated directly in front of President Trump during the press conference and Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent is also present.

The Biden administration "didn't think of a lot of things, like why did they let it start in the first place?" Trump said of the war in Ukraine.

"I want to bring peace, not war."

In-town pool report #14: Macron said made "substantive steps forward"

Macron repeated much of his earlier remarks from the Oval Office. This is all via a translator, as he spoke in French.

Macron:
"We've made substantive steps forward" during today's discussions about Ukraine.
Ukraine has held the line for "our collective security."
Aware that Europe needs to shoulder more of the security burden
"We fully share" the idea of peace through strength.

Foreign pool report #1

Hi! 

I’m your foreign pooler for the visit of President Macron. He arrived at 7.51 at the White House for the call with the G7 members.
He was followed by the members of the French Delegation. 

Main members of the French delegation:
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot
French Economy Minister Eric Lombard
General Secretary of the Elysée Alexis Kohler
Chief of Military Staff (Chef de l’état-major particulier du Président) Fabien Mandon 
America's adviser to the President Walid Fouque
President Macron’s top diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne
President Macron’s advisor Paul Soler 
Ambassador of France to the United States Laurent Bili

Foreign pool report #2 call with G7 members

According to a French official, the call with G7 members should last until 10am.

Foreign pool report #3 Macron’s departure

President Macron left the White House at 10.33, after a call with G7 members along President Trump in the Oval Office. 

He answered to 2 shouted questions will send quotes asap.
According to a French official, President Macron is going back to the Blair House, and will come back to the White House at 12.15pm

Foreign pool report #4 Macron quotes

President Macron walked back from the West Wing to the Blair House, he answered to 2 shouted questions:

He answered to a first question from the AFP reporter:
"The call was perfect"

And then I asked him, "How was the welcoming from President Trump"
He said "It was very good, very friendly, as always. We did the G7 videoconference in the Oval office and then we had a first discussion and I come back shortly."

Foreign pool report #5 Background President Macron's visit

Bonjour,

I'll be your foreign pooler for French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to the White House. Here are some background infos, don't hesitate if you have any questions. 

Schedule:
French President Emmanuel Macron landed yesterday night at 7.35pm in Washington DC. 
The President spent the night at the Blair House. 
He participated at 8am in a videoconference with G7 members, in the Oval Office.

12.15pm President Macron's arrival at the White House 
12.20pm Bilat, Oval Office (In House pool)
12.35pm Bilat and working lunch 
2pm Joint press conference 
4pm President Macron meets with Senators in Congress
7.30pm Departing from Washington DC to Paris 

French delegation members:
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot
French Economy Minister Eric Lombard
General Secretary of the Elysée Alexis Kohler
Chief of Military Staff (Chef de l'état-major particulier du Président) Fabien Mandon 
America's adviser to the President Walid Fouque
President Macron's top diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne
President Macron's advisor Paul Soler 
Ambassador of France to the United States Laurent Bili

Priorities for the bilateral meeting:
Per l'Elysée, President Macron's visit is part of a series of regular contacts that President Macron has maintained with President Trump since his re-election.
According to French officials, Macron enjoys a rare advantage over other European leaders in that he has built a "unique relationship" with Donald Trump, a relationship they forged during President Trump's first term.
During his visit, President Macron and President Trump will discuss all of the subjects that are central to the French-US strategic partnership, with a particular emphasis on Russia's war against Ukraine. 
With respect to Ukraine, we are moving forward with our fellow Europeans in a spirit of unity, holding meetings on Ukraine and European security on Monday, followed by another meeting on Wednesday. As the President said during his live video on social media, France shares President Trump's goal of ending Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. That is the spirit in which he is traveling to Washington, to support this goal. He will present proposals for actions that reflect the areas of agreement that emerged and were reaffirmed during the meetings and during bilateral talks – particularly with our British partners. 
He is traveling to Washington with this goal in mind, sharing this desire to end the conflict while making every effort to maintain our support for Ukraine, strengthen European security and ensure that Ukraine is fully involved in these efforts, and to ensure that Ukraine's interests – which are ours as well – are fully taken into account.
On Saturday, President Macron's said "I am going there to say that the security of the French and the Europeans is important"
The French economy minister is part of the French delegation for this visit and trade should also be part of the discussions. 
Background info: 

Last Monday, European leaders held a hastily-arranged summit in Paris, a day before US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. Last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron held a new meeting on Ukraine with European and NATO leaders in a bid to coordinate a response to what he called an "existential threat" from Russia.
"The position of France and its allies is clear and united. We wish for peace in Ukraine that is lasting," President Macron wrote on X after the meeting with the leaders of 19 countries including Canada.

Last Thursday, during a little bit more than a one-hour question and answer session on social media, President Macron said that he'll tell Trump when he meets with him : "'You can't be weak in the face of President Putin. It's not you, it's not your trademark, it's not in your interest. How can you then be credible in the face of China if you're weak in the face of Putin?'" President Macron also said that Trump's strategy to create "uncertainty" could be good for Western allies: Putin "doesn't know what he (Trump) is going to do, he thinks (Trump) is capable of anything" "This uncertainty is good for us and for Ukraine."
He also said he is going to try to convince Trump that the US interests and Europeans' interests are the same: "If you let Russia take over Ukraine, it would be unstoppable." He made clear that any peace deal must be negotiated with Ukrainians around the table "We want peace. But we don't want a ceasefire that means Ukraine surrendering, because that's dangerous. And we know that would lead to Russia going further. We've already experienced it"
Macron also said he was ready to answer Trump's call to increase defense spending. "Us, Europeans, we must increase our war effort" France spends just over 2 percent of its gross domestic product on the military.
He was asked by one of the French viewer on social media if he was considering sending French troops to Ukraine, he replied: "We don't rule out, within a framework planned with our allies, the possibility of having forces which, once peace has been negotiated, could contribute to guaranteeing Ukraine's security"

On Friday, Trump said that Macron and Starmer "haven't done anything" since 2022 to end the war in Ukraine, in a Fox news radio interview.

Last meeting Trump/Macron:
Their last meeting was on December 7, 2024, when French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed President elect Donald Trump in Paris as the two held a meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy before celebrating the reopening of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.
Their last phone call was on February 17 when French President Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump spoke on the phone minutes before Macron greeted European dignitaries who had gathered to discuss security in Paris.
The French president's office said the "frank conversation" lasted 20 minutes.
A White House official described the conversation as "friendly" and said the two leaders talked about "the Ukraine War, the upcoming meeting of European nations tomorrow, and the talks in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian officials."
President Macron was the first state visit of the first Trump administration

Relationship:
In a recent interview with Fox News, President Trump said that he considered Macron to be a "friend".
During the question-and-answer session on social media last week, Macron said "Trump, I know him. I respect him and I believe he respects me," 

The beginning of the Trump/Macron relationship was on full display during the summer of 2017, when the American President first traveled to France. Their bond was once dubbed a "bromance" by US and French media.
During a visit by President Macron to the White House in April 2018, they kissed each other's cheeks in greeting and praised on each other. But by the end of 2018, their relationship began to sour and tension arised. 
President Macron said that the United States under Trump seemed to be "turning its back on us."  He failed to persuade Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement and the international deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program. On Nov 9, 2018, Trump kicked off his trip to Paris by tweeting that Macron's proposal for a "true European army," was "very insulting"
Their relationship have improved since, French President Emmanuel Macron warmly welcomed Donald Trump back to the White House when he was elected, he has beaten other leaders to congratulate Trump on his election victory. The French president wrote on X he was "ready to work together" with Trump.

Trump attended the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral in December, and they have talked by telephone regularly since.

Bio 
Emmanuel Macron is 47 years old.
He was first elected in May 2017, becoming at 39, the youngest ever French President. He has been a member of Renaissance since he founded it in 2016 (originally known as En Marche!). He was reelected to a 2nd term in the 2022 Presidential election.
Although he had been a member of the Socialist Party earlier in life and served under a Socialist President, he ran on a centrist, pro-European movement (En Marche), which he founded a year prior to the Presidential election. 
After a shattering defeat in May's 2024 European Parliament election, his decision to call a snap election has backfired.
the New Popular Front (NFP), a cluster of left-wing parties, won 182 seats in the National Assembly, short of a majority but ahead of both Macron's centrist bloc and the far right.
In recent years, his support has shifted to the right and he has been criticized from voters on the left. He has been nicknamed "President of the Rich".
Macron studied at the Jesuit Institute Lycée (high school) la Providence in Amiens before he went to the elite lycée in Paris"Henri-IV).
He is married to Brigitte Macron, his former teacher at La Providence lycée. She is 25 years his senior. They met during a theatre workshop she was giving when he was 15 and she was 39.
Macron's parents attempted to separate them by sending him away to Paris to finish the final year of his Lycée (hih school)
Macron wrote in his autobiography that his grandparents were a teacher, a railway worker, a social worker and a road engineer.
People close to him often says that his maternal grandmother, Manette, the teacher, was one of the important person to him. They were very closed and she introduced him to literature and culture.

Foreign pool report #6 Macron returns to the WH

President Macron arrived at 12.29 at the White House and was warmly greeted by President Trump. Macron answered a question on the Pope, wishing him well but it was hard to hear.

We are heading to the Oval Office.

Foreign pool report #7 Oval Office

President Macron and President Trump talked to the press in the Oval Office (a packed Oval Office with a dozen French journalists) for around 28min, ending at 1.06pm 

They seemed to have a warm relationship, smiled and shook hands. Trump said he « loved » the French language. 
But at the end of the Oval, they had a little disagreement when Trump said « Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back. »
Macron gently touched Trump’s arm and made a little grimace « In fact to be frank we paid, we paid 60%. We paid 60% of the total defaults. And it was like the US loans guarantee grants, and we provided real money. To be clear. We have two hundred and 30 billion frozen assets in Europe, Russian assets, but this is not as a collateral of the loan, because this is not our belonging. So they are frozen. If at the end of the day the negotiation, we will have this, Russia they're ready to give to give it to us, super, it will be loan at the end of the day. »

Trump « if you believe that it’s okay for me. »

I will send shortly some of the questions from the French press, all answers from President Macron were translated into English.

Foreign pool report #8 Oval Office French delegation

Sitting on the couch on the right of President Macron in the Oval Office was, from right to left :

-French Economy Minister Eric Lombard
-French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot
-Ambassador of France to the United States Laurent Bili

Foreign pool report #9 Macron's remarks Oval office

President Macron's remarks at the beginning of the Oval bilat:

"I want to thank Mr. President for his hospitality. We had a good discussion this morning for the G7 and for the third year of this war in Ukraine. And I think our common objective is to build peace and a solid and long standing peace, and this is what we will discuss, obviously, because I have great respect for bravery and the resistance of Ukrainian people, and we do share the objective of these, but we are very aware of the necessity to what guarantees in the solid peace in order to stabilize the situation. I'm here as a friend, because through centuries, we've been friends, and we are, we are personal friends that you mentioned it because we work very well together, and I think the US and France always stand on the same side, on the right side, I would say. And this is exactly what's at stake today. And this is a very important moment for Europe as well, and I'm here as well, after discussions with all my colleagues, to say that Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more in defense and security for the continent, and as well, to be a reliable partner and to be engaged on trade, economy, investments in a lot of topics. So I'm very excited by the discussion we will have, and obviously we will follow up. And I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your presence at notre Dame de Paris. It meant a lot for French people, and I want to thank you."

Foreign pool report #10 Macron's quotes and Trump's story in France

Here are the main quotes from President Macron during the Oval Office bilat with President Trump.

I also added a little anecdote that Trump shared on a previous trip to Paris.

"We want to build peace with Ukraine. As President Trump

As mentioned, there are already 1 million dead included in Ukraine since the war began,and this war of aggression. We want the peace to last because we already had a ceasefire in the past that was not respected. This was under the Minsk agreements one and two."

"What President Trump just said is very important, he will be meeting with President Zelensky very soon to sign this deal on minerals and rare earths, and its a way to have a strong American involvement. Europeans are ready to support Ukraine in various ways, supporting its military,and are ready to be present to make sure the peace lasts."

"But we do share the same objective, this is what we talked about this morning for one hour after the videoconference together."

"This is a question that was asked by your colleague in French and it's also what some of your American colleagues asked. Building peace is a necessity. The other thing is that there is today a capacity of deterrence. That's what President Trump meant when he said there won't be any more problems. I think that the US strength of its re-engagement is that there is uncertainty for President Putin. There is deterrence capacity, which will allow a truce to take place, verification of that truce, and then a peace agreement can be put in place so that we can start rebuilding Ukraine with security guarantees. Concerning these security guarantees, we think we have a role to play. I'm not preempting any discussions, but it's necessary that Ukraine can stay a sovereign country. And that has been a subject to discussion between the US and Ukraine, the ukrainian sovereignty. We have been working closely with our British partners these past weeks. We've shared this with other European countries and allies wanting to join, its to say we are ready and willing to provide those security guarantees, conditions still have to be defined by this agreement. It could include troops to observe that the peace is respected. They would not be along the front lines, they would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected. Our assistance may include other capacity building, perhaps for the military."

"You take the proceeds because they are paralyzed in a certain way during war time, but you keep the assets, and it's part of the negotiation at the end of the war. Because, I mean, this war costs to all of us a lot of money. And this is the responsibility of Russia, because the aggressor is Russia, so at the end of the day, these frozen assets should be part of the negotiation."

"I support the idea to have Ukraine first being compensated because they are the one who have lost a lot of their fellow citizens and are being destroyed by this attack.

Second, all of those who paid for could be compensated, but not by Ukraine, by Russia, because they were the one to aggress."

----

Trump shared an anecdote on France during the discussions "I just want to tell you a little story. So we were at the Eiffel Tower having dinner with your wonderful wife and with my wonderful wife, and we came out, and he started speaking French(...), and we didn't have an interpreter, and he was going on and on and on, and I was just nodding yes, yes, yes. And he really sold me out, because I got back the next day that I read the papers, I said, that's not what we said."

Foreign pool #11 off the record Macron’s advisor

In front of briefing room now

Foreign pool #12 Macron's remarks at Press Conference

Some excerpts of the opening remarks of President Macron at the Press conference (he spoke in French). 

President Macron thanked President Trump again for coming to Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris "Your presence underlined our friendship". 

"This visit had one main objective : the geopolitical situation and i want to thank you Mr President for having accepted to rearrange your schedule in order to see us so quickly and I consider that we're really made some substantial steps forward during our discussion"

During the videoconference of G7 members "we told our support to President Zelensky, to the Ukrainian people and we shared our will to have a lasting peace. I believe that's what you (President Trump) repeated these past few weeks (lasting peace)."

"Europe invested $138 billions in aid to Ukraine. And I repeat "invested" because Ukraine was at the front of our collective security."

"These past hours, many things have happened. First, I applaud your decision to see the President Zelensky and to finalize this agreement that is important for the United States and for Ukrainians on critical minerals and rare earth."

"we discussed for a while with the President about our will to have a ceasefire that could then allow the negotiation of a lasting peace" "We'll talk about the security guarantees, how to maintain peace on the long term."

"Without these security guarantees, it won't work."

About the European allies "We want peace, it can not mean the surrender of Ukraine. This peace can' t be a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace has to lay out the conditions for Ukraine's sovereignty and has to allow Ukraine to negotiate with the different parties everything that concerns her and for which she is the only one legitimate to negotiate." 

"For Europeans it's an existential question."

"We discussed with President Trump what we discussed with President Zelensky, with whom we went into the details of the different steps for the negotiations. We talked about the work that has been done with our British partners to conceive what could be the deployment of troops who will serve as peacekeepers on Ukraine territory, it would be a part of the security guarantees. Other countries are ready to join. And for this the solidarity and support of the USA is necessary. And I thank you Mr President to have started the work with us on this subject. I think that I can say that the agreement that you are about to sign with Ukraine and the discussions we had are solid guarantees in my opinion that we understood each other. And that we have the same goal : peace as soon as possible."

"I also came to share a message on the engagement of the Europeans. We are aware that the Europeans have to do more for the security and the defense of Europe. and in general to more fairly share the security burden that your country has been carrying for so many years."

"Mr President, dear Donald, this peace through strength in which you believe is also what we believe into."

"We also talked about economic subjects." "Our will is to have a fair competition"

"We share the same will to not see Iran get the nuclear weapon"

Foreign pool #13 President Macron's quotes press conference with President Trump

Some more President Macron's quotes from the Press Conference

About Trump's discussion with Putin
"I would never give any advice to President Trump."
"I think it"s good to have discussions with other leaders, and especially when you disagree. I stopped my discussion with President Putin after Bucha and the war crimes because I considered that... I mean, we have nothing to get from him in time. Now this is a chance, there is a big change, because there is a new administration. So this is a new context. So there is good reason for President Trump to re engage with President Putin."

"being strong and having dangerous capacities is the only way to be sure it could be respected. And I insisted on that. And this is why I believe that the US has the capacity to do so, and this is why I think we should never say I will never send any boots on the ground, because you do a blank check to violate any type of commitment. So I think it's good to have discussions. I think it's useful to have negotiation."
"My strong point was to say, let's try to get something first, which can be assessed, checked and verified, and let's be sure that we build sufficient guarantees on the short run. And this is where we are ready to be engaged. As for friends, a lot of my European colleagues are ready to be engaged. But we do, do need this American backup, because this is part of the credibility of the security guarantees, and this is our collective deterrence capacity. And I have the feeling this President has this capacity."

"The security guarantees will be negotiated in due time but this peace as it is now written and negotiated is an important step forward"

(translated from French)

"Today, when we talk about troops, we are talking about it for the day after the negotiations, for a discussion of long lasting peace. Once there is a peace solid, durable, negotiated, signed by Ukraine and Russia, a peace for which we will be collectively the guarantors. France and the UK worked together the past few weeks to say we are ready to contribute. We have a plan that has been discussed between our military entities to say: we are ready. Not to go to the front or on territories that are contested or occupied. But we are ready to mark our support to ensure that the peace signed and negotiated by both parties is preserved."

That's it from me, let me know if you have any questions!