Pool Reports of March 26, 2025

In-town pool #1: Alina Habba on The Atlantic's reporting

Good morning!

Alina Habba just spoke to reporters at the sticks about the Signal chat. It was mostly her saying that reporters were making a big deal out of nothing.

"We were upfront about it. We went in yesterday, as you saw, for the better (part) of the day and got questions and answers by everybody."

"Look, it is what it is. At the end of the day, this is — in my opinion — something that they're making a big to do about nothing. A reporter that is trying to get clout."

"I frankly have never read The Atlantic. I don't plan to, but he answered the questions, I'm going to defer to those answers from the cabinet."

"We're allowed to have communications. That's period — the end."

"We stand by Mike Waltz; he's doing a tremendous job. I think this is a distraction."

"I would love if the press, for once, would focus on the actual facts and actions of the administration. This is just — this is frankly just noise."

"We're also allowed to use Signal for top level official communications. We also have other means of communications that were used."

(h/t to Geoff Earle of the Daily Mail for the help)

In-town pool #2: lunch lid

We have a lunch lid until 12:15, but folks are waiting at the sticks for Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins, who is doing a Fox Business hit.

In-town pool #3: Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins at the sticks

Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins came and spoke with reporters after a Fox Business hit. She answered a few questions about The Atlantic's reporting, bird flu and probationary employees.

On the Signal chat and confidence in her colleagues:
"President Trump has utmost confidence in my colleagues in the cabinet, I think that the pace at which we are winning on issues that the people of America voted on is absolutely unprecedented. There is no doubt that my friends, my colleagues, my family that are part of this cabinet are the best, most patriotic, most impressive Americans I've ever been around."

HHS Sec. Kennedy said poultry vaccines could lead to mutant factories:
"As we are investing resources into figuring out how to solve this Avian Bird flu, which has been absolutely a disaster for our poultry industry — our egg layers, especially — but we can't just make the decision on what that looks like, just us over at the USDA building."

On the firing of probationary employees:
"The entire cabinet is aligned, is supportive and understands the President's vision that is being effectuated by Elon Musk and in partnership with all of the agencies."
"As we continue forward, we map those plans out. This will perhaps only be a couple more months — two, three, four months — while we're looking at what that realignment and reduction in force looks like, and then we begin the rebuild."
Because of onshoring, "the private sector is about to explode with new jobs and new opportunities in those areas. And so the opportunity for those who did work for government to now perhaps move into more productive opportunities for themselves, for their families, for their jobs and for this country, I believe, will be unprecedented."

Otter link: https://otter.ai/u/GWCviuTrVZ8EcH0HnL4FJPQ52LE?utm_source=copy_url

Apologies for the delay, I had this all ready to go and the email disappeared so I had to re-transcribe.

In-town pool report #4: briefing beginning shortly

Briefing will now begin in 5-10 minlogies for the delay, I had this all ready to go and the email disappeared so I had to re-transcribe.

In-town pool report #5: Briefing starting

Briefing began at 1:12pm.

In-town pool report #6: briefing ended

The press briefing ended at 1:35pm. Karoline took questions for 16 minutes.

Karoline said that POTUS will give remarks on auto tariffs at 4pm in the Oval Office.

In-town pool #7: East Room event gather now at 3:10pm

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In-town pool report #8: East Room event starting

President Trump entered the East Room at 3:34pm for the Women's History Month celebration.

There is standing room in the front closest to the President and small tables at the back. The room is filled with women, many of whom have wine or champagne. The music played before included orchestral arrangements of Dancing Queen and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

This is being streamed live, so I will only send color and news.

In-town pool report #9: Color and names at women's history month event

Members of the crowd yelled "We love you" after the president thanked women for electing him. Big applause for his declarations that there are two genders and that transgender people don't exist.

Government officials present for his remarks:
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
counselor Alina Habba
Attorney General Pam Bondi
Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins
Education Sec. Linda McMahon
Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird
Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette
Oklahoma Agriculture Commissioner Blayne Arthur
Speaker Mike Johnson
Sen. Katie Britt
Sen. Marsha Blackburn
Sen. Joni Ernst
Sen. Deb Fischer
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith
Sen. Ashley Moody
Rep. Kat Cammack
Rep. Lisa McClain
Rep. Stephanie Bice
Rep. Sheri Biggs
Rep. Lauren Boebert
Rep. Monica de la Cruz
Rep. Julie Fedorchak
Rep. Virginia Foxx
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Diana Harshbarger
Rep. Ashley Hinton
Rep. Erin Houchin
Rep. Laurel Lee
Rep. Julia Letlow
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
Rep. Nancy Mace
Rep. Celeste Maloy
Rep. Carol Miller
Rep. Mary Miller
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks
Rep. Maria Salazar
Rep. Victoria Spartz
Rep. Beth Van Duyne

Your pooler was unable to see any of the officials personally from where press was positioned, so I am relying on the president having called out their names.

Trump finished his remarks at 4:12pm.

In-town pool report #10: Pool gathering for tariff remarks

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In-town pool report #11: Oval remarks started

Pool entered the Oval at 5:15pm.

President Trump began speaking at 5:16pm.

"We're going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs and taking our wealth."

25% tariff on all cars made outside the U.S.

In-town pool report #12: Auto tariffs continued

Trump spoke from behind the resolute desk

"This will continue to spur growth like you haven't seen."

No tariff if cars are built in U.S.

"Others will come into our country and build, and they're already looking for sites."

"You're going to see prices going down, but going to go down specifically because they're going to buy what we're doing, incentivizing companies to — and even countries — companies to come into America."

25% tariff also on light trucks

Expect $100B new annual revenue to U.S. from the tariffs, per staff secretary

Going to do tariffs on pharmaceuticals

"this is going to lead to construction of a lot of plants — auto plants in particular."

Officials present include Peter Navarro, Karoline Leavitt, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick

More to come.

In-town pool report #13: Oval continued

Tariffs will help reduce taxes and debt

The auto tariffs will take effect April 3, Lutnick said. Trump said they will be permanent for the rest of his term

Will have tariff on lumber

Didn't talk to Elon Musk about the auto tariffs

On Signal chat (I will send full quotes after):
"It's all a witch hunt"
"I think Signal could be defective."

Big three automakers' reaction to tariffs? thrilled if they have factories here

Will extend deadline if Tiktok deal is in progress but not done

Finished at 5:49pm

I will send more complete notes shortly.

In-town pool report #14: lid

We have a lid at 6:12pm

In-town pool #15: Fuller quotes about Signal and tariffs

Focusing on the Signal chat and tariffs; next report will have other topics.

Signal:
"It's a witch hunt. I wasn't involved with it; I don't — I wasn't there, but I can tell you the result is unbelievable because the Houthis are looking to do something. ... The Houthis are dying for peace."
Do you still believe nothing classified was shared? "That's what I've heard. I don't know. I'm not sure, you have to ask the various people involved."
Senate GOP wants an inspector general report, your response? "That doesn't bother me. I want to find if there's any mistake or if Signal doesn't work -- it could be that signal is not (a) very good company, and maybe it's not very good I think we'd rather know about it now. There was no harm done, because the attack was unbelievably successful that night, and it has been unbelievably successful every single."
"Mike (Waltz), I guess he said he claimed responsibility."
"It was Mike, I guess. I don't know. I was told it was Mike."
"Mike — he took responsibility for it."
"Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with it."
"I don't know that Signal works, I think that Signal could be defective, to be honest with you."

Tariffs:
Wants Congress to pass a law so car interest can be deducted on your taxes if the car is made in America
"I think people will be impressed. We're going to be -- we're going to be very fair, going to be very nice, actually. We have not been treated nicely by other countries, but we're going to be nice. So I think people will be pleasantly surprised, but it's going to make our country very rich, because we're the piggy bank that everybody steals from and they've been doing it for many years, for decades, and we're not going to let it happen."
"We're going to have very strong policing" to enforce tariffs on cars being made in the U.S.
"That number is going to be used to reduce debt greatly in the United States and to build things, reduce taxes. Basically, I view it as reducing taxes and also reducing debt. And within a fairly short period of time, I think we're going to have a balance sheet that's going to be outstanding."
April 2 tariffs will apply to all countries
"We're going to make it all countries, and we're going to make it very lenient. I think people are going to be very surprised. It'll be, in many cases, less than the tariff that they've been charging us for decades. So I think people are going to be very, very surprised."
Automaker reaction to the tariffs: "It depends on whether or not they have factories here. I can tell you, if they have factories here, they're thrilled. If you don't have factories here, they're gonna have to get going and build them, because otherwise they have to pay taxes."
Tariffs good for Tesla? "I think they may. It could be a net neutral or it may be good. He has a big plant in Texas, he has a big plant in California, and anybody that has plants in the United States, it's going to be good for."
On VP's comments that he doesn't like bailing out Europe: "Well, I understand where he's coming from. The European Union has been treating us very, very badly in terms of the VAT tax that they charge. They charge a tremendous VAT tax, and they don't sell our cars in Europe. They don't sell our agriculture in Europe; they don't let us do very much. They treat us very badly."
"If I did to them what they did to us, I think a lot of people would be very unhappy."
"I'm going to be much more lenient with regard to the tariffs that you'll see on April 2. I'm going to be much more lenient than they were with us."

In-town pool report #16: More Oval quotes

This is a grab bag of topics.

Pharmaceutical tariffs:
"We're going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals, in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back. We don't make anything here in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines. It's another country. It's largely made in China. Lot of it made in Ireland."

LA fires:
"If Los Angeles had fire cuts, which they didn't have — that's a gap of half a football field between areas — you wouldn't have had the fires, they would have been contained."

TikTok sale:
"TikTok is very popular, very successful, very good. And we're gonna have a form of a deal. But if it's not finished, it's not a big deal; we'll just extend it. I have the right to have the deal and to extend it if I want."
"We have a lot of interest in TikTok."
"China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly, in the form of an approval maybe, and I think they'll do that. Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done."

How would you handle if states like California put in place education policies you disagree with?"California is going to be tougher because they are, they're doing badly, and everything they do, everything they touch turns bad. So a place like California would be tougher for education. But what I would see with California is you'd have a Los Angeles Department, and you'd have Riverside, you'd have, you know, you'd go to various places, and I think you'd have some great areas in California, and then you'd have some like everything else, it doesn't work so well, but ultimately, I think it would be very successful."
"So many states are chomping at the bit to get education, and it's going to happen fast, to get the education brought back to the States."

Greenland:
"We need Greenland, and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we'll see what happens. But if we don't have Greenland, we can't have great international security. If you look at the ships outside of Greenland, China, Russia; places that we have to be there. If we're not there, we can't have national or international security."

EU decided against Apple and Google for Digital Markets Act, is it politically motivated? "It is. The European Union is suing a lot of our companies, like Apple, and they have a $17 billion dollar judgment, and they're suing Google, they're suing Facebook, they're suing a lot of other companies, and they use that money just like — it's like a tariff. They go before judges that are very pro-European Union to put it mildly. I have that same thing here, but I don't think the people are going to stand for it."