Pool Reports of March 28, 2025

WHCA WH Note 1 – Checking in

Good morning from the White House.

The president has a single event open to the press pool today, a swearing-in ceremony for his interim US Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, at 1300.

He is to leave an hour later for another weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach country club.

WHCA WH note 2 — pool waiting to get into Oval

Pool was brought out and is awaiting to get into the Oval. Event should be carried live.

WHCA WH note 3 — in oval

Pool was brought into the oval at 1303.

WHCA WH note 4 — Trump announced deal with Skadden

After Paula White offered a prayer, Trump came to the lectern and announced a deal with the Skadden law firm in which it will provide $100 million in pro bono work that the administration approves of.

"This was essentially a settlement."

"We appreciate their coming to the table."

WHCA WH note 5 — Habba swearing in

Trump praising Habba, his former personal lawyer, as he names her the interim USA in New Jersey.

"Alina joined my legal team several years ago and helped spearhead the effort to defeat the corrupt and grotesque weaponization of our justice system."

"She'll be as good as it gets."

Pam Bondi came to lectern at 1313 to give Habba the oath.

WHCA WH note 6 — Habba sworn in

The Oval is fairly full. Habba's family. Many Trump aides.

Trump now taking Qs

WHCA WH note 7 -- Trump takes questions, says "we have to have Greenland"

Trump took questions for 18 minutes on a range of topics.

No real news, apart from the announcement about the Skadden agreement at the top.

With VP Vance in Greenland now, Trump continued to say that the US must have the region."

"We have to have Greenland. It's not a question of 'Do you think we can do without it.' We can't."

More quotes coming ASAP.

In the meantime, here is the otter file:

https://otter.ai/u/9Rkkns05W52ruuFpRNxTkpp7wHc?utm_source=copy_url

WHCA WH note 8 — gathered for departure

Transcribing further questions on hold until departure.

Topics in the oval included:

Canada tariffs

India tariffs

Burma earthquake

Stefanik/FL races

MS-13 arrest

Why are you so good to women and relatedly what is a woman

Trevor Milton pardon

Putin buying arms from Iran and NK

Should people buy cars now to avoid tariffs

Greenland

Iranian drones killing Ukrainians

WHCA WH note 9 - Trump left for Florida

The president emerged from the Oval Office at 1409, walked across the grass to the waiting helicopter with a wave to the gathered press and climbed aboard at 1410.

Following behind were aides and advisers and Cabinet members including Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent and RFK Jr.

Marine 1 was airborne at 1415.

He is en route Palm Beach. This is his 9th weekend at one of his resorts of his 10 weekends in office of his second term.

Handing off to travel pool for the remainder of today's activities.

Still to come, answers to the questions he took in the Oval.

WHCA WH pool note 10 - Qs to Trump in the Oval and his As

Here are the questions and answers Trump took in the Oval. For more details, see the otter file sent earlier or watch the event on CSPAN or WH Youtube channel:

ON TARIFFS WITH CANADA:

ON CANADA TARIFFS

"We're going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada and a lot of the other countries."
"They actually, many of them actually apologize. They said, Look, we have taken advantage."
"We had a very good talk, the Prime Minister and myself, and I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States."

ON INDIA TARIFFS
Trump said India had high tariffs on so many goods and Modi is very smart.
"I think it's going to work out very well between India and our country."

ON BURMA EARTHQUAKE
"It's terrible."
"t's a real bad one, and we will be helping. We've already spoken with the country."

ON ELISE STEFANIK AND FLORIDA HOUSE RACES
"I didn't want to take a chance."
On the Florida races, he said Dems are outspending the Republican candidates by many multiples.
"So the airwaves are blanketed, and you never know what happens in a case like that."
"Would you mind staying in Congress? Because we don't want to take any chances, and it's as simple as that, as basic politics, as politics 101, she's very popular."

ON MS-13 ARREST IN VA AND HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO GET THIS DONE SO WELL?
"Theyy caught one of the worst criminals in in the world, I guess, in terms of evilness, you don't get any worse than the MS 13 guys."

ON WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD WITH WOMEN AND RELATEDLY WHAT IS A WOMAN
"A woman is somebody that can have a baby under certain circumstances. She has a quality. A woman is a person who's much smarter than a man of old doesn't give a man even a chance of success. And a woman is a person that, in many cases, has been treated very badly."
"I think that what happens with this crazy, this crazy issue of men being able to play in women's sports is just ridiculous and very unfair to women and very demeaning to women."

ON WHY HE PARDONED TREVOR MILTON
"He did a business deal like in Utah, as I have it, and I think he was exonerated."
Trump claimed that Trump was unfairly prosecuted because he was a Trump supporter.
"They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump, a president. He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn't know him, but he liked him. It was in Utah, and they went after him."
"You don't realize this is a vicious group of people that were in this office before us. This is a vicious group. They're violent, what they were, what they were doing to people."

ON HAS HE SPOKEN WITH PUTIN ABOUT BUYING ARMS FROM IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
"Not about specifically that, no."
He then started talking about the Ukrainian children who had been abducted into Russia and how the war never would have happened if he been president, and how Ukraine was being decimated.

ON WHETHER AMERICANS SHOULD BUY CARS NOW BEFORE THE TARIFFS COME

Said lots of companies are building plants in the US now because the won the election and claimed that $5 trillion in investment commitments had come in since he returned to office.
"If you have your company here, if you build your product, make your product, make your car, or whatever it is, you're making no tariffs."
He said he is also pushing to allow tax deductions for loans on cars made in the US.

ON GREENLAND
"We need Greenland. Very important, for international security, we have to have Greenland. It's not a question of, 'Do you think we can do without it?' We can't."
"Right now you look at it, you have warships all over the place, going through right along Greenland. We're not going to let that happen. We cannot let that happen, or if it's going to happen, we have to be protective of our country, and more importantly, right now, it's really protection, not only of our country, of the world."

ON WHY HE IS ALLOWING IRANIAN DRONES TO KILL UKRANIANS
"Well, we're going to see what happens with that. I'm getting reports on that and what we're looking at a report."
"You're right. They make a lot of drones. Iran makes a lot of drones. They make very effective drones. They do very effectively at some things, but Iran is very high on my, on my list of things to watch. And as you probably know, I sent them a letter just recently, and I said, you have to make a decision one way or the other, and we can either have to talk and talk it out or very bad things are going to happen to Iran. And I don't want that to happen. I don't want that. My big preference, and I don't say this through strength or weakness, my big preference is we work it out with Iran, but if we don't work it out bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran."

WHCA out of town note 1/ POTUS boards AF1

Marine One touched down at Joint Base Andrews at 2.22pm. POTUS, wearing dark suit and blue tie, disembarked at 2.26pm and walked and talked with an officer. They saluted then POTUS waved to the press and walked up the stairs to AIr Force One.

out of town note 2/ POTUS speaks, AF1 lands

Air Force One took off at 2.36pm and landed in Palm Beach 4.18pm. POTUS came to the press cabin and spoke, mainly about tariffs, but had to wrap after three minutes because the plane was landing, telling reporters: "I don't want you to get hurt." Details to follow.

out of town note 3/ POTUS disembarks AF1

POTUS walked down the stairs of Air Force One at a windy Palm Beach airport at 4.36pm and stepped into a black limousine. Motorcade is rolling.

out of town note 4/ POTUS gaggle on AF1 and lid

The motorcade reached Mar-a-Lago at 4.48pm after passing flag-waving Trump supporters along the route. A travel/ photo lid was called at 4.52pm.

Before that, here is what POTUS said on Air Force One just as it was coming into land, a bumpy experience for reporters standing around him with equipment.

POTUS: "We're in the process of landing. I didn't realise. Quite late. Is everything good?"

Q: After the call, you seem to be much more positive about Canada than you've been in the past?

POTUS: "No, I just think, you know, I've always loved Canada. We had a very good conversation. The Prime Minister - they've got an election going on, so we're going to meet after the election."

Q: You've been talking about the pharma tariffs and what you expect there. Are you going to exempt life saving medications or what can we expect?

POTUS: "Well, we'll be announcing it soon. But we have to bring pharmaceuticals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, back into our country."

Q: What's the rate you're looking at? 15%?

POTUS: "We're looking for a certain number that will be enough to get the drugs and the pharmaceutical companies bringing their product into our country. We never want to have to rely on other countries for that like we did in Covid."

Q: Reciprocal tariffs. A lot of countries are making gestures including Britain.

POTUS: "They want to make deals. It's possible if we can get something for the deal. But, you know, we've been taken advantage of for 40 years, maybe more, and it's just not going to happen any more. But yeah, I'm certainly open to that. If we can do something where we get something for it."

Q: Could that happen before the tariffs are announced?

POTUS: "No, probably later. It's a process - we're landing right now. Sit down. I don't want you to get hurt because I love the fake news. Oh-oh, we're landing right now. I don't want to see anybody get hurt. Have a good time. Good luck, everybody. Good luck. Sit down."

Air Force One touched down moments later and no one was hurt.

ENDS

out of town note 5/ Travelled with POTUS to Palm Beach today

Secretary Lutnick
Secretary Bessent
Secretary Kennedy
John Arrigo (nominee for the Ambassador to Portugal)