Pool Reports of March 13, 2025

In-town print pool #1

Good morning from the White House,

I am your in-town print pooler for the day.

Here's President Trump's schedule for Thursday:

EDT
9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time

12:20 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a meeting with the Secretary General of NATO
Oval Office
White House Press Pool

12:35 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a working lunch with the Secretary General of NATO
Cabinet Room
Closed Press

In-town print pool #2

Gaggle with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at White House:

How are the tariffs good for the economy :

"Well look I'm less concerned about the short term"

"We want to protect the American worker"

"What's not good for the country is this government shutdown"

"Democrats are in disarray"

"This is the story for the next few days"

The Secretary only answered the one inquiry about tariffs

Otter
https://otter.ai/u/xa49m5GaVUtTqWitBbZh-lTZtQ0

In-town print pool #3

Print pool is holding outside the Oval Office for the meeting between NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and President Donald Trump

In-town print pool #4

We have made into the oval

Trump is speaking and praising the NATO leader - both sitting on chairs next the couch

Trump:
"We will be discussing what's going on between Ukraine and Russia"

"We want it to stop"

"It's also a tremendous cost to the United States and other countries"

"We'll also be taking about trade

In-town print pool #5

Rutte to Trump:

"We also will discuss defense production"

"Really want to commend you for this" referring to talks with Ukraine and the deal they're trying to come to with Russia

Trump:
"NATO became much stronger with my actions.."

"We are getting word things are going ok in Russia"

"Very serious discussions with Putin and others"

"We know where we are with Ukraine"

"Hopefully they'll do the right thing," referring to Russia

In-town print pool #6

Trump: "its a great honor to have you," President Trump says, and then points and praises Doug Burgum and Chris wright who are here in Oval Office

Question on deal conversations over Russia and Ukraine war-
Trump:
"We'd like to see a ceasefire from Russia"

"They diacusssd nato and being in nato… a lot of details of a final agreement has been discussed"

On whether trump will speak to Putin
"I'd love to meet with him and talk to him but we have to get it over with fast"

On tariffs
"I'm not going to bend at all"

In-town print pool #7

Trump on Canada
"We don't need anything they have…" adds it would be a great additional state

"I love it" trump says of the Canadian national anthem
"We don't need their lumber, we don't need their energy…" trump adds on Canada

"There will be disruption but it won't be long"

On a transatlantic cooperation
"We're on the other side of the ocean and they're right there. … it's unfair"

"I'm just doing this to get the war stopped"

In-town print pool #8

Trump on immigration policy:
"Taking them out with records numbers"

On polling of republicans in swing states
"I won the popular vote by a lot."
"There's something wrong with them. They're deranged," trump says of democrats in Congress.

On the possible government shutdown
"We're going to cut peoples taxes"

"If we don't open, the democrats are stopping all the good things we're providing"

"If there's a shutdown it's only going to be on the democrats"

In-town print pool #9

Trump on EU:

"We're not allowed to sell cars there."
"We sell no cars to Europe… the European Union is very nasty"
"They're suing google, they're suing Facebook."

"The tariffs are very important"

On eggs:
"We inherited that problem. Eggs"

In-town print pool #10

Potential annexation of Greenland:
Trump:
"I'm sitting with a man who could be instrumental" pointing to the NATO chief

"We have to do it. We really need it for national security."
"We really need Greenland for national security"

note: vp Vance is also in attendance here in the oval

In-town print pool #11

Trump on speech at doj tomorrow:
Confirms the speech is taking place
"Pam bondi is so fantastic."

"I think we have unbelievable people. All I'm going to do is present my vision. It's really their vision."
"We'll be talking about immigration and a lot of things."

Trump on his leverage with Putin
"I don't want to talk about that"

"Crimea was given by Obama."

"I gave them javelins."

On government shutdown and taking on democrats
"If they need me I'm there
"If they shutdown its not the republicans fault"

In-town print pool #12

On whether trump will speak to North Korea's Kim Jung un:
Trump rehashing his first term and relationship with the North Korean leader

"With me, it did start off rough remember. Then it stopped. The rhetoric was extremely tough."
"They asked for a meeting. Then we met." "Nobody was buying tickets for the Olympics because they didn't want to be nuked."

"I have a great relationship with Kim Jong un and we'll see what happens"

Pool was escorted out of Oval Office at 13:21

Otter for complete quotes
https://otter.ai/u/3dqkNZ0Sr61JNfUEOTiqnmqjeqs

In-town print pool #13

Howard Lutnick is about to speak to reporters outside White House

In-town print pool #14

And as a follow up- Lutnick walked right past reporters without answering questions

He said he was on his way to a meeting

In-town print pool #15

And the White House just called a lid.

Have a goodnight everybody!

Foreign Pool Report #1 - Background on NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

Good morning,
I will be the foreign pooler today for the NATO Secretary General's visit to the White House.

MARK RUTTE AS NATO SECRETARY GENERAL

Mark Rutte has succeeded Jens Stoltenberg as the head of the Atlantic Alliance on October 1st 2024, so quite recently. He had been, for the previous 14 years, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
He met with then President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago on November 22, 2024.
A meeting during which, according to NATO press service, they discussed a range of global security issues facing the Alliance.

This said, Donald Trump and Mark Rutte have known each other for a while.

MARK RUTTE AS DUTCH PRIME MINISTER

During Mark Rutte's tenure as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the two of them met on several occasions:

On July 2, 2018, Rutte visited the White House, where discussions focused on security, investments, and job creation, aiming to further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the Netherlands and the United States.

On July 11–12, 2018, both leaders attended the NATO Summit in Brussels. It was the summit, you may remember, during which Trump criticized Germany's energy ties with Moscow, accusing it of being "totally controlled by Russia".

Then, on July 18, 2019, Rutte met with Trump here, in Washington, D.C., as part of a visit that included a trade mission with Dutch companies.

On December 3-4, 2019, Rutte and Trump participated in the NATO Summit in London, addressing topics related to the alliance's future and collective defense strategies.

In 2016, Rutte congratulated Trump on his election victory, emphasizing the strong Dutch-American ties.
However, during a 2018 White House meeting, Rutte disagreed publicly with Trump. During an Oval office photo-op, the President referred to upcoming discussions between the US and the EU around trade deals and, according to The Guardian, tried to joke that if the discussions failed it could be positive. Rutte quickly injected with a strong "No" and a smile.

TODAY'S VISIT

12:20 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a meeting with the Secretary General of NATO
Oval Office
White House Press Pool

12:35 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a working lunch with the Secretary General of NATO
Cabinet Room
Closed Press

Today's meeting should center on Europe's security amid tensions over defense spending and troop commitments.
According to NATO press people, discussions will focus on defense spending and defense production as well as Ukraine and will look ahead to the forthcoming Summit in The Hague, scheduled for June 24-25.
They insisted that the "Secretary General's top priority is always strengthening Allied deterrence and defense so that we may keep our one billion citizens safe."

Let me know if I can help you in any way,
Richard

Foreign Pool Report #2- NATO Secretary General Rutte

Secretary General Rutte arrived at the WH a little after 12:00p.

Foreign Pool Report #3- NATO Secretary General Rutte's comments during the bilat

Here are NATO Secretary General's comments in the Oval Office with President Trump:

"Thank you so much, Mr. President, again for hosting me, but also for taking time in Florida a couple of weeks after you were reelected.
And of course, our phone call a couple of weeks ago. And I must say, Trump-45, you basically originated the fact in our spending, you take the aggregate, 700 billion more of in defense than when you came in office in 2016-17.

That was Trump-45, but then you may look at Trump-47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering. The Europeans committing to a package of 800 billion defense spending. The Germans now are potentially up to half a trillion in defense spending. And of course, you have Keir Starmer here, the British Prime Minister, and others, all committing to much higher defense spending.

They're not there. We need to do more. But I think they want to work together with you in the run-up to the next Summit, to make sure that we have a NATO, which is really invigorated under your leadership, and we are getting there.

We also discuss defense production, because we need to produce more weaponery. We're not doing enough, not in the US, not in Europe, and we are lacking behind when you compare to the Russians and the Chinese.

And you have a huge defense industrial base. Europeans buy four times more here than the other way around which is good, because you have a strong defense industry, but we need to do more there to make that we (inaudible) the production and kill the redtape.
So I would love to work with you on that. And finally, Ukraine, you broke the deadlock. As you said, all the killing, the young people dying, cities getting destroyed, the fact that you did that, you started the dialogue with the Russians and successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with Ukrainians. I really want to comment you for this.

The Hague is my hometown; I'd love to host you there in the summer and work together to make sure that there will be a splash, a real success projecting American power on the world stage."

(After a question on Greenland...)

"What you did… when it comes to Greenland, yes or no, joining the US, I will leave this outside of the discussion for me, I don't want to drag NATO on that. But, when it comes to the high North and the Arctic, you're totally right. The Chinese are now using these routes. We know that the Russians are already arming. We know that we have a lack of icebreakers. So, the fact that the seven Arctic countries, outside of Russia, working together on this under US leadership is very important, to make sure that that region, which is important to the world, remains safe. And we know things are changing there and we have to be there."

Foreign Pool Report #4- NATO Delegation in the Oval Office

Back in the Oval Office…
During the bilat, sitting on the couch facing VP Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Security Advisor Walz were:

(Closest to the Secretary General…)

Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General, Geoffrey van Leeuwen

First deputy director of the Private Office, Lorenz Meyer-Minnemann

NATO Acting Spokesperson Allison Hart

Standing behind the couch…

Jahn Jeffrey
Deputy Director, Private Office of the Secretary General

Sierk Nawijn
Strategic communication advisor

Lt. Col. Heinric van Vlokhoven
Military assistant to the Secretray General

Foreign Pool Report #5- NATO SecGen Departure

The NATO delegation left the WH a little after 3pm.

Secretary General Mark Rutte continued his day with meetings on Capitol Hill.