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Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2025, 5:03 PM
To: DL WHO Wranglers
Subject: Travel pool report #20: Trump gaggle part 2
The rest of the quotes from President Trump’s gaggle with reporters at Palm Beach International airport after getting off Air Force One on the return trip from Daytona.
Again CHECK all these against the official transcript. Hard to hear over the engines. And that's the last you'll hear from me today. Thanks for bearing with me. And thanks to WSJ's Tarini Parti for backstopping.
Q: Would you allow the Europeans to buy US made weapons for Ukrainians?
Trump: “Yeah I would”
Q: After speaking to Putin, what do you think he wants?
Trump: "I think he wants to stop fighting. I see that. We spoke long and hard. Steve Witkoff was with him for a very extended period, like about three hours. I think he wants to stop fighting. They have a big, powerful machine. You understand that. They defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. They have been fighting a long time. They've done it before.
Q: Do you think Putin wants to seize the whole of Ukraine?
Trump: "No. I think he wants to stop. That was my question to him, because if he's going to go on, that would have been a big problem for us. And that would have caused me a big problem, because you just can't let that happen. I think he wants to end it. And they want to end it fast, both of them. And Zelensky wants to end it too... It's really too bad. A lot of people are dead right now that should be alive, and a lot of cities are destroyed that can never come back like they were. Those beautiful golden domes, and all of the multicolored domes that were 1000 years old. They're all laying in, you know, just shattered. So it's very sad. They ruined the culture.
Q: Have you been briefed on the latest on the ceasefire with Israel and Hamas?
Trump: "Well, I told you I have been briefed. I told Bibi: 'You do whatever you want.' Because, you know my statement was they've got to come back. Now, the reason I made that statement was because they said they were not going to deliver... the people that they said they were going to deliver, that they agreed to deliver. And they did agree to do that, but they broke that agreement when I made the statement, they delivered everybody, plus an American. Now the good news is they look like they're in pretty good shape, because the people from the week before, it didn't look like they were in good shape. They looked like Holocaust survivors, frankly horrible. Whatever happened to them was horrible, but that will be up to Israel what the next step is, in consultation with me.
Q: I can't make out the exact question but it's something along the lines of why are you supplying weapons to Israel that Biden withheld...
Trump: "Peace through strength. You understand that? Right? It's called peace through strength. You know they contracted for those weapons a long time ago in the Biden administration, and then Biden wouldn't deliver the weapons. But I look at it differently. I say peace through strength. They were sitting there. Nobody knew what to do with them. They bought them. But I believe in that very strongly.
Q: Question about the European Union planning retaliatory trade actions in response to Trump's tariffs...
Trump: "That's all right, I don't mind. Let them do it. Let them do it. They're just hurting themselves if they do that, I can't imagine it. But it doesn't matter. We're having reciprocal tariffs. Whatever they charge, we charge. Very simple. If a certain country like India, which is very high tariff, if they charge us X dollars, we charge them X dollars. It's alright. So it's a fair thing to do. Even the media said it was fair, and it's going to be very good for the United States.
Q: Any update on timing on your meeting with Putin and Saudi Arabia?
Trump: "No time set, but it could be very soon.
Q: Like this month?
