WH in-town pool report #13/ More detailed quotes on economy, Iran, ballroom, crime
From: David Smith
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2026 1:38 PM
To: DL WHO Wranglers
Subject: WH in-town pool report #13/ More detailed quotes on economy, Iran, ballroom, crime
Some detailed quotes from POTUS at the Rose Garden Club Lunch:
Welcome
"Lee Greenwood, wow, has he been great, huh? That's been with me a long time, that song. We won three elections with that song. And we have a country that's a much different place than it was just a short while ago. We have the hottest stock market in history. We did great the first time. We had the greatest economic numbers ever in history for the first term, and I think we're going to be blowing them away."
Venezuela and Iran
"We're doing very well. As you know, Venezuela was amazing and we're getting along great with Venezuela. We paid for the war many times over and Venezuela's doing better. The relationship is very, very good, and we're doing very well with Iran. We wiped out their navy, their air force, their radar, their leaders. We wiped out everybody. And then I heard, 'they're doing very well'; no, they're not doing well at all. They want to make a deal so badly.
"But we'll see what happens. They have to make the right deal because they cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. You want to see a bad stock market? Let them use a nuclear weapon, I'll show you a bad stock market, right? So, but we're doing very well. They've agreed to a lot of things that a lot of people said they wouldn't agree to. We'll see what happens. We're going to win one way or the other. We'll win the nice way or the not nice way."
White House ballroom
"The best thing and the biggest thing that we're doing is we're building a ballroom and a tremendous military centre that was supposed to be top secret, but is no longer top secret because no matter what you do, you get sued. They sue because they think the ballroom's too big, the ballroom's too small, 'I don't like the colour of the ceiling'. You get sued in this world we're living in, especially if your name is Trump, you get sued. And you get sort of good at it after a while. It becomes routine. It's ridiculous, but we're building something the likes of which will never be even close to being competed with.
"The ballroom is going up to there, you see. It's the hardest part is now completed. The base and it's rising very substantially rising. And when it's done, you know, the most you can seat is about 93 people in the White House. It was always a problem for 150 years they've wanted a ballroom to be built. We don't have a ballroom in the White House. We have a room that's a little bit large, but it's not a ballroom. It's a very small room.
"We had King Charles here. Everybody wanted to be here. We couldn't hold anybody. But soon you'll be able to. It will be, I think it's going to be one of the most beautiful structures in Washington when it's completed. And I've done many ballrooms, and this will be, there won't be anything to compete with this anywhere in the country. And that's what it should have, and it will use it exclusively only for the White House, but it's really what it should have."
POTUS noted that inaugurations are often cold and the most recent was moved to the US Capitol. "It's a very small space. It's not safe. It's not. They didn't have drones in mind when they built it. They didn't have other things in mind either. But we were able to get 921 people in and this will hold many times that number of people without the tables and seats. And bulletproof, drone-proof, missile-proof in many cases and beautiful at the same time. And a big military component, including on the roof, a drone port. Can you believe we have a drone port and it's like no other, so we're doing a great service. It's great national security.
"... The beauty of it and the size will be great. So it's exciting and that will be done. Actually, I will get to use it for, you know, people say he's building it for himself. I'll be using it, I'll be lucky if I get six months because it'll be done toward the middle of '28. So I'm really building it for other presidents, but it will give them great safety. Glass windows that are this thick that can withstand any form of shot, rifle, drone, anyone - nothing gets through steel walls. Steel ceiling. Extra strength. I mean, it's really an amazing thing. And yet all of that security made it more beautiful because you have very thick walls, very powerful walls, very beautiful."
Crime in Washington DC
"We've brought it down 91% and it's considered now one of the safest. We're going to do better than the 91% because 9% is even too much, but we're going to bring it back to almost nothing. The only thing we have a hard time stopping is a crime of passion. Do you know what that is? Anybody? This is a group that probably knows something about crimes of passion. But these crimes of passion, we can't do much about. Just one of those things. But we have Washington way down. We worked well with the mayor's office. The National Guard and our military was unbelievable.
"... They used to go in and rob the restaurants... It was like the old Wild West. They'd say stick them up, give me your money. The whole restaurant is handing them money. And now if that ever happened, those people would be in deep trouble – deep, deep. We, we hit it very hard. And we have tremendous military people involved, and they do the trick."
ENDS
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2026 1:38 PM
To: DL WHO Wranglers
Subject: WH in-town pool report #13/ More detailed quotes on economy, Iran, ballroom, crime
Some detailed quotes from POTUS at the Rose Garden Club Lunch:
Welcome
"Lee Greenwood, wow, has he been great, huh? That's been with me a long time, that song. We won three elections with that song. And we have a country that's a much different place than it was just a short while ago. We have the hottest stock market in history. We did great the first time. We had the greatest economic numbers ever in history for the first term, and I think we're going to be blowing them away."
Venezuela and Iran
"We're doing very well. As you know, Venezuela was amazing and we're getting along great with Venezuela. We paid for the war many times over and Venezuela's doing better. The relationship is very, very good, and we're doing very well with Iran. We wiped out their navy, their air force, their radar, their leaders. We wiped out everybody. And then I heard, 'they're doing very well'; no, they're not doing well at all. They want to make a deal so badly.
"But we'll see what happens. They have to make the right deal because they cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. You want to see a bad stock market? Let them use a nuclear weapon, I'll show you a bad stock market, right? So, but we're doing very well. They've agreed to a lot of things that a lot of people said they wouldn't agree to. We'll see what happens. We're going to win one way or the other. We'll win the nice way or the not nice way."
White House ballroom
"The best thing and the biggest thing that we're doing is we're building a ballroom and a tremendous military centre that was supposed to be top secret, but is no longer top secret because no matter what you do, you get sued. They sue because they think the ballroom's too big, the ballroom's too small, 'I don't like the colour of the ceiling'. You get sued in this world we're living in, especially if your name is Trump, you get sued. And you get sort of good at it after a while. It becomes routine. It's ridiculous, but we're building something the likes of which will never be even close to being competed with.
"The ballroom is going up to there, you see. It's the hardest part is now completed. The base and it's rising very substantially rising. And when it's done, you know, the most you can seat is about 93 people in the White House. It was always a problem for 150 years they've wanted a ballroom to be built. We don't have a ballroom in the White House. We have a room that's a little bit large, but it's not a ballroom. It's a very small room.
"We had King Charles here. Everybody wanted to be here. We couldn't hold anybody. But soon you'll be able to. It will be, I think it's going to be one of the most beautiful structures in Washington when it's completed. And I've done many ballrooms, and this will be, there won't be anything to compete with this anywhere in the country. And that's what it should have, and it will use it exclusively only for the White House, but it's really what it should have."
POTUS noted that inaugurations are often cold and the most recent was moved to the US Capitol. "It's a very small space. It's not safe. It's not. They didn't have drones in mind when they built it. They didn't have other things in mind either. But we were able to get 921 people in and this will hold many times that number of people without the tables and seats. And bulletproof, drone-proof, missile-proof in many cases and beautiful at the same time. And a big military component, including on the roof, a drone port. Can you believe we have a drone port and it's like no other, so we're doing a great service. It's great national security.
"... The beauty of it and the size will be great. So it's exciting and that will be done. Actually, I will get to use it for, you know, people say he's building it for himself. I'll be using it, I'll be lucky if I get six months because it'll be done toward the middle of '28. So I'm really building it for other presidents, but it will give them great safety. Glass windows that are this thick that can withstand any form of shot, rifle, drone, anyone - nothing gets through steel walls. Steel ceiling. Extra strength. I mean, it's really an amazing thing. And yet all of that security made it more beautiful because you have very thick walls, very powerful walls, very beautiful."
Crime in Washington DC
"We've brought it down 91% and it's considered now one of the safest. We're going to do better than the 91% because 9% is even too much, but we're going to bring it back to almost nothing. The only thing we have a hard time stopping is a crime of passion. Do you know what that is? Anybody? This is a group that probably knows something about crimes of passion. But these crimes of passion, we can't do much about. Just one of those things. But we have Washington way down. We worked well with the mayor's office. The National Guard and our military was unbelievable.
"... They used to go in and rob the restaurants... It was like the old Wild West. They'd say stick them up, give me your money. The whole restaurant is handing them money. And now if that ever happened, those people would be in deep trouble – deep, deep. We, we hit it very hard. And we have tremendous military people involved, and they do the trick."
ENDS
David Smith
Washington bureau chief
Guardian News & Media