White House: President Trump Gaggles with Press at Joint Base Andrews, Oct. 10, 2026

Mr. President, Tennessee was a great success. Tremendous crowd, tremendous people. We had a great— we have a great new senator, and he'll continue to bring you a new Bill Hagerty. We have a brand-new governor, and she's going to do good. You know her very well.

And we have the congressmen who were there, and woman. And I think it was a great success. The people liked it. There were a lot of people. It was packed, as you saw.

Always packed, but Tennessee was really great. How did you do? That was good. Lisa Cook. As Mr. President, why did you decide to appoint a committee to investigate Lisa Cook?

Why did you decide to put a person on a committee to investigate Fed Secretary Lisa Cook? Because I think she should stop as she's speaking. And she's going to be a very important position. And she's an automatic no vote. And that's not a good thing.

No, I think she should stop. Is Zelensky delaying peace because he can't hold elections while Ukraine is at war? Well, I think he should have an election and he could have settled this thing many times and he should have an election and he can't raise the price of oil. He's done enough. This is a war that should have never happened.

Ukraine, Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. But President Zelensky could have solved this war or he could have made a deal many times. I've been there. Mr. President, at your rally, at your rally, you said that the U.S. is stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

That's right. Why not just declare victory and be done with it? Because I have to keep it that way. I don't want to do it in 2 years. We have to have a guarantee that they won't have it in the future.

It's actually a very good question. We could leave right now, but we have to guarantee that they can't have it in the future. And we'll get that. Mr. President, one American was killed in Saudi Arabia.

I think that Russia would like to make a deal, and we've had it back and forth, but Russia would like to make a deal. But as I said, this is something that could have been solved many times, but for whatever reason, Zelensky does not want to make a deal. And if you look at the odds, you know, you're talking about millions more soldiers on one side than the other. I think it would have been smart if he would have made a deal 2 years ago. It would have been a lot—.

He would have been A lot better off. And what did— he could have made a much better deal 2 years ago. What did President Putin tell you on the phone call the other day? He'd like to see a settlement. President Putin would like to see a settlement strongly.

And look, he's freeing up a lot of oil for the world, okay? It's a good thing. And by the way, at a very low price. Are you surprised that Democrats have embraced socialism and communism so openly? Democrats have embraced that.

Are you surprised? Well, I think I think that the Democrats have become the socialists of America. And I think that they ought to get rid of the name Democrat because it's no longer accurate. But you have a combination of socialist and communist. And I think, frankly, the word Democrat is a— or Democrat, as I call them— but I think it's a very inaccurate name.

Democrats, they're really socialists. They've become socialists. And they're being dragged much further left than socialists. Mr. President, one of my viewers, Tony Sarnia— have you spoken to Senator Sanders? Senator John Fetterman about becoming a Republican.

Would you like to see that? I'd love to see it. I think he's great. It's going to be hard for him to get the nomination as a Democrat, but I'd love to have him as a Republican. John Fetterman is a great guy with magnificent parents.

I got to speak to his parents about something, and they were great. The mother, the father. He's a very solid person. You know, he's a person— he's smart and all that, but he's got great common sense. But if you look at the polls, he does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.

The President—. Mr. President, you saw the attack on Riyadh Airport. Killed like a dozen people. What do you think about that? I think it's terrible.

Are you going to get the United States involved? You're going to find out, Steve. But I think it's terrible. Are the Saudis able to defend themselves without U.S. support? Oh, they're able to defend themselves.

The Saudis are good fighters. But I think the attack was a terrible thing. You've just chosen your new press secretary. What stood out to you about Katie, and what do you hope that she brings to the table? Well, I've watched Katie, who is taking the place of Caroline, who— you know how fabulous Caroline is.

Caroline is going to have some very big success, I believe. I know. She's very outstanding. I think Katie is going to do a great job. I've known Katie a little bit, but I've watched her a lot on television, and she does a very good job.

And she believes in us, and she believes in what we're doing, which is making Make America great again. He really does. Thank you for that question. The federal deficit last year, last fiscal year, was $2 trillion. Do you blame the Supreme Court for that because of the tariff ruling?

Well, it hurt. The Supreme Court hurt very badly because they wanted us to give back a certain form. You know, I have numerous forms of tariffs, but they wanted us to give back a certain form of tariff, and that was hundreds of millions of dollars. So the Supreme Court decision was very bad for our country. Very, very bad for our country.

And frankly, very disrespectful to the character of the person who made the decision. Very bad for our country. Yes. Mr. President, is the United States in communication with the Houthis? Are you telling them to stop the attacks on Malaysia?

We have communication with the Houthis, and we'll see what happens. But what they're doing is very, very bad. Very bad. Thank you very much. You talked about war when you left.

How are you feeling about things now? And are you going to adopt a concessionary approach? Well, I think— well, I will be doing that. You know, we're waiting a little bit. And to a certain extent, as you heard me say today, I want to give some recognition to places that have just backed me automatically, like Tennessee.

And I'll be going to Ohio, which backed me, but we have very close races. You know, I won all of them by a lot. And I think I'm more popular with them now than I was. You saw it on CNN at 98 and 99% approval, but nobody ever puts that. But CNN did.

I'll tell you what. Thank you, CNN. You know, I respect CNN for putting that up. Can I ask you about that, Mr. President? CNN put up a chart saying that my approval rating is 99% and I'm the most popular Republican in the history of the country, beating Abe Lincoln by 53 to 8%.

So I don't know about that, but I'm very good. Can I ask you about that, Mr. President? The CNN clips that you were playing at the rally, obviously you trust CNN enough to play those clips at the rally. Why not put them back on the plane, put them back in the Oval Office? I'm asking you that question.

Well, I just think that there were good polls. They did a poll. CNN did a poll that said that I was 99% of the Republican Party. So I think it's right to, by the way. And I think almost all of the Republican Party is MAGA.

On Lisa Cook? If the committee you put together finds cause for her removal, will you fire her? Absolutely. Absolutely. Did you talk to MBS on the plane on the way back?

No, but I will be speaking to him. And what happened in Saudi Arabia is not acceptable. Mr. President, on Lisa Cook. On Lisa Cook, Mr. President. On Lisa Cook.

Mr. President.