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White House Press Pool Reports @WHPressPool - Travel pool report #11
POTUS and Erdogan are now seated for a bilateral meeting. They posed for a picture off the top. And now are sitting opposite each other, in a setup reminiscent of the president’s bilateral meetings in the Oval.
On the couch next to the president, in order of closest to furthest from him, are U.S. ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Erdogan, off the top, thanks the president for attending.
The president says he and Erdogan are "great friends."
POTUS quotes:
"To see such a beautiful airport and to have a building named after me, that was very nice."
"The roads coming in were brand new and beautiful."
"Good chemistry, we've had a very special relationship."
"Because of the relationship that we have it's all gone very well. I want to say I have a lot of respect for the president."
The president said the two will talk about trade, the military and Iran in their bilateral meeting.
On F-35s: "It's a decision we're going to make. It's a very good relationship."
On his relationship with Erdogan: "You never know why a relationship is special." He mentions what Erdogan did in helping free Pastor Brunson during his first term.
On Iran: "We didn't need any help at all. And in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there, because I'd wrong said that we helped them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us. And Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down, and it's okay, but you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they're not there for us? We've always been there for them."
Otter here, please verify all quotes:
More TK.