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Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One, Oct. 24, 2025

October 24, 2025 · The White House · 0:14:05

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions on Air Force One on October 24, 2025, at the start of his Asia trip — Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and the meeting with President Xi — as the White House broadcast records.

On the Xi meeting: “I think it’s going to turn out to be a very good meeting,” he said, listing the agenda as farmers, past trade deals “some broken, some not broken,” and fentanyl. On concessions: “Sure. They have to make concessions. I guess we would too.” He declined to handicap the November 1 100% tariff question — “I don’t think they would want that.” On Canada: “Canada lied. I mean, what they did was terrible. They made up a fake statement by President Reagan” — the disputed Reagan ad, which he said “the Reagan Foundation went crazy” over — adding “I don’t have any intention” of meeting Prime Minister Carney during the trip and that he was “satisfied with the deal we have.” On Japan’s new prime minister, Takaichi: “I hear great things about her… she was a great friend of Mr. Abe,” and he welcomed her reported plan to buy Ford F-150 pickups. On whether China helped in Cambodia-Thailand: “They weren’t involved, John. They weren’t involved… Malaysia was involved actually. Malaysia was very much involved.” On Kim Jong-un: “I’m open to it 100%” if North Korea contacts him, adding “they have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service.”

Domestically, he said an anonymous American patriot had sent a $130 million check to cover military pay during the shutdown: “He’s a great patriot… He doesn’t want publicity… He put up $130 million in order to make sure that the military got paid,” as he stated it. He also said if no China deal materializes, “we’re going to subsidize them and we’ll give them some money” for farmers. On Russia: sanctions “very biting,” and “I’d love China to help us out with Russia.” On Taiwan: “I hope they won’t” make a move — “it would be very dangerous for them to do.” And on the trip’s economics: “We’ve already hit 17 trillion” in investment, “going to have maybe 20, 21 trillion dollars by the time my first year is up,” as he stated the figures.

Why it matters

The departure gaggle that set the trip’s table: the Xi meeting’s terms, the Canada freeze, the North Korea opening, and the $130 million military-pay donor — the President’s fullest framing of the week ahead, on the record before takeoff.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the $130 million anonymous donor check for military pay as stated October 24, 2025; the Xi-meeting agenda and November 1 tariff posture; the 157% China tariff figure; and the $17T/$20–21T investment claims. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One, Oct. 24, 2025” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered in the gaggle.