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Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Anchorage, AK, May 15, 2026

May 15, 2026 · The White House · 0:27:24

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

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions aboard Air Force One on May 15, 2026, en route to Anchorage, Alaska, returning from his state visit to China. “We had a great stay. It was an amazing period of time. President Xi’s an incredible guy,” he said, putting the visit’s headline deal as he stated it: “a lot of great trade deals, including over 200 planes from Boeing with a promise of 750 planes, which will be by far the largest order ever if they do a good job with the 200… approximately 400, 450 engines” from General Electric.

On Iran, he said he had rejected the latest proposal at its first sentence: “If I don’t like the first sentence, I just throw it away… an unacceptable sentence.” A 20-year nuclear guarantee could suffice, he said, only if it were “a real 20 years” — all fuel removed, no more production — and he relayed that Tehran had told him only China or the United States has the equipment to remove the buried nuclear material: “They said, ‘You were right. It is a complete obliteration.’” On Taiwan, he said he and Xi “have a very good understanding,” that he had made no commitment on the arms question, and that he did not expect conflict. Of the closed strait, he said Iran had done “no business in the last two and a half weeks, which is approximately $500 million a day.”

Why it matters

This airborne gaggle is the President’s own first readout of the China state visit — the Boeing order as he sized it — and his clearest statement of the Iran negotiating floor (fuel removal, a verifiable 20-year term) in the weeks before the June agreement. Both threads are tracked on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

The Boeing figures (200 planes firm, up to 750 promised, ~400–450 GE engines) and the ~$500-million-a-day strait figure are recorded as stated by the President, checkable against Boeing’s order book and shipping data; the Iran terms he stated are the baseline for the agreement that followed.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Anchorage, AK, May 15, 2026,” Air Force One, May 15, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President at the gaggle.