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Trump Gaggles with Press at Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 21, 2026

August 21, 2026 · The White House · 0:08:59

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

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions at Joint Base Andrews on August 21, 2026, en route to South Carolina to rally for Darlene Graham, whom he defended against criticism of a debate answer on national security: “she’s totally for the military… national security is my thing and she is a terrific woman who answered that.”

Asked to guarantee no taxpayer money would fund the White House ballroom, he did: “We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the ballroom and it’s all from people like me and great companies that are putting it up. It’s going to be close to $400 million and it’s all paid for by patriots and patriotic companies… No taxpayer money for the ballroom at all.” Asked whether he had directed Secretary Scott Bessent to intervene in the bond market, he said, “Not at all… he wanted to do it. He’s very good at it,” while keeping other options open: “The ultimate intervention is our military.” On beef imports, he said prices had to come down — “that’s what the voters want” — without naming the source countries. On the debt, which a reporter put past $40 trillion, he said growth was the answer: “the way you take care of debt is with growth and we have tremendous growth.” On Iran, he put inflation there at 350% and said “they would love to make a deal but they’re not ready to make the right deal.”

Why it matters

This gaggle puts three checkable presidential statements on the record in one stop: a no-taxpayer-money guarantee on a named ~$400 million project, a disavowal of direction in a bond-market intervention attributed to Secretary Bessent’s own judgment, and a growth-first answer to a $40 trillion debt figure — each now dated evidence for the scoreboard and the midterm record.

Scoreboard watch

This gaggle carries scoreboard-watch claims: the ballroom’s ~$400 million cost carried entirely by private donors with “no taxpayer money at all,” and the largest tax refunds ever, with the President displaying headlines putting the refund increase at 17%. Both are checkable against the project’s disclosures and the filing-season record.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press at Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 21, 2026” (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the gaggle at Joint Base Andrews, MD). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.