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Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 1, 2026

October 1, 2026 · The White House · 0:12:52

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

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions from reporters as he departed the White House on October 1, 2026, at the start of a swing to Texas and Oklahoma, in a gaggle carried in full on the White House channel. Asked about a U.S. base in Poland, he said the administration was “looking at that” and that “it could happen,” citing his respect for Poland’s president. On Lebanon, he said Iran’s proxies could not be permitted to rebuild: “They cannot have nuclear weapons and they won’t have.”

Asked about the Federal Reserve chair’s public comments on his rate vote, the President said he wanted him to vote as he saw fit but added, “I personally would have voted against” the increase, “because we’ve got inflation totally under control,” and warned that higher rates “will hurt our growth.” On Venezuela, he described a strong working relationship and said the United States would “start filling up our national strategic reserves with the Venezuelan oil for very little money.”

The President also said he was following Brazil’s election “very closely,” noted he was traveling to Texas to cut a ribbon at Peterbilt’s expanding truck plant, and, asked what he was looking for in a new press secretary, said “a lot of people that want that job.” Asked whether Iran was linked to the pilot of a FlyDubai plane, he said, “based on what I’m hearing is yes,” and said that if Iran were behind an attack on the plane, “they’ll be hit very hard.”

Why it matters

Foreign policy is the portfolio of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and the Federal Reserve’s rate path under Chair Kevin Warsh is one of this chronicle’s standing scoreboard threads. Departure gaggles like this one are where the President states both in his own words.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 1, 2026” (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.