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Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 2, 2026

October 2, 2026 · The White House · 0:06:53

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 2, 2026, opening by showing off the new stone paving on the grounds — “This is the way the White House is supposed to look. Not asphalt” — and the large red crane raising steel for the ballroom roof, before leaving for Alabama on his midterm travel schedule.

The substantive center of the gaggle was diesel. Asked how the diesel arrangement with Europe came about, the President said: “I asked for it. Europe has a lot of diesel and they’re going to be making a major world contribution and so are we. And we’re not going to be doing the export ban.” He said Europe uses diesel “disproportionately more than most,” that he had asked European leaders to put their diesel on the market, and that once Iran ends, “you’re going to have oil go down to the price it was before, maybe even lower.” Asked whether the export ban was officially off the table, he said it was “never really on the table” and credited Europe’s release.

He also addressed the Alaska pipeline, saying South Korea was still studying it and warning that if partners did not sign shortly he would “double it up”; discussed lifting sanctions on Turkey; and spoke to the North Carolina Senate race, saying of Michael Whatley, “he’s a great man and I am worried about him. I hope he wins.”

Why it matters

Energy supply is the portfolio of Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and the National Energy Council under Secretary Doug Burgum, and the Europe diesel arrangement is a concrete, dated action in that record — it is already carried as an item in this chronicle’s scoreboard backfill for the week of October 3, 2026.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 2, 2026” (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.