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Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 3, 2026

October 3, 2026 · The White House · 0:04:59

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 3, 2026, bound for Ohio to campaign, in a gaggle carried on the White House channel. He framed the Ohio Senate race around John Husted’s opponent: “Senator Husted is running a race against Brown. It’s horrible. They threw him out of the Senate once before.” He also assessed his own term: “I think it’s the most consequential two years of anybody in the presidency. And I only base that on the record.”

On Iran, he said a decision was his to make and that it would go “either the easy way or the hard way,” adding that Iran had “virtually given up any plans of a nuclear weapon.” The longest stretch of the gaggle was daylight saving time. The President argued for ending twice-yearly clock changes — “We want to get away from this ridiculous way and custom of every twice a year turning your clocks back, turning your clocks forward” — saying the House had passed the change with more than 80 percent support and naming the obstacle directly: “Tom Cotton is holding it. He shouldn’t be holding it.” He cited farmers and sports among the constituencies wanting the change and called it “a very bipartisan issue.”

Why it matters

A president publicly naming a senator of his own party as the hold-up on a popular, House-passed measure is a governance record in miniature, and the Ohio race is one of the midterm contests that will decide the Senate this chronicle is tracking into November 3, 2026.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 3, 2026” (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.