BREAKING: LiAngelo Ball, UCLA teammates flying home from China https://t.co/VM5tGlVZds pic.twitter.com/JpJVscLVUN— Mark Dreyer (@DreyerChina) November 14, 2017
Mark Dreyer-
*Subject:* *[EXTERNAL] Travel pool report #5 — 11/14/17 — touch down in Hawaii *
Air Force One touched down at Hickam Air Base in Hawaii at 6:28 am local time, where we’ll refuel and then continue on to Joint Base Andrews.
President Trump spoke to the pool for about five minutes just as we were taking off in the Philippines. He was in a jovial mood and he was very pleased with how the trip went.
He came back to the press cabin briefly again about 10 minutes later to hand the pool a copy of the prepared remarks he delivered in front of world leaders at a lunch in the Philippines. The pool had requested a copy. A transcript of those prepared remarks will follow shortly.
Chief of staff John Kelly also briefly popped into the press cabin to explain why we left the Philippines before Trump could participate in the family photo. Because the event was running late, POTUS opted to deliver his remarks at a closed-door lunch with world leaders instead of at the plenary sessions planned for later in the day, Kelly said. Then a decision was made to depart.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, though the press pool did watch both Independence Day and Armageddon in the press cabin. Your pooler gives them two thumbs way up.
Apologies for not getting this report out sooner. I wasn’t able to send out a note before we lost service on Air Force One. As most of you know, journalists don’t have internet access or phone service on Air Force One.
While we were in the air, the White House distributed a transcript of Trump’s Air Force One gaggle as well as his remarks to reporters in the Philippines. Please consult those transcripts for more specifics.
Highlights of POTUS’ gaggle include his comments about speaking directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the three UCLA basketball players who were detained in China after being accused of shoplifting. POTUS said he hopes the players will be released soon.
Trump’s prepared remarks for the lunch included notable references to both the South China Sea and the situation in Myanmar. The copy that was handed to your pool appeared to have handwritten notes on it in the section on ISIS. But the notes were blacked out with a marker, lost to the dustbin of history.
In the chaos of the unexpectedly swift departure from Manila, the last pool report included a number of small typos. Your pool was rushing to distribute highlights from Trump’s remarks at the convention center before we took off. Apologies for the typos.
In addition, our wheels-up time on Air Force One was a tad later than my previous report indicated. I thought we took off earlier, but we were just taxiing. We were actually wheels up at 3:23 pm local time.
On to Joint Base Andrews — and our awaiting beds.
These people should kneel now.
Well I guess those guys haven’t learned anything. Will they be thankful to President Trump? I won’t hold my breath.