Jon Decker previews President Trump in Asia to deal with global economy and security

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Dekcker joins is now our White House correspondent, and
what the President's up to. John, before we jump onto
his Asia trip, I got to get your thoughts on
how the renovation is going on the East Room where
the Democrats are losing their ever loving minds, like we're
destroying something. It's in my mind, it's a nice renovation.
It's going to look nice, and it's going to be
done classy, and it's going to be a big improvement
for space. And you know, but you know, there's other

(00:21):
precedents around the White House from years gone by that
things have changed. The swimming pools, you know, the tennis
court made into a basketball court, and you know the
West Wing was in addition. So I just find it
a bit hysterical. The Democrats are on fire again once
Donald Trump's doing what you know, he's improving things. Okay,
so how's it going there? Would do you see it?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, it's jarring. It's jarring because the East Wing had
been a part of the White House since nineteen oh two.
So if you were a tourist in any time in
the last you know, fifty years, you would see that
East Wing and now it's gone. It's completely gone as
part of that process to pave the way for that

(01:03):
ballroom that the President is building that will replace where
the East Wing was, and that's going to take two years,
the President says. The cost has increased. It was going
to be two hundred million, Now it's three hundred million,
the President says. The President says also that it's fully
paid for by private donations. But you can't miss not

(01:26):
seeing the East Wing. If you're walking along Pennsylvania Avenue
and I'm at the White House every day, you hear
the construction taking place throughout the entire day. It's quite
the process.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, I mean, it's always so nice during the holidays.
I remember when I lived in DC that that part
of the White House was used by the First Lady
a lot for events and also state dinners and things
like that. But I just remember the holidays going through
the White House and seeing how incredibly decorated and beautiful
that was. But I just think it's going to be

(01:59):
a nice, big improvement. I mean, I don't know why
they're losing their mind.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, we'll see, you know, we'll see the President showing
renderings of what it will look like, and we won't
know fully and you know until a few years from now.
The President believes that he'll be able to make use
of the new ballroom, that replacement to the East Wing
before he leaves office in January of twenty twenty nine.
So the work has begun and the work will continue

(02:25):
for an extended period of time to meet that goal,
that deadline.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I saw one rendering that was obviously made up, where
you've got the White House and then right next to
it's a twenty story Trump Tower building that they put
it there. So anyway, I don't care who you are.
That's funny, all right. The President is headed to Asia,
big important tripper to deal with some economy issues around
the globe and security. What are we expecting.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, the President leaves late tonight, so no public events
for the President during the day today. It is a
long flight. I've done it many times. The President's traveling
to Malaysia, then to Japan, and then from there he'll
travel to South Korea for the APEX Summit. And it's
during his time in South Korea that he'll meet with
President Chief for the first time in his second term

(03:10):
in office. And the President telling me what he hopes
to accomplish when I asked him that question just the
other day in the Oval Office. The President says, they'll
talk trade. Of course, they'll talk rare earth minerals. And
the President also says they'll talk about the war in Ukraine,
ways to get Russia to end the war, ways to
get putin to the negotiating table. So that's an important

(03:33):
meeting that the President have. It's the last meeting that
I'll have on this Asia trip, which will put him
in Asia for much of next week.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
A lot of people are talking about what happened with
Canada yesterday and shutting some talks down and negotiations. And
what started this was this that Reagan ad that they
used and portrayed this whole thing really good light for
the president.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
It's a commercial that was bought and paid for by
the leader of the Ontario province. And what they did
was they took Ronald Reagan's words from a radio address
that he did in nineteen eighty seven in which he
talked about how overall he said tariffs are not in
the best interests of America or the global economy. So

(04:19):
the President took issue with that, and as a result,
trade talks between the United States and America's second largest
trading partner, are now off off for the time being,
and we'll see what becomes of that. But you know,
it's interesting because the US has already struck trade deals
with the UK, with the EU, with Japan, with South Korea,
but not with our neighbor to the north.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
All Right, very good, John Decker, Thank you, buddy. I
appreciate you have a good weekend.