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So What

The 22 most bizarre lines from Donald Trump's Air Force One presser ✈️

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Chris Cillizza
Dec 01, 2025
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(Donald Trump/ Getty Images/ Pete Marovich)

After spending the long holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One to head back to Washington on Sunday night.

And, as he so often does (to his credit!), he took questions from the media who had made the trip with him.

He talked about Pete Hegseth, Venezuela, his MRI and a whole lot more.

I went through the entire question and answer session line by line and pulled out the stuff from Trump you really need to see.

This is a paywalled post. I am the only political reporter forensically examining what Trump says — and it takes time!

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To the Lines!

  1. “It’s a little rocky out here.”

He’s talking about the turbulence on the plane. But it works as a description of the first 10 months of his presidency too! And away we go!

  1. “We consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country. They sent millions of people really, and probably, uh, a number in excess of that. And, uh, a lot of those people shouldn’t be in our country. From jails, from gangs, from drug dealers, from all of the people that came into our country, shouldn’t have been in our country causing a lot of problems.”

The question was why Trump — via social media! — declared the air space over Venezuela closed. His answer seems to suggest that the reason we are acting so aggressively toward the country is that they sent lots of bad people — purposely — into the U.S. But the administration (including the president) have said that we are targeting boats off the coast of Venezuela because they are carrying drugs bound for the U.S.. So, which is it? Guns or immigration? Both?

  1. “Uh, I don’t wanna comment on it. The answer is yes.”

This is peak Trump. He’s asked whether he had a phone conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He says he doesn’t want to comment. Then, in the next sentence, he confirms the call! Epic.

  1. “I wouldn’t say say it went well. [Or] badly. It was a phone call.”

Me, when my wife asks me how any phone call I have ever made went.

  1. “I don’t know anything about it.”

In which the president of the United States says he know nothing about the first of a series of drone attacks on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela. Good times. Gooooood times.

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