The White House livestreamed Trump's remarks at a closed-press Easter lunch on April 1, 2026, then pulled the video from its website and YouTube channel within hours. By then, reporters, including Business Insider's Bryan Metzger, and a Democratic National Committee account had downloaded it. The New Republic reported the upload was a mistake; The Independent said it was not immediately clear whether the video was posted unintentionally. Snopes reviewed the footage and found it authentic.
The most quoted line came as Trump complained that he “can't get a ballroom approved,” a day after a federal judge ruled against his White House ballroom project: “If I was a king, we'd be doing a lot more. I'm doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king.”
On the Iran war and oil: “I'd prefer just to take the oil. We could do it so easily.” He lamented that Americans lack the “patience” for seizing Iran's oil.
On his primetime Iran war address later that evening: “Tonight I'm making a little speech at 9 o'clock and basically I'm gonna tell everybody how great I am.” After the address, Quincy Institute executive vice president Trita Parsi told Al Jazeera it was “a summary of all of the tweets he has issued over the last 30 days.”
On JD Vance and Iran negotiations: “So, if it doesn't happen, I'm blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I'm taking full credit.” The line drew laughter from the room.
On domestic programs: “We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. ... It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” Addressing OMB Director Russ Vought by his first name, Trump said the federal government has to “take care of one thing, military protection” and leave the rest to the states.
The event was closed to the press, and Trump spoke more loosely than he usually does in front of reporters about power, credit, blame, and the programs Americans depend on.