See President Trump's arrival at LAX

[0:00] Breaking new details on the story we broke on the NBC4 News here at 3, a man arrested at Trump National Golf Club over the weekend, just days before the president's visit. [0:10] And President Trump expected to land at any moment now at LAX, and that suspect has just faced a judge within the past hour. [0:16] NBC4's McCullough Medina joins us live now from the courthouse in Torrance. [0:20] And, Mac, what happened in the courtroom today? [0:22] Well, we know that 38-year-old Janine John Talley pleaded not guilty to four counts here at the Torrance Courthouse within the last hour or so. [0:32] Those four counts include three weapons-related charges and an unrelated robbery charge from last November. [0:37] Here's what we know so far about this case in regards to the president's golf course here in Rancho Palos Verdes. [0:45] He was arrested there Saturday after, according to the Sheriff's Department, plainclothes federal agents saw him taking photos and video and appearing to monitor, they say, security planning activities. [0:57] Deputies say they found ammunition on him and also a loaded handgun in his vehicle. [1:02] A later search of his house over in the Downey area turned up, according to authorities. [1:06] Additional weapons, including body armor, ammunition. [1:10] They also say there were notebooks there containing what investigators call, quote, concerning statements. [1:15] They did not release any more details on what that means. [1:17] Prosecutors have charged Talley with receiving a large capacity magazine, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle and possessing a short barrel rifle, along with that robbery count from last year. [1:29] Now, authorities have not alleged a plot against President Trump, at least not yet. [1:34] We do know the judge set Talley's bail here at $250,000. [1:38] He's due back in court here on August 26th for a preliminary hearing at 8.30 in the morning. [1:44] He did not post that bail, so he still remains in custody right now. [1:48] And he is being defended right now by a public defender's office. [1:51] So it doesn't appear that he has any means, at least at this point, for an attorney. [1:56] That's the latest from the Torrance Courthouse. [1:58] I'm McCallum Medina. Now back to you guys. [2:02] The arrival of President Trump in Los Angeles today, as we take a live look now at LAX. [2:07] Yeah, we have been awaiting the arrival of the President to land, as you see it, right there, flying. [2:15] That's Air Force One. [2:17] The President should be landing any moment now at LAX. [2:20] We have crews that have been also waiting out on the field, waiting for his arrival. [2:25] Our Lolita Lopez at LAX covering the President's arrival here. [2:32] You know, and this is the second time the President comes to LA. [2:36] Our Conan Nolan is also here in studio. [2:38] Conan, this is a significant visit, considering that this is the President of the United States, the second time that he arrives here. [2:45] Right. [2:46] Keep in mind, though, that this is for campaign purposes. [2:49] There's no policy speech that he's going to have, no roundtable. [2:53] The governor of California has welcomed him with a tweet or something on X saying, [3:00] hey, welcome to California, you owe us money from FEMA money for the wildfires, a long delay. [3:07] Why don't you bring that with you? [3:09] And he's going to, the President's going to head from here to his golf resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. [3:16] So this is all politics, and it's all about fundraising. [3:20] You know, there's a, Jess Unruh was a former Speaker of the California Legislature, former State Treasurer. [3:26] He ran against Reagan back in the day. [3:28] I think he was the one who coined the phrase, money is the mother's milk of politics. [3:33] Well, that's what this is. [3:34] It's all about raising money. [3:35] And for the Republican National Committee, everybody does it. [3:38] The President does it. [3:39] Democrats do it. [3:40] Democratic presidents came out here a lot more often than he did, than Mr. Trump has in order to raise money. [3:45] But that's what this is about. [3:46] No policy speech, no roundtable. [3:48] Conan, you both just mentioned it. [3:50] He hasn't arrived in Los Angeles very much throughout either presidency. [3:53] As we watch the safe landing there of Air Force One, notably the Air Force One that was gifted by the nation of Qatar. [4:00] I thought this was taken out of commission just weeks ago. [4:02] I thought so, too. [4:04] And I thought we were going to see the traditional plane, the one with the Jackie Kennedy design with the baby blue color scheme. [4:13] It may be in service here because they don't worry about the technology. [4:22] It's possible the technology that they needed to install to divert the plane from missile attacks. [4:27] But, yeah, I thought that it was going to be a little longer before this plane. [4:31] And the color design came from the president. [4:34] He wanted something to look much different than the traditional Air Force One. [4:38] And, of course, remember, the president was very upset when The New York Times reported that this plane had to be taken out of commission as a result of the security issues. [4:48] He even had the FBI investigate the reporters. [4:51] In one case, actually went and subpoenaed one of the reporter's spouses or family members. [4:58] So he's very sensitive about this plane, that's for sure. [5:02] For sure. [5:02] Now, this is a part of a two-day West Coast trip aimed at highlighting his administration's economic record ahead of the midterm elections. [5:09] And you were just talking about that, Conan. [5:11] Right. [5:11] And there are plenty of people who are going to be in this room tonight with the Republican National Committee who know that the party is in a real precarious position right now. [5:21] And the polling, we've taken a look at the job approval rating for this president. [5:26] It's never been lower. [5:27] I mean, it's right around the point where he was after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, mid-30s. [5:34] And that means a lot of Republicans. [5:35] He is polling. [5:37] He's still overwhelmingly supported by Republicans. [5:40] But instead of 90%, it's now 75%. [5:43] So you've seen a drop even there. [5:45] And so there are reports out of Capitol Hill where a lot of Republicans are saying, listen, he could bring me down in my district. [5:55] There are plenty of districts that were solidly Republican but may be in play as a result of this. [5:59] And it looks like Democrats are going to take the House. [6:02] The question is whether they'll take the Senate. [6:04] But, again, this is a president who's a bit of a drag on some of these candidates running for re-election on the Republican side. [6:10] But he does do a very good job in raising money. [6:13] And that's why he's here. [6:15] You see the new Air Force One there just landing safely now at LAX. [6:18] The president on board. [6:19] It resembles his private plane. [6:22] That's the one thing. [6:23] The color scheme has switched a little bit. [6:25] But basically resembles his private plane. [6:27] It was just something he wanted. [6:27] I remember he attempted to change the color of Air Force One back during his first administration. [6:31] It never really came to fruition. [6:33] But he had the chance to do this one here. [6:35] My understanding is this would become his new private plane once he leaves office. [6:39] Yes. [6:39] And, of course, it's unprecedented that you take a gift from another country. [6:43] And, I mean, the school of thought is that you work for the taxpayers, the taxpayers fund your travel. [6:50] And they fund the plane. [6:51] Yeah. [6:52] And talk about the ethics behind it as well. [6:54] Well, there are all sorts of concerns about taking gifts from a foreign power or a foreign country. [7:00] And Qatar has interests that align with the United States, but some of them don't. [7:05] And from what we read and what we understood, there was a concern about whether or not it was not just in terms of safety and had the technology that is demanded of the plane that flies the president, but that they may have planted, you know, surreptitiously, bugs on the plane. [7:24] I mean, that's one of the reasons, for example, why the Russian journalists and Russian leaders are not allowed in the Oval Office because of the fear that they're going to plant something that they could eavesdrop. [7:37] Again, the president blew that away when he had the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office during his first term and the Russian press corps. [7:45] But so, yeah, it's highly unusual, and it's in terms of procedure and one would argue ethics, it's a departure. [7:54] Let's talk about Steve Hilton. [7:56] I want to go back to the fundraiser. [7:57] The reason that President Trump is arriving at LAX right now, he's going to take a short flight over to his golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes. [8:04] Steve Hilton's interesting. [8:04] He launches his general election campaign here in Los Angeles. [8:08] He already has the endorsement of the president, but we don't even know if he's going to be appearing at this RNC fundraiser in Los Angeles tonight. [8:15] Right, and I don't think any of this money is going to his campaign. [8:19] I'm not sure how much of the RNC money is going to be spent in the race for governor of California. [8:24] They will pretty much write this off because it's unlikely to produce much of a result. [8:31] They want to spend this money on battleground states that will hold the Senate or hold the House. [8:36] Now, he may get some, but I'm sure Steve Hilton would much rather he got a portion of this. [8:42] You know, maybe there's some arrangement that's been made. [8:46] And Donald Trump hasn't been great when it comes to the Republican National Committee in the past. [8:50] He saw that as a rival fundraising to his own. [8:54] And it's a matter of this is an effort for him to help the party, which he has shaped in his image. [9:03] And but there's a there's a lot of effort underway for the president's own fundraising effort so he can spend it freely without having to ask for permission from the Republican National Committee. [9:16] Not that they would turn him down because he pretty much runs this party right now. [9:19] But again, and we should also point out, it's worth mentioning with this RNC fundraiser, the Republicans are in much better shape financially than the Democrats are. [9:29] The Democratic National Committee, their fundraising is in is a shambles. [9:33] There's a real problem with whether they have the money for 26 and certainly have the money for 28. [9:39] And the RNC has has clearly outraised them. [9:43] So when it comes to the war chest going into the midterm elections, Democrats nationally are at a severe disadvantage. [9:50] Any chance that Spencer Pratt, I mean, he's somebody that the president has a good question. [9:54] He'll be joining the RNC. [9:56] He could. [9:57] You know, I we haven't seen much of Spencer Pratt lately, but that's a good question. [10:03] I am. You know, who knows? [10:05] He I wouldn't be surprised if he got an invitation. [10:07] I wouldn't be surprised if the president talks about some of the local races. [10:11] He's going to go after Gavin Newsom, clearly. [10:15] But this is not you know, he doesn't spend a lot of time out here other than really for a natural disaster. [10:20] You know, on occasion, he in the first term, he was out here because of the fires in northern California. [10:25] He came out here after the Palisades fire, did not visit Altadena. [10:29] And now he's back. [10:30] But this is not a policy. [10:32] It's it's it's here for a fundraising effort. [10:34] The governor has said, listen, why don't you bring some money because you owe us this. [10:38] California is a donor state for every dollar it sends to the federal government. [10:42] We get 70 cents back. [10:44] So the governor has some has you would argue a strong position on that argument. [10:49] And and and again, Donald Trump, not extremely popular in California. [10:55] But but there's plenty of Republicans here, a lot of wealthy Republicans who have donated in the past. [11:01] He's taking full advantage of that. [11:03] Frequently, George Bush would go to Newport Beach in Orange County. [11:06] And remember, in the past, you had, you know, Republicans came out here a lot more often when Ronald Reagan. [11:12] It's the state of Ronald Reagan. [11:13] Right. [11:13] He had the ranch in Santa Barbara. [11:15] Richard Nixon had the Western White House in San Clemente. [11:17] But we don't see Republican presidents here very often anymore. [11:21] Do you think he's going to speak to the media here? [11:22] I don't think so. [11:23] My guess is right to the plane. [11:24] Yeah, I think right. [11:26] And, you know, usually in what we have seen is if something happens in transit where that gets to the ire of the president or he wants to set the record straight on something, [11:38] he will see the pool camera, the network pool camera, and he'll go right to it. [11:43] And and this is a very accessible president. [11:45] He's given a lot of, you know, impromptu news conferences. [11:49] So he's not averse to that. [11:52] I remember once just in a personal side covering Clinton and Clinton came out looking for people to talk to. [11:57] I mean, that's that was the kind of guy he was. [11:59] He was looking. [12:00] We wanted to talk. [12:02] In this case, my guess is he just wants to go to he wants to. [12:06] It's a long day for him. [12:08] He's he's been in the air. [12:10] He's going to go do the event and then hop on the plane again and head to Nevada for a big event tomorrow where he's going to talk about the economy. [12:17] And that's sort of a policy address that that is the real is is the reason why they're able to write off this campaign swing. [12:25] Yeah. [12:25] And we see them just opening the doors now of Air Force One expected to see the president come out of that plane there at any moment now. [12:32] And of course, we are monitoring this. [12:34] You are watching this live with us here again. [12:37] You know, so this is his second time visiting L.A. [12:40] Won't be spending the night here. [12:41] He will be heading, as Conan just mentioned, will be heading to Nevada to give a speech there. [12:47] Will he be spending the night there, you think? [12:49] Yes, he will be. [12:50] Or he'll be spending the night tonight in Nevada. [12:53] It'll be interesting to see if anybody's down the end of the steps here to welcome him. [12:58] The mayor of Los Angeles, I doubt highly, will be there. [13:01] Certainly not the governor. [13:02] Remember, the governor was here when he came down and came for the visit for for the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire. [13:10] And normally, of course, they would be here for a Democratic president. [13:16] I have to tell you, though, that the the acrimony between this governor and this president is unprecedented. [13:23] Usually they put it aside when it comes to natural disasters. [13:26] They have in the past in the first term when he was in in paradise, the president shook hands with Gavin Newsom and they actually had a pretty good relationship there. [13:36] And even after the Palisades fire, famously, he came down the steps and Gavin Newsom was right there, was on him right there. [13:42] And they had a joint sort of news conference for a little bit. [13:45] So we saw some some relationship. [13:49] But it's all gone south from there. [13:50] And remember, everything has to be viewed in in the prism of the midterm elections in November. [13:55] Yeah, I think it's interesting how he when he's interacting in person with someone, even an adversary, as we see President Trump arriving now, he acts very differently than when he's on Twitter or on his truth social account or at the White House away from them. [14:09] He seems to be friendly with Gavin Newsom when he's there in person. [14:12] But other than that, all the team every other time when he's not there, it's all the animosity. [14:17] Remember when he had the Oval Office visit from the new mayor of New York? [14:21] Yes. [14:21] And they were buddies. [14:22] Yeah. [14:23] And somebody asked him, well, this guy's a socialist. [14:25] You said he's a communist. [14:26] Ah, he's not so bad. [14:27] Holy Toledo. [14:29] I mean, that was really something. [14:30] It kind of pulled the rug out from under the Mondami's opponents in New York. [14:36] So, yeah, he's as we see, as we expected, he's headed he's headed right for Marine One, I believe, which is going to then helicopter him the rest of the way. [14:47] Conan, but what does that say to you? [14:49] Here we are and nobody is there. [14:51] None of our leaders are there to greet the president. [14:54] What does that tell you? [14:55] It's a little sad that, you know, part of this, though, again, is the arrival is not associated with a public event or an event relating to the city itself. [15:10] He's just here to raise money. [15:11] So it's a partisan endeavor. [15:15] That colors it a little bit, quite a bit. [15:17] If he were here because of a natural disaster, say, let's say he came here because he wanted to see the cold storage warehouse that caught fire in the Boyle Heights. [15:30] I think the mayor might be here for that because, again, they need their help. [15:34] They need FEMA's help. [15:35] But in this case, it is a partisan endeavor. [15:39] It's for a partisan speech. [15:40] It's raising partisan money. [15:42] And obviously the president's going to go after everybody, including the mayor. [15:47] He may talk about this primary election in Michigan today, which is the fight of the Democratic Party over the very progressive socialist wing and the mainstream wing. [15:59] And the mainstream wing, the Karen Bass wing, has been losing of late. [16:04] And I think I would be surprised if the president talks about that tonight as well. [16:07] Do we know who the president is traveling with? [16:09] Any other high level officials from the White House? [16:10] To my knowledge, we don't. [16:12] I noticed Melania is not with him. [16:14] Melania very rarely flies with him these days. [16:17] Yeah, that's something a lot of people have noticed as well as the president boards. [16:20] Marine One here, our coverage of the president's visit will continue tonight. [16:23] We are live at five o'clock in Rancho Palos Verdes, where President Trump was set to speak at a fundraiser for the RNC at six. [16:30] Plus, we're keeping an eye on the court appearance for the armed person arrested at the golf club, President Trump's golf club that he's heading to now just days ago.