Karoline Leavitt holds a White House press briefing for members of the new media.
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00:00Welcome today. It's great to be with you. This is our first official influencer briefing here
00:06at the White House. I want to thank you all so much for joining us on what is day 99 of the
00:11Trump administration. And as I promised as my first briefing as press secretary back in January,
00:17the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities,
00:22not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution. Tens of millions of
00:28Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news.
00:33And we are embracing that change, not ignoring it. It's well past time that the White House press
00:39operation reflected the media habits of the American people in 19, in 2025, not 1925. And
00:47thanks to President Trump, a select group of D.C.-based journalists no longer have a monopoly
00:52over press access here at the White House. All journalists, outlets, and voices have a seat at
00:58table now. And you being here today for this briefing proves that. Today officially marks the 99th day
01:05of promises made and kept by President Trump. Our primary focus today is how President Trump has
01:10fulfilled one of his central campaign promises to the American people in record time, ending the
01:16massive illegal invasion and securing our nation's southern and northern borders. As we know,
01:22Joe Biden allowed millions of criminal illegal aliens to pour into our country over the past four
01:28years. And as we all know, a significant number of those aliens have been vicious gang members, murderers,
01:34rapists, and pedophiles. Innocent Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungere, Rachel Morin, and many others
01:41have been murdered because of Joe Biden's open border. President Trump made a promise to the American
01:47people to all of you and your audiences to end the carnage and keep our country safe. And he has
01:53overwhelmingly delivered on that promise. He immediately declared a national emergency on the
01:58southern border, deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion, and ended reckless
02:04catch or release policies. And as a result, between the inauguration and April 1st of this month,
02:10only nine illegal aliens were released into the United States of America. This is a staggering 99.99%
02:19decrease for more than the 184,000 illegal aliens who were released into the country under Joe Biden
02:25during that same period last year. You can't get much better at the 99.99% decrease.
02:32Total attempted illegal crossings at the southwest border hit a record low in February,
02:36only to fall to another record low again last month in March. President Trump signed the Lake
02:42and Riley Act into law, requiring illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence to
02:47be detained. And he reestablished the successful Remain in Mexico policy from his first term.
02:53The president has also restarted construction of his signature border wall. More than 85 miles have
02:59been built and are in various stages of construction and planning. He designated cartels as foreign terrorist
03:05organizations, invoked the Alien Enemies Act to apprehend, detain, and remove these massive
03:09threats who have flooded our country. And the Trump administration, as you heard from our border
03:14czar Tom Homan earlier today, is working literally 24-7 around the clock to successfully arrest and deport
03:22illegal criminals and foreign terrorists from our communities, your communities. We're in the
03:28beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history. And despite the
03:34legacy media's fear-mongering and lies about this, we will continue with these successful operations
03:39because we know that's what the American people are expecting from this president. And that's why
03:43they overwhelmingly reelected him to this office. Over the past weekend, it was announced Operation
03:48Tidal Wave was a joint effort in ICE Miami and Florida law enforcement agencies. Nearly 800 illegal aliens
03:54were arrested during the first four days alone. I don't know if we have any Floridians in here, but
03:59you're welcome. Operation Tidal Wave is a preview of what is to come around the country. Large-scale
04:05operations employing our state and local law enforcement partners to get criminal aliens off
04:10our streets. And we will not apologize for this. This is the first of its kind multi-agency immigration
04:16enforcement operation coordinated by ICE with federal partners. And this multi-day operation has so far
04:22resulted in nearly 800 illegal aliens apprehended in four days, including MS-13, murderers, rapists,
04:30drug traffickers, and human rights abuses. So safe to say President Trump made a promise to all of
04:35you, your audiences, and the American public to secure our nation's borders. He has overwhelmingly
04:39delivered on that promise. And you will see the legacy media has nitpicked stories to try to drum up
04:45sympathy for people who broke our nation's laws. This White House has sympathy for American citizens,
04:51for law-abiding families who are doing what's right, who came here the right way. That includes
04:57legal immigrants who have come to this country, paid their dues, waited their turn, and are now being
05:01cheated and ripped off by, or were being cheated and ripped off by the previous administration.
05:06We are putting Americans first every day. And we applaud the ICE agents and Border Patrol agents who
05:11are on the ground doing this important work. That's just the border. Of course, the president has been
05:15working incredibly hard to unleash the might of our economy here at home. He's in the process of
05:21negotiating trade, fair trade deals abroad with many countries around the world who have come to
05:26the table because the president is using the leverage of this office of the United States of America to
05:32leverage our economic might and to cut good trade deals. You also look at what's happening on the
05:38foreign, on the, on the world stage when it comes to foreign policy. The president has put the world on
05:42notice. They all understand that we have a commander in chief in the Oval Office who is going to put
05:47America and our troops first, who's going to do what's right for our country, our nation, our people, even if
05:53that means making tough decisions. And we are closer today to a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine certainly than we
05:59were when we took office on January 20th. If you look at the situation in the Middle East, Israel has never had a
06:05stronger friend than they do right now in the Oval Office with President Trump. We've had more than 75
06:10hostages who have returned home from around the world or wrongfully detained individuals. You can
06:15only do that if you have a president who's unafraid to use the leverage of the United States. So there are
06:19many accomplishments to talk about this week. I haven't even mentioned the restoring common sense
06:24effort of this administration to get men out of women's sports, to root out DEI and waste fraud and
06:30abuse from our federal bureaucracy. The president has done so much in such a little time and we're working
06:35very hard here every day. We appreciate all that you do on social media to push what the president
06:41is saying but also sometimes question it and we relish independent journalism. And I hope you all have
06:47seen the president, myself, anybody in this administration. We are unafraid to take questions.
06:51This has truly been the most transparent and accessible presidency in American history. So with that,
06:57let's kick it off and I'm happy to take your question first Erin. Thank you so much Caroline both for
07:01having us and for granting me the first question here. Sure. And I can attest to the deportations
07:06in Florida. My Uber drivers finally speak English again so thank you for that. My question for you is
07:12what are the administration's plans for those who continue to defy the executive orders? Most notably
07:16on my mind are the ones related to what some would call trans men, I would call trans women,
07:22which are men masquerading as girls in girls sports. Sure. Obey federal law or you will be prosecuted.
07:29Obey federal law and you could see your federal funding cut whether you are at college or university.
07:35We have seen the president again using the leverage of this administration and to negotiate deals with
07:42some of the biggest colleges and universities in this country and if they don't want to come to the
07:46negotiating table to apologize for the federal laws they have broken, to apologize for allowing Jewish
07:51American students on our nation's campuses to be unlawfully bullied and harassed, then there's
07:57going to be consequences for that illegal behavior. Same thing with men in women's sports. The president
08:02signed a very strong executive order making it the policy of the United States federal government that
08:07there are only two sexes, male and female, and we are not going to tolerate biological men competing in
08:13sports or impeding in private spaces for women like myself or you. And we've seen states defy this federal
08:20order. You've seen the state of Maine, unfortunately, because of their liberal governor, who nobody in
08:25that state disagrees with, I will add, being from New England, I can attest to that. People are incredibly
08:30fed up with her trying to oppose this common sense message. You've seen young women who have had to go on
08:36television to plead with their governor, please stop letting men play against me in sports. We shouldn't live in a
08:42country where that even has to happen. The president deeply understands that. That's why he signed that EO.
08:47And when Maine decided not to follow it, the Department of Justice sued them. So anyone who
08:52disobeys federal law will be either prosecuted, sued, or say goodbye to your federal funding.
08:59Sure. How about to the back in the red tie? Hi, um, one of my main questions is when will the
09:07border wall be completed? Because it's been talked about for a very long time and a lot of people want
09:11to know when can we expect that to be done. Sure. I don't have an official timeline for you, but
09:17certainly it's a priority of the administration. The president has talked about this for years,
09:21right? It was his signature campaign promise dating back to 2016. People laughed at him when
09:27he originally brought this idea up, but now the whole world recognizes a border wall is effective.
09:32It's a necessary means to secure your nation's territorial borders. Democrats like to have borders
09:38outside of their homes or walls outside of their homes for a reason because they know it repels
09:43invaders. And that's why the president wants to do that at the southern border. There has been more
09:46than 85 miles built just since January 20th. It's obviously the goal of this administration to build
09:52as much border wall as we possibly can. And we need Congress's help to do that. We need more federal
09:57funding. The president's working closely with Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune to pass a
10:02solid reconciliation package that not only provides more funding for our ICE agents and Border Patrol
10:10agents on the ground, but to continue construction of that border wall as well. Sure. Go ahead.
10:15Madam Levick, congratulations on this endeavor to bring in new media. And can I start by thanking you for
10:22including the British. I'm deeply proud to be the only British representative here. I hope at future events
10:30you might include more. Thank you. I've got two questions if I may be so bold regarding my little
10:36old country across the pond. First and foremost, it's regarding trade deals. So your vice president,
10:43Vice President Barnes, has said no free speech, no deal. The British Business Secretary, whose name is
10:52Jonathan Reynolds, has said that in the trade talks with the Commerce Department, the US Commerce Department,
10:58there has been no material, free speech has been not a material factor in negotiations. So my first
11:06question is, is it the case that free speech is no longer part of negotiations? And my second question,
11:11if I may, is in Britain, we have had over a quarter of a million people issued non-crime hate incidents.
11:21As we speak, there are people in prison for quite literally reposting memes. We have extensive
11:28prison sentences for tweets, social media posts, and general free speech issues. Would the Trump
11:38administration consider political asylum for British citizens in such a situation?
11:45Well, to your latter question, it's a very good one. I have not heard that proposed to the president,
11:49nor have I spoken to him about that idea. But I certainly can and talk to our national security
11:54team and see if it's something the administration would entertain.
11:57Yes, please.
11:58To your first question about free speech in the United Kingdom, the vice president has been
12:02incredibly outspoken about this for good reason. And the president has spoken about this as well,
12:07directly with your prime minister when he was here for a visit to the White House.
12:11So it remains a critical endeavor of ours to show the Brits in your country, which we love and admire,
12:18about the first amendment and the importance of free speech in a sovereign nation. As for the trade talks,
12:26I understand they are moving in a very positive way with the United Kingdom. I don't want to get ahead
12:30of the president or our trade team and how those negotiations are going. But I have heard they've
12:35been very positive and productive with the United Kingdom. And I will say the president always,
12:41both publicly and privately, speaks incredibly highly of your country. He has a good relationship with
12:46your prime minister, though they disagree on domestic policy issues. I've witnessed the camaraderie between
12:53them firsthand in the Oval Office. And there is a deep mutual respect between our two countries
12:58that certainly the president upholds. Thank you. You're welcome. Mr. Spicer, it's good to see you here,
13:04my predecessor. Yeah, well, you know, had to swing by. Thank you for doing this. I think it's marvelous
13:11what you guys have done to bring in new voices. And it shows, it reflects the president's commitment
13:16to transparency and to bring this in. So I've got two quick ones for you. The first is you mentioned
13:20reconciliation. Beyond that and what he hopes to get out of that, considering how slim the House majority is,
13:27what other legislative priorities does he want to see codified in law before this Congress adjourns?
13:32It's a really good question, Sean. I think reconciliation is the first and foremost question
13:39on the president's mind right now. It's a huge deal. We have to get it done. He's working closely
13:43with Congress. In fact, he's meeting with Speaker Johnson, I think, in a few minutes today in the Oval
13:47Office to discuss this very bill and measure. Aside from reconciliation, which we hope and are very
13:53confident will include more funding for border wall construction and mass deportations,
13:59as I mentioned earlier. But it's also very important that we get tax cuts passed. That is
14:04the second step in the Trump economic agenda. The president has used every executive lever he can
14:09to slash burdensome regulation. And we continue to do that every day across every agency. Administrator
14:15Zeldin is doing a fantastic job at the EPA, I may add. But every cabinet secretary is taking,
14:21getting rid of regulation very seriously. The president is certainly working on unleashing
14:26American energy to drive down costs. But tax cuts are a critical component of really seeing the Trump
14:31economic formula be put together. So he wants to see tax cuts passed in this reconciliation package.
14:38That includes no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social
14:44Security for our seniors, of course, too. As for other measures that would be codified into law,
14:49certainly we've seen the president put forth common sense executive orders and take really common
14:54sense executive action that we would love Congress to take further action on to ensure that the
15:00president's executive actions can remain long after his tenure. So you don't have another president
15:04come in here in eight years and undo some of the executive work the president has worked so hard on. So
15:11we want Congress to continue getting to work, but we got to get this reconciliation bill passed first.
15:16Thank you. The second thing I have is just a question I get a lot and I figured I'd best address
15:20to you. You've done a phenomenal job opening up the briefing room, bringing in new voices. The
15:25president's commitment during the campaign to do long-form podcasts was, I think, extremely helpful to
15:31this new media environment that we live in. But a lot of conservatives will ask me, why does he sit down with
15:36people like Terry Moran of ABC or Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic? What is the rationale behind that, rewarding
15:43people who have very vehemently expressed disdain for him personally? Because the president is unafraid and he is
15:52inspired by competition and he likes to talk to people face to face and I think that's one of his best attributes and
15:59qualities. We live in an incredibly divisive country, unfortunately, that has been really the result
16:05and consequence, frankly, of the fake news and the hoaxes and lies they have driven at this president for
16:12the better part of the last decade now. But the fact that we still have a president who has been
16:17a victim of these hoaxes, these lies, these smears by so many legacy media outlets and reporters,
16:22yet he's still willing to sit down with them, look them in the eye, look them face to face,
16:27and take them to task and share the truth with them and his perspective, I think is what the
16:32American people deserve in a president. And it's certainly a stark contrast to what we had in the
16:37previous administration, a president who was hiding, who actually used this, this beautiful South Court
16:43auditorium, which we're happy to be in today, but he used this like it was a fake Oval Office, weirdly,
16:49oddly. He was missing in action. He called lids at two o'clock in the afternoon. For those who don't
16:54know, a lid is when we tell the press to go home for the night. And he was doing that midday. That
17:00is not acceptable around here. I will tell you, we're working very early through the very late
17:05hours of the night. And the president's willing to talk to anyone, not just journalists who have
17:11really been posing as journalists, but are actually left-wing activists. But also, if you look at our
17:16adversaries and our competition abroad on a foreign policy scale, you know well in the first term,
17:21he went to North Korea. He talked to Putin directly. He talked to President Xi directly.
17:26The president believes in direct diplomacy, whether it is our adversaries and competitors around the
17:32world, or left-wing activists like Jeffrey Goldberg. Sure, Emily. First of all, thank you for having
17:38us today. It's a pleasure to be here. You mentioned, obviously, it's no secret. America has been Israel's
17:43strongest friend, greatest ally. Unfortunately, as you know, Edan Alexander is still being held in Gaza.
17:49He's both an American and an Israeli citizen. Last we heard, allegedly Hamas has lost
17:54all communication with him. I was wondering if there's been any update in terms of getting Edan
17:58home. Sure. First of all, the reports last week were from Hamas media. And so we always take that,
18:07of course, with a grain of salt. We do our own verification on those reports. I talked to the
18:12National Security Council about Edan Alexander last week, as this is obviously a priority for the
18:16administration. And all I can tell you is that I can assure you that the Special Envoy Whitcoff,
18:22Adam Bowler, who's been leading some of our hostage negotiations, Mike Waltz, the entire national
18:27security team, finding him and bringing him home is a priority for this administration. And they
18:32continue to work very hard on that every day. Thank you. You're welcome. Chad.
18:37First of all, thank you for the hospitality. Always open and welcome. Thank you for the access. And I'll say
18:42to you again for everyone what I said to you a few weeks ago when we were here. I said,
18:46it's so refreshing to have a press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and
18:51articulate. So thank you for that. I think a lot of people would be curious to know if we have any
18:56details of what the private conversation between Vladimir Zelensky and the president was there at the
19:00Vatican. I imagine that we don't know at this stage in the game. But more specifically, back to the
19:05border issue, the DOJ stated on Friday that they were floating the idea of potentially subpoenaing
19:12journalists to get access to whistleblowers. We know the last administration did not treat whistleblowers
19:17very well. There's numerous ones who, although still employed by the FBI or the DHS, have not
19:26received back pay and they've been employed but they're not reinstated. So I'm wondering,
19:30does this administration have, you know, do they believe that we should reinstate the whistleblower,
19:36you know, like agents Garrett or O'Boyle or Friend or, you know, Stevenson with DHS who blew the
19:41whistle on the child trafficking involving the cartels under Joe Biden? He too has yet to be
19:46brought back. Do we have a position on that? Sure. Well, for each individual agency, secretaries
19:52of those agencies obviously have deference over who they hire, who they fire, who they promote.
19:56I can tell you certainly the president commends anyone who steps out and speaks the truth,
20:02especially against the malpractice that we saw over the last four years under the previous
20:08administration. I could speak to the two cases at the Treasury Department. The two whistleblowers there
20:12who blew the whistle on the Hunter Biden tax fraud case have been promoted by Secretary Besant. So
20:17certainly we commend anyone who has the courage to step up and speak the truth. And as for those who
20:23unfortunately try to leak, especially classified information to the legacy media to put our troops
20:29in harm's way, our law enforcement officials at harm's way, leaks like that will not be tolerated.
20:35But those who are seeking to protect the truth will certainly be commended and applauded for that.
20:41Sure. Rogan, go ahead. Hi, Caroline. Good to see you again. Great to see you as well. Great job this
20:46morning. And as always, you're really crushing it. My question is about the Epstein files. And a couple
20:52months ago, the DOJ released what they called phase one of the Epstein files. And they announced that a
21:01lot of those files, the remaining files, probably the bulk of the files were actually in the New York
21:06field office. They requested that they be returned the day after. And some legacy media reports show that
21:14not only were those files returned to the DOJ, but that hundreds of FBI agents are going through them
21:21day after day and getting them ready for public release. Do you have any updates from the DOJ or
21:27the FBI on when those files are expected to be released? And also, when we might start seeing
21:32some arrests of the client list? Sure. I can assure you that the Attorney General and her team at the
21:38Department of Justice are working on this diligently. For a specific timeline, I'd have to check in with
21:43them. And we can certainly do that for you, Rogan, in the effort of transparency. But I will tell you,
21:49the Attorney General is a bulldog. She is someone you want on your team. And when she wants to get
21:55something done, she gets it done. I've seen her do it in various instances already in her time as
22:00Attorney General. And when she makes a promise, she keeps it. So I think I don't have a specific
22:06timeline on you for that. But I do know that they're working on it over there. Sure. Go ahead.
22:10Thank you for having us here. I've noticed this is kind of like a repeat of 2016. The legacy media
22:16has gone back to not reporting anything on President Trump. In the beginning, we had
22:21them reporting everything that he was doing. Now they're kind of going back again to not reporting
22:26everything that he is actually doing. I'm kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I'm not the
22:32headline news girl. I'm the nuts and bolts. I'm the policy type nerd. So what direction do you advise
22:39kind of me to go into, like the White House files that y'all send out every single day?
22:43Yeah. Because that's what people are used
22:44to when they want to ask me questions. They want to know kind of like the nuts and bolts
22:47of everything. Secondly, I know going into the first 100 days, Johnson's meeting with President
22:53Trump today. President Trump has issued a lot of executive orders. What about codifying? Is that
23:00going to be a conversation President Trump is going to have with him about possibly a timeline of just
23:05taking them from EOs and to codifying them and to making them permanent? So we don't have another
23:11president that comes in, possibly a Democrat that completely overturns everything that President Trump
23:17has done. Yes. As I spoke to Sean's question earlier, absolutely we want Congress to get to work.
23:24First thing is the reconciliation package, like I said, border and tax cuts. That's on the president's
23:29mind. But of course, he wants to see Congress move to codify all of the incredible things and work
23:34that he's done via executive order. To your first question about the nuts and bolts, I wish
23:38more people in the legacy media were like you and didn't focus on the sensationalist headlines but
23:43actually cared about the facts. The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that
23:48will never be mentioned on cable news at night, signing executive orders. We do our absolute best to
23:53message that, which is again why we're welcoming independent voices like yours with following on social
23:58media because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there. We put out fact sheets
24:04on the daily about what the president is signing and they do get into the nuts and bolts of each
24:09and every policy and each and every executive action that he's taking. He's signing three phenomenal
24:14executive orders today. I will share a preview with you on those. One of them is an executive order
24:21focused on sanctuary cities. It will direct the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to provide a list of
24:26sanctuary cities back to the administration. We will review those. If those sanctuary cities are
24:32breaking federal law, well then the Office of Management and Budget is going to look at their
24:35federal spending. Again, if you're defying federal law, you are threatening your own federal spending by
24:40doing that. There is another executive order the president will sign tonight. We can provide the fact
24:45sheet for you on ensuring law and order and ensuring that federal law enforcement and local law enforcement
24:50can work together and communicate more easily. And then the third executive order, which actually
24:54speaks to the heart of your question earlier about the Uber drivers, will be an order directing the
25:00Department of Transportation to include English literacy tests for our truckers. This is a big
25:05problem in the trucking community that, unless you're in that community, you might not know,
25:09but there's a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials
25:14and local officials as well, which obviously is a public safety risk. So we're going to ensure that our
25:18truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English. That's a very common
25:24sense policy in the United States of America. So the president will be signing that later this
25:27afternoon. Yeah, you're welcome. To the back in the yellow tie. Thank you, Caroline. President
25:33Trump has recently made statements about eliminating the federal income tax and creating the external
25:38revenue service. When could we see that start to play out? Well, I will tell you this is something the
25:44Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Treasury are both equally as excited about, as is the
25:50president. And, you know, part of—there's many reasons for the tariffs the president has implemented
25:56and the trade deals that he is currently negotiating. Number one, we need to shore up our critical supply
26:01chains here at home. Number two, we need to increase our revenue here in the United States. We are
26:06running trillions of dollars of deficits. Our country will cripple if we continue down this path.
26:11And so how great it would be for the external revenue to completely replace the internal revenue
26:17service. So I know the administration is focused on—on the external revenue service getting that up
26:23and running. And as you know, Customs and Border Protection is charged with bringing in the money
26:27from tariffs every day. And they are bringing in billions and billions of dollars per day with the
26:32current tariff rates and where they are at. So we will continue with that effort. I think I went around
26:37the room. Oh, no, one more in the back. All good. So we know President Trump has been a champion
26:41for the 2A ever since he got into office, both times. My question is, do we see anything—is there
26:48any ongoing efforts for national reciprocity so we can carry in all 50 beautiful states?
26:52This is something the president talked about on the campaign trail, for sure.
26:56We need Congress to do it. But the president will always support our law-abiding gun owners,
27:01and as you mentioned, is an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment. It's more important now than ever,
27:07as we see violent crime rates in our inner cities. I've said this repeatedly over the past four years.
27:12The Second Amendment was never more important than when we had an illegal immigrant crime epidemic
27:17spiking in this country. Law-abiding Americans have a constitutional right to defend themselves,
27:23and the president absolutely supports that. But to national reciprocity, we do need Congress's help
27:28on that one. So thank you, guys. It's so good to see you. I could go around the room all day, but
27:33unfortunately, there's work to be done. Thank you for coming to our very first influencer briefing to
27:38kick off the first 100 days of the Trump White House. It's great to see you all here, and thanks for
27:43what you do. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.