Karoline Leavitt holds a White House press briefing for new media.
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00:00Thank you so much for coming. This is our second official influencer briefing here at the White
00:07House in the beautiful South Court Auditorium. And as you can tell in the White House, we are
00:12fully embracing new media. Trust in the mass media has fallen to record lows. Tens of millions of
00:18Americans are turning elsewhere to get their news and their information. That's why we've welcomed
00:24in openly independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, content creators,
00:30and we will continue to do so. President Trump and our White House also believe strongly in the
00:36First Amendment, which is why our team has restored the press passes of hundreds of journalists
00:40whose passes were wrongly revoked by the Biden administration. So thank you all so much for
00:46coming today for your interest in covering the historic achievements of President Trump's
00:50first 100 days. And today officially marks 100 days of promises made and kept by President Trump.
00:58Our primary focus is how President Trump is in the process of rebuilding the world's greatest economy,
01:04just like he did in his first term. President Trump has created 345,000 jobs since taking office in
01:13January. Last month's job report, we saw 100,000 more jobs than economists predicted. It was the fourth
01:19highest month for private payroll growth in the past two years. 9,000 manufacturing jobs have been
01:26created and added to the economy already since January. And that's in comparison to the 6,000
01:31manufacturing jobs that were lost per month in the final two years of the Biden administration. So
01:37each month we were losing 6,000 manufacturing jobs under President Trump. In just 100 days, we've added
01:439,000. The U.S. unemployment rate remains at historic lows. The labor force participation rate for those
01:50without a high school diploma is up. Good news for working class American families. And the veteran
01:56unemployment rate is down as well to 3.8 percent in March. When we came into office, it was 4.2 percent.
02:04Remote work among federal employees has fallen over 16 percentage points from March last year to March
02:10this year, showcasing the success of President Trump's initiative to bring federal workers back
02:17to the office. We know middle class Americans, hardworking people, they have to show up to the
02:21office every day. We expect bureaucrats and government workers to do the same, especially when they are
02:26living off of the taxpayer's dime. If you want to work on behalf of the American taxpayer, you should show
02:32up to work in person. Thanks to President Trump, Americans are seeing the first price relief in years.
02:37The last inflation report showed the first consumer price decline in years, a decrease in energy prices
02:43and real average hourly wage growth. President Trump is delivering on his promises to lower costs
02:49for American families and businesses. Prescription drug prices are down. Last month's drop in
02:54prescription drugs prices was the largest ever recorded. And thanks to President Trump ending Joe
02:59Biden's reckless war on American energy, gasoline prices and energy prices are down as well. The cost of
03:05wholesale eggs has decreased more than 50%. President Trump inherited a complete mess from the Biden
03:13administration who totally botched their response to the bird flu. They were killing chickens. They
03:18were killing our chicken supply in this country, which led to an increase in egg prices. And the
03:23president and Secretary Rollins did an incredible job attacking that on day one. On the deregulation front,
03:31President Trump is launching the largest deregulation campaign in American history. He has blocked all
03:37of the unfinalized Biden era rules, which has saved us more than $180 billion already. He's launched a bold
03:46multi-agency effort to roll back existing federal regulations that drive up the cost of living
03:51on hardworking families that has yielded more than $755 billion in total savings as well.
03:58And as you all know, investments from companies around the world continue to pour into this
04:04country. Every morning, we wake up to a new headline with a new company from a different country
04:09announcing major investments in our country. What does that mean for people in your communities
04:15across the nation? It means jobs. It means Americans going to work. It means Americans providing for
04:21their families, for their children, living the American dream. And that's what those investments will do.
04:27It's truly the golden age of America. And that's why the president is working so hard to leverage
04:33good trade deals around the world. He knows America is the best place in the world to do business.
04:38He is using our leverage to negotiate good deals with countries around the world, to onshore
04:44manufacturing jobs here, to revitalize our middle class and our manufacturing industry,
04:49and also to protect our national security. I don't think any American agrees it's good
04:54that China currently supplies and produces our chips, our pharmaceuticals, and our critical
05:00industries. We want those things built in the United States of America. And President Trump is
05:05the first president in modern times to actually do something about that. So with that said, today is 100
05:12days. There have been so many achievements, not just on the economic front. And the president continues to
05:18work very hard on tax cuts, as well, and on negotiating those trade deals. But look at the success at the
05:24southern border, which we talked a lot about yesterday, with our borders are Tom Homan, Secretary
05:29Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller here at the White House, all of whom are doing a tremendous job and have
05:34created at the president's direction, the most secure border in American history. We have a mass deportation
05:40campaign of illegal aliens underway. We are removing heinous criminals from your communities across the
05:46country. Every single day, we are making America safe again. And if you look abroad on the world
05:51stage, the president is really using his peace through strength, foreign policy approach once
05:56again. The rest of the world knows that America is back. I know Joe Biden used to say that, but we're
06:02stealing it from him because it's actually true now. With President Trump in the Oval Office, the world
06:07is a safer place and will continue to be. So thanks for coming to the Influencer Briefing. I look forward to
06:12taking your questions. And Deborah, why don't you kick us off? So congratulations on 100 incredible
06:17days. And over the first 100 days, the majority of policies that we've seen from the Trump
06:21administration have been either targeted at foreign affairs, such as bringing the American
06:24hostages home or attempting to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, or long-term goals such as
06:30cutting government spending with Doge. What policies can we expect to see rolled out over the next few
06:34months that Americans will directly feel the effects of in order to secure the 2026 midterms for the
06:40Republican Party and keep his approval rating historically high? Yeah. The first answer that
06:44comes to mind, Deborah, is definitely tax cuts. The president is working closely with Congress as we
06:49speak. He met with leadership from both chambers. The administration met with leadership from both
06:53chambers yesterday to talk about how we can quickly pass the largest tax cuts in American history.
06:59And the president promised on the campaign trail he wanted no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for
07:05our hardworking seniors, no tax on overtime pay. He intends to keep those promises. And he needs
07:11Congress's help to do so. That's why he's working closely with them. But you look at, again, I talked
07:15about the leverage the president uses to negotiate good trade deals around the world. But he uses that
07:20leverage right here in Washington as well on Capitol Hill. He has great relationships with leaders on both
07:26chambers. And we are confident that we can pass a massive tax bill which will directly lead to more money
07:33in people's pockets right away. Sure. Go ahead. Yeah. So the president has really wanted to
07:39end the war in Ukraine for a long time now and has been working on that in the first hundred days.
07:44We've seen President Zelensky come here, as well as the president meeting with President Zelensky
07:50just in the last couple of days. I'm wondering where those talks stand and if the president is
07:55optimistic that that that conflict is going to wrap up shortly. The president is optimistic,
08:00yet realistic about the incredibly complicated and unfortunate situation happening with Ukraine
08:08and Russia. First of all, this is Biden's war. It would have never started if President Trump were
08:13in office. There is a reason that Putin did not invade Ukraine when President Trump was in the Oval Office.
08:21And it's because, again, President Trump leveraged the power of the United States to warn Putin not to do
08:27it. And the president has spoken about that and those direct warnings to the Kremlin that he gave in
08:32his first term. Then we had a mentally incompetent president in Joe Biden who didn't even know what day
08:38it is, never mind knew how to prevent war. And the entire world took advantage of that and took advantage
08:44of America's lackluster leadership abroad. And so we've had this this terrible war. The president talks about it
08:51all the time. He's briefed on it constantly. There are men dying on the front lines of this. An entire
08:57generation is being wiped out. And enough is enough. The president has made it very clear he wants to
09:02see this end at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. He has spoken directly to both sides of
09:09this war. He most recently met with President Zelensky at the Vatican when he attended the funeral of Pope
09:14Francis. And he remains optimistic that both sides will come together to negotiate peace. There are a
09:20lot of complexities on both sides of this war. But so he's realistic about that. But he is optimistic
09:27that we are moving in the right direction. And if you just take a step back and look at where we are
09:32now, where you have concessions from both sides publicly, where you have ceasefire proposals from
09:37both sides. The president's made it clear he wants a permanent ceasefire first. But you actually have
09:42the United States talking to Russia. You have the United States talking to the Ukrainians on a daily
09:46basis, communicating with both sides. Look at that compared to where we were when we came into office,
09:53where neither side was talking. There was just one approach to ending this war. No one was really
09:59talking about a peace deal. We were just talking about continuing to send blank checks to continue
10:05funding the fighting and the killing. This war has been a meat grinder. Young men are dying. Women and
10:10children are dying as a collateral result of the military conflict. And the president
10:15wants to see it end as quickly and soon as possible. And I can tell you, watching firsthand,
10:20he has exuded a tremendous amount of effort into this war. He's getting frustrated with the amount
10:26of effort this has taken. And he's made that clear to both sides. But he remains optimistic that we can get
10:31this done. Brendan. I was wondering if you'd indulge me in a quick round of Trump trolling or Trump
10:37truthing? Sure, let's do it. Okay, good. Rapid fire. Greenland, joining America?
10:42Definitely Trump truthing. Canada becoming a 51st state? Trump truthing all the way.
10:49And the Canadians would benefit greatly, let me tell you that. Eliminating the IRS?
10:53I think that is an optimistic goal. And the president... So I would say we're on the side
11:00of truthing there for sure. And the president, again, wants to see tax cuts. And he wants to see
11:05this massive revenue that we can gain from tariffs as well, which will create the external revenue
11:10service. So that's a definitive goal for sure. And most importantly, Trump 2028.
11:15Trump trolling. Although the hats are flying off the shelves. Yes. Link, go ahead.
11:25So one thing I've noticed in the first 100 days is that the White House is crawling with kids. You
11:29have a young, beautiful baby boy. There are babies everywhere. There's so many young folks on staff
11:34who have kids. But the last four years under Joe Biden, parents were really stressed and ravaged.
11:38They had to take on two or three extra jobs. Depression rates were up. Suicide rates were up.
11:43You're a very high profile young mother who seems to juggle and balance it all beautifully.
11:48What advice do you have to young parents out there who are starting their careers,
11:51having kids, building families, and trying to find that balance so desperately?
11:55Yeah. Well, it's a great question. And first, to the heart of your premise, it's true. The president
12:00has empowered not just me as a young mother in this role, but there are so many new moms and dads on
12:07our senior staff in the West Wing, but also across the entire administration. There are working moms and
12:13dads who are owing our country public service for President Trump while raising young families.
12:21And the president really empowers us to do that. And I commend him for that. He doesn't get enough
12:25credit for it. But as for the president is implementing policies every day to uplift
12:31young families and young people. He talked so much about young people and talked directly to young
12:36people so much on the campaign trail. It really, I think, inspires him when he is around young people
12:41and a young audience. And he wants to restore the American dream for the next generation,
12:47not just our generation of young folks, but our children and our grandchildren. What does that look
12:52like? Home ownership, the ability to afford a home, to live, to have a good paying job? That's part of this
12:59effort to onshore jobs, because you have an entire generation going to these incredibly expensive and
13:06liberal higher education universities, coming out saddled with debt and then unable to get a good
13:12paying job. The president wants to put an end to that so that young people can provide for their families and
13:17truly live the American dream. So to young people around the country, the president hears you, he sees you,
13:22he loves you, and he wants to uplift you. And all of the policies he's implementing every day are to
13:28provide a more prosperous and safe and free America for future generations. You're welcome. Sure.
13:35Hi, you too. Hi, you too. Thank you so much for the time. Sure.
13:39Tacking off of Link's question about young people, one of the most pressing challenges for Gen Z right now
13:45is the lack of home ownership as of 2025. I believe the median age is 38 years old of first time home
13:51buyers, which is a hindrance to starting families for a lot of people. How does the Trump administration
13:56plan on tackling this in the next four years? It's a major issue. As you mentioned, that's
14:01directly impacting young people and young families. And the president is, I think, tackling it head on
14:07already. The reason that homes have become so unaffordable is because of the massive inflation crisis caused by
14:14the previous administration. Not just the cost of a home, but everything that goes into building a
14:19new home went up and through the roof, right? We also saw mortgage rates reach incredible highs
14:24under the previous administration. So a few things. The president wants to bring down the cost of living,
14:29which he is already doing, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, which will increase our supply of
14:35homes across the country. But he also wants to bring down mortgage rates and interest rates to make it
14:39easier for young people and all people to borrow money, to take out those loans, to buy your first
14:45home. And so we got to increase the supply, bring down costs and bring down interest rates and mortgage
14:50rates. And by the way, those are all things the president successfully did in his first term.
14:55When he left office, inflation was a record low, 1.4 percent. Interest rates, mortgage rates also hit
15:01record lows in his first term. So this is a proven economic formula that works. It takes time to get
15:07there. We are in the process of the golden age. The president and the admin are slashing regulation
15:13every day, cutting red tape, cutting costs. And we need, again, Congress to pass those tax cuts to
15:19put more money back in people's pockets so they have greater purchasing power as well. You're welcome.
15:24Sure. Hey, Theresa and I would go with Independent Women and WMAL. Oh, great. We love working with the
15:30administration to really tout policies that work for families and work for small businesses in this
15:34country. Next week is Small Business Week. And I know that the SBA will be, you know,
15:38championing all the small businesses, the millions in this country, almost half of which are women
15:42owned. But I'd love to find out what the president feels about independent contractors who are not
15:48typical W2 employees, not nine to five workers, but who hang their own shingle. You know, they're 1099
15:53workers. We saw the Biden administration really try to crack down on that small business entrepreneurial
15:59spirit. And we're hopeful that the administration would overturn what the Biden administration did
16:04and maybe even work with Congress to pass some lasting changes, codify some lasting changes that
16:09would protect, you know, your ability to be self-employed, your ability to be a small business
16:13owner. Well, the president is a businessman at heart himself, right? He's a real estate developer.
16:19And I think that's a large reason the American people elected him the first time and the second
16:25time because they trust in him. And small businesses are the backbone of our American economy. I come
16:31from a small business family myself. And the president knows what small business families need
16:36and independent contractors need, entrepreneurs need. You need less government in the way. You need
16:40less regulation. You need low energy costs, low taxes, a low cost of living, a low cost of goods.
16:46And that's exactly what the president is focused on doing while simultaneously effectively
16:52leveraging tariffs to protect our middle class and our working class and our manufacturing base.
16:57Look at our auto industry. Think about Michigan. It used to be the heartland of the auto industry
17:03of the world. It was the auto capital of the world. And unfortunately, so many of those jobs have gone
17:09overseas. And so the president wants to protect good paying jobs here at home and unleash the might of
17:15our economy for small business owners. And that removes that includes removing red tape and cutting taxes.
17:22And as for independent contractors and what the president would hope to do with Congress,
17:26we'll definitely check back in on that and get you an answer because it's an important question.
17:30You're welcome. Sure. Hi, Will up to the National Pulse.
17:34You kind of gave us an overview of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia 100 days in.
17:39What would the next steps look like, though, if we don't reach an agreement by, say, this summer?
17:43And also, can you give us an update on the rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine?
17:47And is there any kind of response from the administration to Greenlandic foreign minister,
17:52Vivian Motzfeld, and some of her comments about maybe seeking aid with China?
17:56Sure. To your first question about the critical minerals deal, the president is confident that
18:01will be signed. Ukraine needs to sign it. They should sign it. It's not just good for the United
18:06States to recoup the billions of tax dollars we've spent and onshore some of those critical minerals,
18:12but certainly it's good for the Ukrainian people when this war is over to rebuild their country.
18:16It's an economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. That's what the president
18:21ambitions. And he wants Ukraine to sign that deal. He's confident that they will.
18:24As for what it would look like later down the road, I don't want to get ahead of the president,
18:29obviously. But again, I will reiterate, he's increasingly grown frustrated in the amount of
18:35time. Our secretary of state recently said, you know, there's not much more time or effort the United
18:41States has to give to this effort. And so we need both sides to come to the table to negotiate.
18:46As for Greenland, it's I hadn't seen those comments. If true, I'm sure they are certainly
18:51an interesting strategy to cozy up to communist China. Greenland needs the United States of America.
18:56We subsidize their national security and their defense. And the president has rightfully pointed
19:02out the great strategic importance that Greenland serves for not just our national security and
19:07economic interests, but for our country and for the world as a whole. And we can't allow Chinese or
19:12Russian influence to continue to infiltrate places like Greenland or the Panama Canal, I may add.
19:20Into the back.
19:21Can you talk about the importance of a stock market all-time high, specifically in relation to the
19:26midterms? And it seems like a lot of folks, when Trump was elected, they thought that the stock market
19:31goes up. He really cares about that. He uses it as a measurement of the economy. It's gone down,
19:36but it's still up over the last 12 months or so. So how much of that is playing into some of the
19:39economic policy decisions? I think the president has spoken on this. He said the stock market gets
19:45yippie, but he doesn't get yippie. He trusts in his economic agenda and formula, obviously.
19:50And Wall Street made out very well in President Trump's first term. President Trump also wants
19:55to look out for Main Street and do what's best for both. So I think the president right now,
20:01his main focus, what drives him to make decisions is what's best for the working class Americans,
20:07for the American worker, for the small business owner, for American families. And he's trying to
20:11correct the wrongs of the last several decades, not just the last four years with the economic
20:17and inflation nightmare caused by the Biden administration, but of the unfair trade practices
20:22that have ripped off our country for a very long time. So look, the stock market goes up,
20:26it goes down, but President Trump has a goal, he has a vision, and he's remaining very much committed
20:31to that. So thank you so much, everybody, for joining today. We're heading off to Michigan tonight
20:36for a big rally. So I am sure we'll see all of your amazing creative content on social media later.
20:44It's going to be a great speech, and maybe you'll get a Trump dance too. So thank you so much for
20:49coming today. It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you.