On Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt held a new media press briefing at the White House.
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00:00Good afternoon, everybody. It's great to see all of you. Welcome to our third official
00:06influencer briefing here at the White House in the beautiful South Court Auditorium, Joe Biden's
00:11former office that he pretended to be his office. Now we're using it for its real purposes as an
00:16auditorium. And we are embracing and empowering new media like never before. You are all a testament
00:22to that. We're so grateful that you're here today. President Trump is truly the most transparent and
00:28accessible president in American history. And we are just following his example. That's a little
00:32bit why this press briefing today is tardy, because the president was hosting a more than two hour long
00:38cabinet meeting with his entire cabinet. Each secretary went around the room to talk about the
00:44promises they are delivering on for the American public and the directives they are executing
00:49at the behest of the president of the United States. Can you ever remember a cabinet meeting in which the
00:55media were welcomed into the room to ask questions of the entire federal government? No, you can't
01:01because it never happened. Joe Biden was afraid to speak to the press because he was mentally
01:05incompetent in driving our country into the ground. But fortunately, President Trump has been incredibly
01:11hard at work cleaning up Joe Biden's messes and making our country great again. Yesterday marked the
01:17president's official 100th day in office. The first 100 days of President Trump's second term can only be
01:24summed up as promises made, promises kept. He has ushered in the most secure border in modern
01:30American history, and he didn't need a bill from Congress to do it. Do you all remember that? They
01:35said we needed a bill. We didn't need a bill. We just needed a new president. The border is now closed
01:40and the border Biden, Biden border invasion has been halted. Illegal border encounters are down by 95%.
01:47Illegal alien gotaways, one of the top threats to our public safety, are down by an astounding 99.99%.
01:56And Fox News' Bill Malugian, who did exceptional reporting covering the Biden border crisis,
02:01was recently quoted saying, if Fox were to send me down there right now, I would have trouble finding
02:05a single migrant on camera. That is the Trump effect. President Trump took on the cartels and
02:12designated trend de Aragua, MS-13, and other vicious gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist
02:16organizations. Under President Trump, it is the policy of the United States to ensure the total
02:22elimination of these brutal organizations' presence in our country. And we are also beginning stages of
02:28carrying out the largest mass deportation in American history. We have already arrested more than
02:33150,000 illegal aliens. And you can expect those numbers to ratchet up in the months ahead.
02:40On the economy, President Trump is rebuilding the greatest economy in the world once again.
02:44Since day one, he has focused on defeating inflation, bringing down the cost of living,
02:49and making the United States the best place in the world to do business, invest, create jobs,
02:54and innovate. The president later this afternoon in the East Room of the White House will be
02:58joined by CEOs from around the world who have committed trillions of dollars in investments
03:04right here in the United States of America. I don't think the president is getting enough credit
03:09for the massive deregulation campaign that he has launched across the entire federal bureaucracy.
03:15He himself has signed a number of executive orders to unleash rapid deregulation and reduce the cost
03:21of living for families and for small businesses. And we are seeing a big impact of this already.
03:26His deregulatory actions thus far will save nearly $11,000 per family of four over the next several
03:33years. And building on this success, the president has encouraged the rapid onshoring of jobs to
03:39restore America as our world's manufacturing superpower. He is effectively utilizing tariffs to bring the
03:47entire world to the negotiating table, offering more favorable terms for our country. When all is said
03:53done, America will finally have fair and reciprocal trade, and our country will finally stop being
03:59ripped off. So far, as I mentioned, total investments under this administration are more than $5 trillion.
04:07The president has already created 345,000 jobs since taking office in January. 9,000 manufacturing jobs were
04:15created compared to the 6,000 manufacturing jobs lost per month in the final two years of the Biden
04:21administration. The labor force participation rate for those without a high school diploma is up.
04:26Inflation has dropped. And the price of prescription drugs last month was the largest drop ever recorded.
04:34In little more than three months, President Trump has America headed in the right direction.
04:38The good news is we are just getting started. We are very busy every single day here at the White House,
04:43literally working around the clock seven days a week to restore the golden age of America. Hundreds
04:50of promises have been made and kept. There is certainly more work to do. The best is yet to come.
04:55But we are very proud of the efforts the president has made to continue the non-traditional media
05:00approach that he so beautifully executed on the campaign trail, which led him back to this office,
05:06talking to podcasters, social media content creators, and influencers like yourself. And again,
05:11we're so proud to welcome you to the White House here today so you can ask questions for the whole
05:16world to hear. So, Jack, great to see you. And why don't you kick us off?
05:20Caroline, thanks so much for having us in today. And I appreciate the administration
05:23making yourself available and making it available to us and all of our followers. And I understand that
05:29you're going to be continuing these. I think it's fantastic that really have everybody come in and
05:34be able to do this. One of the things that's been troubling me and has actually even affected me over the
05:39last 24 hours is the rise of violence that we've seen from elements of the far left, starting with
05:47things like Luigi Maggioni, the support for these unhuman organizations like MS-13, Trende Aragua, and even,
05:56of course, the assassination attempts on President Trump, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and Ryan Routh, as well as
06:01numerous incidents against anyone who owns a Tesla, apparently. You don't really see the Democrats
06:07opposing these things. You see them in many cases either co-signing it or giving a wink and nod to it
06:14at the same time that they will be demanding that we follow due process for anyone who actually is a
06:21hardened criminal or some of the worst of the worst. What is the administration doing, DOJ-wise or FBI-wise,
06:27to combat this rise in violence that we're seeing? It's a great question, Jack, and I absolutely agree
06:33with the premise of your question, which I usually don't when I take questions at a podium, but
06:38certainly you're right. We have seen a rise in political violence that stems from the left, dating
06:43back to the Black Lives Matter movement, which the left and the Democrats don't want to talk about
06:47much, but they burned down American cities, and the Biden administration did nothing to prosecute
06:53those who created that violence, oftentimes not just destroying businesses, but also lives and
06:59communities as well. You look at the rise of violence against the president himself and his
07:04supporters. You had two heinous assassination attempts from leftist lunatics, and the president
07:10is lucky and blessed to be here today because he was able to survive that political violence in those
07:16assassination attempts. Look at the recent attacks on Tesla, on Elon Musk's company. It's quite ironic,
07:22because Democrats and leftists were the greatest fans of Tesla. Many Democrats drive Teslas to this
07:28very day, but then it's their same party who is doing nothing to stop or condemn or discourage this
07:35violence from taking place. In many cases, Democrat elected officials are actually inciting it and
07:41encouraging it, but that's not going to be allowed to happen anymore. The attorney general was just in
07:47the cabinet room with the president and made it very clear to anyone who is inciting violence or
07:51participating in violence. You will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And no longer do
07:57we have a justice department that chooses prosecutions based on one's political affiliation.
08:03If you break the law, you will be held accountable for that. And I think we are truly restoring a fair
08:10and equal justice system in this country. The attorney general spoke earlier about how there have been
08:15several cases brought against those who have perpetrated this political violence against Tesla,
08:20which is a great American made company. And we need to see more people on the other side of the aisle
08:27stepping out to discourage this violence. But I don't think we will hold our breath. We won't wait for
08:31them. The president is leading by example. And I think the restoration of justice we've seen at the DOJ
08:37under the leadership of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who's doing an incredible job as the FBI director is a
08:43testament to that. Thank you, Dom. Thank you. Thank you for giving me an honor to be able to ask a
08:48question to provide some transparency for the American people. Speaking of, I wanted to reference
08:52the election integrity. A lot of people in America are questioning if there's any possibility that we
08:57could see further investigations for anyone that could have violated our election integrity rights.
09:02And more importantly, so is there any possibility for names such as Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary
09:07Rhodeham Clinton, to ever just possibly get investigated for any of these, you know, questions
09:13from the American people from any of the wrongdoings they might have done? Well, it's refreshing to
09:17actually hear a question on election integrity because the legacy media would never ask such a
09:21question. They're so out of touch with where the American people are on this issue. And Americans,
09:26you're absolutely right, want to have trust in our electoral system. Without free and fair elections,
09:31you cannot have a free and fair country. And President Trump has absolutely been
09:36a leader on this effort talking about the irregularities we've seen in our elections,
09:40holding Democrats accountable for allowing illegal immigrants to participate in our elections.
09:46And he actually signed a recent executive order to protect the integrity of our elections. It will
09:50strengthen voter citizenship verification laws. It also directs the attorney general to enter
09:57information sharing agreements with state election officials to identify cases of election fraud. So
10:02that correspondence between the federal government and the attorney general with state and local
10:06officials has never happened before. It will allow the federal government to more easily identify
10:11these cases of fraud and then prosecute those who violate our election laws. And it is, again,
10:18appalling that any politician, regardless of party, could be against ensuring only American citizens can
10:25vote in American elections. How could anyone ever be against ensuring Americans need to have proof of
10:32identification to participate in our elections? You see the Democrats falling over themselves,
10:38trying to say, this is somehow voter suppression. Absolutely not. We are trying to ensure that every
10:45American citizen, their vote actually counts and is not being outweighed by fraudulent votes and fraudulent
10:51ballots that we know have been cast in previous elections. So the president is taking this very
10:55seriously. He signed an extremely strong executive order directing action from the AG and the Department
11:01of Homeland Security as well to clean up our elections. And we expect Congress to do more on this front as
11:05well. Let's go over here. On that question, again, Caroline, thank you so much for hosting this.
11:11Really appreciate the opportunity to come in here and ask questions of you guys and appreciate the president
11:16giving us some time of yours as well. On a follow-up on Dom's question, I still have a ton of my audience
11:21that is still asking questions about Hillary Rodham Clinton and the fact that it came out that her
11:27and the DNC funded the Steele dossier, which then led to a crossfire hurricane and all the FISA abuses
11:33that went against President Trump leading up to the 2020 election. Is there? You don't have to spill the
11:38beans, but is there something? Is there somebody still looking at it? We just want to know that it's not
11:42dead in the water, that Hillary's not just off scot-free after knowing what what her and the DNC did
11:48leading up to the 2020 election? It's a great question. Absolutely understand and agree with
11:53why you're asking it, but I would love to let the president weigh in on that front. I haven't
11:57discussed it with him, to be honest with you, but certainly we can ask him and get back to you.
12:02All right. So, Caroline, Madam Press Secretary, the- You can call me Caroline.
12:08Oh, thank you. Caroline. Over the weekend, the White House Correspondents Association had their gala,
12:14they had their dinner, and Alex Thompson from now Axios prior to that Politico didn't really apologize,
12:21but came forward and said we, quote unquote, missed the story of Joe Biden's demise, his health
12:26demise, his cognitive demise during the four years. Jake Tapper has written the book since President
12:33Trump was elected that they missed the demise of Joe Biden as well. Fast forward to this lawsuit with
12:40CBS, right? So the media, legacy media has not been held accountable. Will this lawsuit with CBS go to
12:47fruition? In other words, I would love to see it go to trial so that we can see, so they could be held
12:53accountable. Additionally, will the New York Times be joined into that lawsuit? Because the New York
12:58Times has already stated that they agree with CBS. And Trump has said maybe we're going to sue the New
13:03York Times as well. And as a follow-up to all this, and it really does dovetail because it's not
13:08just left-leaning media. Fox News. Fox News put out a poll. I'm a statistician. The poll they put out was
13:18wildly biased against President Trump. Will Fox sue Fox—will Trump sue Fox for their methodology in polling?
13:28Two great questions. Let me hit the first one first. As for CBS and the White House Correspondents
13:37Association dinner, it was laughable. They gave an award to a journalist for talking about Biden's
13:48mental incompetence. He wrote a story about it years after the American people knew that story to be true.
13:55It didn't take much, just two eyes and two ears, to realize that Joe Biden was completely inept,
14:03was unfit to serve as President of the United States. And nobody in the legacy media, nobody in this
14:10city, wanted to talk about it. In fact, I recall being on President Trump's campaign and calling out
14:18Joe Biden's cognitive decline. And we were accused of manufacturing deepfakes. My predecessor accused us
14:25for manufacturing deepfakes from the White House podium, when she knew and everybody in this White
14:31House knew the true status of Joe Biden's physical and mental fitness. And the mainstream media allowed
14:39that cover-up to take place because they refused to dig for the truth. They tried to get the American
14:44people not to believe their own eyes. It is truly one of the greatest cover-ups and scandals in American
14:51history. And again, this is why we are welcoming independent journalists and social media influencers
14:57and content creators into the White House with open arms because all of you in this room, many of your
15:03colleagues in independent journalism, talked about this online. Nobody gave you credence as far as the
15:09legacy media is concerned. And now they host cocktail parties where they are plotting each other and
15:14patting each other on the back for uncovering the truth. It was years later. And it's truly sad to see.
15:21But again, that's why we're making much needed and long overdue changes. As for the lawsuit against
15:25CBS, the president and his legal team fully intend to carry this lawsuit forward. The president put out a
15:31very strong statement in regard to that and fake news CBS this morning. And then as for the Fox News
15:39poll, the president's right. These are fake polls. They over-poll Democrats. They under-poll President
15:45Trump's supporters. It's always been the case for media polls. They consistently underestimate President
15:51Trump's support amongst the public. That's why we don't really blink when we see them, to be honest
15:56with you. We're staying focused on the mission and moving forward. The president knows everything
16:01he's doing is exactly what he promised the American public he would do. And if you look at the key
16:06issues in the polling, the president is still ahead because Americans know he is delivering on those
16:11issues for them. And if you look at the methodology, you're right. They're over-polling Democrats,
16:18under-polling Republicans. It's a clear-cut case of fake polling, no doubt.
16:24If I may, also misinformation though, right? And maybe as detrimental to the presidency as
16:31what CBS has done or the New York Times is doing.
16:34Mm-hmm. Yeah, no doubt about it. The president's spoken quite strongly about it. And I know he's made
16:39some phone calls to express his displeasure with it as well. Carolina, go ahead.
16:44Thank you so much for having me here, especially as a legal immigrant, because the overwhelming
16:49fake news that Hispanics don't support President Trump, but we do. And we're very excited to have
16:54mass deportations, because it affects our communities. My question is about immigration
16:58reform and DACA. During the first Trump administration, we saw that President Trump,
17:03like no other president, wanted to make a deal with the Democrats to give a pathway to citizenship
17:08to 1.2 million DACA recipients. I don't know. I haven't really heard anything coming out. Is there
17:14going to be, is there any policies surrounding that situation? And is there going to be immigration
17:20reform? Mm-hmm. Well, first of all, thanks for sharing your story. And the president overwhelmingly
17:26won the vote of Hispanic Americans in the previous election and swept counties on the border of Texas
17:32that are predominantly Hispanic counties. Because to your very point, Hispanic Americans and legal
17:38immigrants to this country from all countries are so sick and tired of seeing, we're so sick and tired
17:45of seeing the mass invasion of illegal immigrants that was allowed to occur under the previous
17:51administration. And it was an issue the president ran on and he delivered on. These mass deportations
17:57are underway. And it is currently the position of this administration, we are focused on removing as
18:03many illegal alien criminals from our communities as possible. And not only are we doing that for
18:10law-abiding American citizens, but also legal immigrants, as you said, who are citizens now and
18:16came here the right way, waited their turn, paid their dues. It's a slap in the face to them. And so,
18:21there's a lot of reforms that need to be made to our legal immigration system. The president has talked
18:25about that. But our initial focus right now and our priority is cleaning up the mess that the previous
18:31administration left us. And there's more work to do, but a lot of progress has been made thus far.
18:38CJ. Yeah. You know, also, thank you so much, Caroline, for having us here. You know, also on
18:42the topic of immigration, not only do I think, you know, the legal immigrant community welcomes what
18:47the president's doing, but also the black community. So, I would love to get your reaction to recent
18:50comments made by Simone Sanders, who said that people of color would be next in line for deportation
18:56under this president. Now, that was a revelation to me and probably many others in the black community,
19:00being a lifelong American. I'm not really sure where Tom Homan would send me other than my
19:04childhood home in Augusta, Georgia. But why do you think this fear mongering is being directed
19:08at the black community over the issue of immigration? And do you think it's offensive
19:13to conflate illegal aliens who are rapists, traffickers, and sexual abusers with law-abiding
19:18citizens in the black community? It's absolutely insane. And it is racist, what she is saying.
19:24The president intends on deporting illegal alien criminals who broke our nation's laws and are not
19:30only impacting communities across the country, but in particular communities of color in our inner
19:37cities. You remember the story out of New York City, where young minority children were kicked out
19:42of their public school to make room for illegal immigrants to sleep on the floor of their cafeteria.
19:48That is putting America last. Doesn't matter your race, your religion, or creed. If you are a law-abiding
19:54American citizen, President Trump is going to put you first. Shame on Simone Sanders for saying that.
19:59She knows better, but she's trying to fear people and to dislike this president with lies. But I think
20:05the American public are much smarter than she believes that they are, and that's why they re-elected President
20:10Trump. Oh, go ahead. Hi, Caroline. So as the youngest press secretary in history, who is a wife and a
20:18mom, you've become widely popular with America First Patriots. As an 18-year-old, I can say you're
20:24definitely an inspiration to Gen Z. What has been the biggest highlight for you in these first 100
20:29historic days? Thank you for asking that and saying that, Beau. I am Gen Z. I think I heard the term
20:35Zillennial because I'm right on the cusp of Millennial in Gen Z. Jack is cringing at that.
20:42But there's been so many highlights. Just being here every day is such a blessing and an honor.
20:47And I'll share a quick story to that point. The president, I'm only here because the president
20:53believed in me and uplifted me and so many others who are working so hard across this administration.
20:59This administration is filled with young, vibrant people who come to work every day,
21:04hungry and eager to help accomplish the president's goals. And I think we're seeing a real reawakening
21:10amongst young people across the country. The president spoke directly to young people during
21:15his campaign, inspiring confidence in them and restoring hope in the American dream, basic
21:21common sense values of faith and family and freedom that truly do resonate with young people. The
21:26American dream of home ownership, of being able to afford to raise a family and to have children.
21:32It's a beautiful thing. And I think the president openly talking about it has inspired so many
21:37young minds and opened up so many young hearts. And I'm just so honored to be in this role. The
21:42president, he's wrote about it in his books and he's talked about it himself. When he was in his 20s,
21:48he was building buildings in Manhattan. So certainly he believes in the strength and the ability of young
21:54Americans across the country, like yourself here at the White House at just 18 years old. Thanks for being
21:59here. Into the back row. Thank you so much for having us here, Caroline. It underscores President
22:03Trump's transparency. Shifting focus a little bit to what's happening on our universities,
22:09President Trump has finally put American students over violent foreign nationals. And right now we're
22:15seeing the media whitewash the violence perpetrated on our college campuses. We see many universities
22:22trying to bypass President Trump's executive order. And my question is how exactly does President Trump
22:29will make sure that these universities are being properly held accountable and violent foreign
22:34nationals who are taking over campus buildings are sent back home? Yeah. Well, to Jack's earlier
22:40question about political violence, we have, this is another form of political violence we've seen stem
22:45from the left with the pro Hamas movement that took place on college campuses and universities. In fact,
22:52I recall being in Manhattan courtroom during the Alvin Bragg case against President Trump in the midst of
22:58the campaign. And we were in that courthouse watching the television as these violent riots unfolded on
23:05the campus of Columbia University. And I remember the president watching the television saying,
23:10when we are back, we are going to fix this. This is ridiculous. And immediately directed his campaign
23:16staff at the time to insert it into the speeches and to make sure the American public knew he was
23:21not going to tolerate violence on our nation's college campuses and the illegal harassment against
23:27Jewish American students. He has taken incredibly strong position on this already. He has brought many
23:32of these colleges and universities to their knees by threatening their federal funding and in a few cases,
23:38cutting federal funds. If you violate federal law, you will not receive federal funds under this
23:43administration. It's very simple. If you allow the illegal harassment and violence against students
23:49of any race or religion on your campus, you will not receive federal funding. You are violating Title VI,
23:55which is federal law. The president's made that very clear. And you've seen many of these colleges
24:00come to the table and admit their wrongdoing and apologize for it because they know they were wrong.
24:06Unfortunately, we didn't have a president at the time who was holding them accountable,
24:10who was completely silent as students were being targeted. As for the visas, same is true. The
24:15president and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who's doing a tremendous job, have taken incredibly
24:19strong action on this as well. And Marco Rubio, as our secretary of state, reserves the right to
24:25rescind visas from foreign nationals who have the privilege of studying on our nation's colleges
24:31and universities. And if you engage in illegal behavior, if you're engaging in activity that's
24:37contrary to our nation's foreign policy interests, then you will no longer have the privilege of
24:41coming and studying here. We're going to put American citizens and American students first.
24:46And only the best and brightest should be allowed to come to our country and study
24:50at our nation's colleges and universities. So again, such a pleasure to see all of you here today.
24:56Thank you so much for coming to the White House. We hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful day
25:00at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And thanks for all that you do. Take care. Thank you.