BREAKING NEWS: Karoline Leavitt Holds White House Press Briefing As GOP Attempts To Pass Budget Bill

good afternoon everybody afternoon how are we today great good during his inaugural address president Trump promised that America would be a manufacturing Nation once again and liberal pundits mocked him for it but those critics were proven wrong once again on the heels of President Trump's Oval Office meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook last week Apple just announced its largest ever commitment to American jobs in Industry with plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion dollar in America over the next four years over the course of the current Trump Administration Apple plans to hire around

20,000 new workers creating highp paying jobs right here in America and the investment isn't limited to one specific region of our country Apple teams and Facilities will expand all over our country in Arizona California Iowa Nevada North Carolina Michigan Oregon Texas and Washington with President Trump in charge America is open for business Apple CEO Tim Cook said it best in the company's announcement we are bullish on the future of American innovation on top of this incredible Apple announcement president Trump already announced more than $1 trillion dollar in pledged investments into the United States and on

another important note that the American people entrusted president Trump to fulfill this administration's efforts to seal the board border continue to prove extraordinarily successful in president Trump's first month back in office alone a legal border crossings hit lows not seen in decades down 94% over the past year while interior arrests are up 134% and this past Saturday this is a significant statistic that I wanted to share with all of you there were only 220 illegal border crossings on Saturday this is a 15 year low think about that in comparison to the amount of illegal border

crossings we saw under the previous administration Fox recently reported that a San Diego migrant shelter is closing its doors after saying they have not received new Asylum seeking families or individuals since January 20th we all know what happened on January 20th don't we and yesterday New York city mayor Eric Adams announced that the massive Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Manhattan will shut down in the next few months we're also seeing a reverse migration effect there are now verified reports from the Associated Press of migrants abandoning their Journey to the United States and heading back home

this is the first time the border patrol has received these reports since 2020 during President Trump's first term the returning migrants claimed in interviews that the new heavy security posture adopted by the Trump Administration was a significant reason for their decision to return to the country's of their origin overall the American people continue to overwhelmingly give president Trump very positive remarks nearly every one of President Trump's policy initiatives are receiving strong majority support and I have noted that in every briefing since Inauguration Day 81% of Americans support deporting illegal migrant criminals from our nation's interior

76% of Americans support the Doge L efforts of a fullscale investigation to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government expenditures again this is from a Harvard Harris poll a very legitimate pollster 76% of Americans support closing the border 69% of Americans support president Trump's Common Sense efforts to ban men from women's sports as you all know we celebrated that executive order at the White House a couple of weeks ago 65% of Americans support the president's efforts to eliminate all preferences by race in the hiring and awarding of government contracts which is another pledge that

doge is working hard to fulfill and 61% of Americans vast majority support the president's plan for reciprocal tariffs to ensure that other countries are treating us the way we have always been treated despite what many Democrats and media members want you to believe the Trump agenda is not only necessary but it is overwhelmingly popular why because it's driven by Common sense and finally as you all saw yesterday a federal judge denied the associated press's emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against myself our Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor buwit and our chief of staff Susie

WS for our decision to remove the Associated Press from the White House Press pool for certain and special events the judge's ruling upholding our decision to deny the Associated Press such privileged access reinforc is the truth and it reiterates what I said from this Podium last week when that suit was filed asking the president of the United States questions in limited spaces such as the Oval Office in Air Force 1 is a privilege that unfortunately has only been granted to a few it is not a legal right for all the Trump Administration has already proven

to be the most transparent ever and this President the most accessible in history this is evidence by President Trump's daily press conferences in the Oval Office where he takes many questions from the journalists who have the honor and privilege of standing before the beautiful Resolute desk the president and this entire White House are committed to ensuring the American people continue to receive this same level of historic transparency access and visibility in fact we want to double down and give even greater access to the American people we want more outlets and new Outlets to have a

chance to take part in the Press pool to cover this administration's unprecedent achievements up close front and center as you all know for decades a group of dc-based journalists the White House correspondence Association has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces not anymore I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers who watch your television shows and who listen to your radio stations moving forward the White House Press pool will be

determined by the White House Press team Legacy Outlets who have participated in the Press pool for decades will still be allowed to join fear not but we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility just like we added a new media seat in this briefing room Legacy Media Outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well as part of these changes we will continue the rotation amongst the five major

television networks to ensure the president's remarks are heard far and wide around this world we will add additional streaming services which reach different audiences than traditional Cable in broadcast this is the everchanging landscape of the media in the United States today we will continue to rotate a print Pooler who has the great responsibility of quickly transcribing the president's remarks and disseminating them to the rest of the world and we will add Outlets to the print pool rotation who have long been denied the privilege to partake in this experience but are committed to covering this White

House beat we will continue to rotate a radio Pooler and add other radio hosts who have been denied access especially local radio hosts who serve as the heartbeat of our country and we will add additional outlets in reporters who are well suited to cover the news of the day and ask substantive questions of the president of the United States depending on the news he is making on that given day this Administration is shaking up Washington in more ways than one that's what we were elected to do as I have said since the first day behind

this Podium it's beyond time that the White House Press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025 not 1925 a select group group of DC based journalists should no longer have a monopoly over the privilege of press access at the White House all journalists outlets and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table so by deciding which Outlets make up the limited press pool on a day-to-day basis the White House will be restoring power back to the American people who president Trump was elected to serve so in that note in our

new media seat today we have Shelby Talcott who is a White House reporter for semaphor in 2022 sefor launched as a global digital news platform with the aim of bringing meaningful Innovations to the news industry today they have nearly 1 million newsletter subscribers spaning 11 separate editions um with that Shelby I will take your questions thanks car I've got two for you one on foreign policy over the weekend the president's special missions Envoy Rick gell uh was talking about Venezuela and he said that the president isn't someone who wants regime change other Administration officials have

made clear that they don't see Maduro as the rightful leader what is this administration's policy on a new government in Venezuela I think the president has made his position on Venezuela quite clear he stands in opposition to the Maduro regime um and secretary Rubio has spoken on this extensively as well and then on Doge last night Elon Musk said that a failure to respond a second time will result in termination will there be additional rounds of the what did you do this week email um from Doge to federal workers and what's the guidance on uh

the federal workers who've been instructed by their agencies not to reply uh so a couple of things on this first of all let's just take a step back and talk about this idea uh the president sent out a truth last weekend to Elon Musk saying he loves everything Elon is doing and he wants him to be even more aggressive because Doge thus far has proven incredibly successful in making our government more efficient U and so Elon and Doge came up with this idea Elon has implemented this at his private companies it has proven successful and

it's a very simple idea when you think about it all the office of personnel management is asking all this Administration is asking president Trump is asking is for federal workers who live off of the American taxpayers dime to send five bullet points of what they have done in the previous week that is all we are asking for and so the office of personnel and management sent out additional guidance last night um those responses should be directed to agency leadership and the president defers to his cabinet secretaries who he's obviously entrusted um to pursue the guidance

relative to their specific Workforce and for some of the agencies that you've seen who have said please don't send these emails it's in their best interest for that specific agency and the president supports that and let me be very clear the president and Elon is his entire cabinet are working as one unified team and they are implementing these very common sense Solutions you're welcome Jackie thank you um one follow question so about the deadline Alina habba said that you have until tonight um Elon Musk said a failure to respond a second time would result in

termination so is that a real deadline should should federal workers be looking to that guidance or should they be looking to the agency heads like what is the actual deadline so again the agency heads will determine uh the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies again this was an idea um that Elon come up with Doge worked with OPM to actually implement the idea and the secretaries are responsible for their specific Workforce and this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place um and we advise federal workers unless your

agency has dictated you not to uh to respond to this email in fact I can announce that we've had more than 1 million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of again sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager C seeing OPM I actually participated it in myself uh it took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week I do five things in about 10 minutes and all federal workers should be working at the same Pace that President Trump is working and

moving we have a country to save and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who reelected this president to have historic massive reform and that's what the intention of this idea is can you clarify one thing though because Elon Musk also said that a reason that they wanted this five things email was just to see if people are actually alive um citing that there are some federal workers who might not even be alive um so meantime NBC is reporting that these responses are going to go into an

AI generator to evaluate whether uh these jobs are necessary so is it just to see if people are actually working or is it an effort to maybe cut some of those jobs I have not seen that NBC news report and I haven't heard that from Doge or from Elon himself um again this is to ensure that federal workers are not ripping off American taxpayers that they are showing up to the office and that they are doing their jobs that's what the American people expect and it's a very simple task to complete I did it myself

and I was more than happy to do it because I'm very grateful that I am serving the American people on the American taxpayers dime do you think should hire a spokesperson just so that Elon Musk hasn't put out tweets that then confuse federal workers are my press briefings not good enough for you Jackie John Carn thank you in the in the uh ruling by judge mcfaden yesterday who dismissed the lawsuit that P brought against yourself and uh and your and your team members here president Trump in there he said why not just do away with

the entire White House correspondence Association along with it because essentially they have no Authority they just usurped it what is your reaction to that well first of all John it's great to see you and you are one of those uh individuals who has a a you're on a streaming platform that hundreds of thousands of people tune into every so it's great to see you in the briefing room um I did address that actually in my opening remarks by announcing that the White House Press team um in this Administration will determine who gets to enjoy of

the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One in the Oval Office there are as you know look at this room hundreds of journalists who show up to this building every single day and are not granted that luxury of flying on Air Force One and asking the president of the United States questions and so we want to ensure again everyone has a seat at that high High coveted table but alas the Legacy Media Outlets who have been doing this for quite some time and have invested resources into covering the White House

um their spots will remain just like they have in this briefing room as well sure Steve could you give us an update on the negotiations around the Ukraine minerals deal and and when is President zinsky going to come visit so the president talked at length about this yesterday the critical minerals deal uh with President mccrone uh and in the more than hourong press conference he gave all of you in the Oval Office himself um there has has been significant update since the president's remarks last night but I will just reiterate his position it's critical um

that this deal is signed he expects president sininsky to sign a deal um this is uh to recoup American Tax dollarss that have been funding Ukraine's National Defense and it's also great for the Ukrainian people who have been put through hell because of this war um and it will create a lasting economic partnership as Ukraine will need to rebuild their country um because of this brutal war and just to follow is Steve Whit delayed his trip to the so he can concentrate on this minerals deal I don't want to comment on Mr wit cof's travel

plans or read anything out just for obvious reasons um but he you know remains very much working that man is working around the clock to secure this deal uh with Russia and Ukraine alongside secretary Rubio and Secretary bessent General Keith Kellogg uh he's also working very hard to secure a peace deal in the Middle East as well so um God bless him and he's working alongside the president every single day sure thanks Caroline the president's executive order creating Doge called for the naming of a doge administrator who is the Doge administrator so the president tasked

Elon Musk to oversee the Doge effort um there are career officials and there are political appointees who are helping uh run Doge on a day-to-day basis there are also uh individuals who have onboarded as political appointees at every agency across the board to work alongside president Trump's cabinet to find and identify waste trod and abuse um and they are working on that effort every day the administrator rean thanks Caroline I have two one on the and one on the DHS investigation sure uh first on the border wall uh border wall construction has restarted in Texas

and California under contracts awarded under Trump's first term is the president looking to secure new contracts and how is he defining success in terms of border wall construction this Administration the border wall is a signature promise of President Trump's campaign he talked about it way back in 2015 and 2016 and people laughed at him for bringing up this idea it's proven to be not only an idea that he delivered on in his first term and continues to deliver on in his second term but it's also proven to be highly effective um in fact we know

where there were parts of President Trump's border wall built in standing under the previous administration illegal border crossings dropped 87% where there was a border wall so the wall wall is an incredible deterrent factor for illegal migrant Caravans the president is committed to the continuation of the construction of the wall um and you know the previous administration actually sold off the resources that the Trump Administration secured to build the wall um and that's an egregious misuse of the American taxpayers money they just let that those resources rot on the southern border they actually sold them

for pennies on the dollar so this Administration um DHS and Ice uh and and Customs and Border Patrol and Tom homman and of the great people you know who are working on this effort are committed to continuing the construction of President Trump's border walls investigation into people who might be leaking within the administration uh will the White House release the names of the individuals that DHS secretary gnome said were caught leaking details of the ice raid and can you share how many leakers have been caught so far and what agency they were a part of

I would defer you to DHS uh on the leakers that they have identified but I know the president in this White House commend secretary gnome uh for launching an internal investigation to identify those leakers uh because it's unacceptable for career bureaucrats who are standing in the way of the will of the American people in enacting president Trump's agenda um if they don't want to adhere to the will of the 77 million Americans who reelected president Trump then they should go find another job and if they continue to leak information especially information that is critical to

protecting border patrol agents and Ice agents who are out there doing jobs that not many people people are willing to do putting their lives on the line to protect our national security then those individuals absolutely should be fired um and this Administration is committed to finding them sure Caroline two questions for you one related to guantan Mo Bay the other to the White House correspondence dinner um I wanted to get your response to some Washington Post reporting of the migrants who stayed over at guantan Bay for the last two weeks they told the post they

were rarely let outside they were Shackled and placed in what they described as cages and alleg that they were not treated as human beings does the white s have any response to those conditions e anano Bay it's a it's a promise the president campaigned on um that if you invade our nation's borders if you break our country's laws and if then you further commit heinous brutal crimes in the interior of our country like raping and murdering innocent law-abiding women uh and girls uh and committing heinous acts of violence um then you are going to be

deported from this country and you may be held at Guantanamo Bay these are criminals we are talking about don't forget that sure um so us consumer confidence fell this month the most since August of 2021 what is your message for Americans who are concerned about the impact of things such as tariffs um on prices yeah sure well thank you for that question it's obviously an important one the president campaigned on reigniting the Trump economy and fixing the mess that was created by the previous administration we know they created an economic and an inflation nightmare for

the American people and I'm not going to stand up here and lie to you like my predecessor did about the state of our economy we understand there are people that are hurting and this Administration is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring that those individuals see relief and price reductions and tax cuts uh and in less regulations that are are are burdensome on their household and their businesses uh and the president and this entire Administration are focused on that every day I can go through the very long list of economic actions um this president has taken I know

you work for Bloomberg so I'm sure you're well aware of them but um I can assure the American people that the president is very much focused on bringing down the cost of living crisis in this country that was created by the previous administration have a quick follow up is the president planning on whipping any votes to uh for support for the house budget uh vote and if so to whom is he making calls I'm not aware of any calls that he has made I did talk to the president about his position on this uh just

before coming down here um and he uh said that um he's made it very clear to the hill what his priorities for a budget are he's said it to uh the speaker of the house he said it to uh leader th um the Senate and the house know what president Trump want and know what the American people want um and so he expects Congress to get it done he's looking at uh the proposal from the house he will also be looking at the proposal that I believe the Senate is drafting up as well sure thank

you thank you I had a ation does the United States uh I'm sorry well why don't you identify your question and I'll come back to you sure go ahead so uh what guarantee that Israel will withdraw from Lebanon soil after two weeks as the ceasefire terms like indicates I'm not sure about the guarantee that you're referring to um I can tell you that this Administration uh remains very much engaged we know the the DAT deadline for the phase one ceasefire um is imminent so uh Steve wof whom I mentioned earlier uh and the president's Administration

and his team and the president himself remain very much engaged we want to see the ceasefire continue and the president has made it very clear he wants to see all of the hostages who have been held in captivity in Gaza returned home Jeff I was wondering if um is Elon Musk going to attend the president's first cabinet meeting tomorrow he is as a matter of fact I spoke to the president about that before coming down here as well um and Elon considering he is working alongside the president and our cabinet secretaries um this this entire

Administration um will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about doa's efforts and um how all of the cabinet secretaries are identifying waste Fraud and Abuse at their respective agencies we look forward to the meeting tomorrow and I think you'll be hearing from the president in his cabinet where there on campus tomorrow I hope you guys are excited since some of those cabinet members were caught off guard by the email caught off guard a few departments said they were caught off guard the FBI was the doj was did Anonymous sources say that or did the

cabinet secretary say that uh the cabinet secretaries and others have said that they were not aware that this was happening so I'm wondering like will there be a give and take tomorrow at the cabinet meeting is Elon Musk or the president open to any type of dialogue about who is actually in charge of uh the chain of command of these workers I would reject the premise of your question Jeff the cabinet secretaries have not said that I know Anonymous sources probably career bureaucrats have leaked that to many of you in this room but as I

said at the beginning of this press conference uh everybody is working as one team and the president respects the decisions of his cabinet secretaries to tell his staff their staff not to respond to that email because they did so out of interests of National Security um and they don't want to obviously risk confidential information it's pretty Common Sense Dasha musk has obviously been doing a lot of work he's been working every day at a lot of the time weekends uh he is designated ated as a special government employee which means that he can only work

130 days per year is the White House expecting him to limit his work to 130 days or are you going to work around those rules do you want to see him extend beyond the 100 so today is February 25th so I think we've been here about 35 days roughly um so ask me in another 100 days Daniel Caroline thank you you opened up with the major announcement from Apple uh $500 billion 20,000 jobs doubling its Advanced manufacturing funds yeah what does that signal that such a global brand would make what it called its largest ever

spend commitment just a month into president Trump's second term what does that signal about his economic vision for the country president Trump is a dealmaker and he has restored confidence in uh Business Leaders around this entire world uh Apple is one of the largest companies on the face of the planet they employ hundreds of thousands of Americans but the president wants to see more Americans employed more Investments here in the United States of America and this is another fulfillment of the president's campaign promises I recall president Trump at his rallies on the campaign telling the

world that if and when I am elected America is going to be back and we want your Investments to be driven uh on Shore we want you to hire American workers and you will have the lowest regulatory burden the lowest tax cuts and the president has already proven he's committed to slashing regulation he's counting on Congress to uh those tax cuts um and so people are encouraged by the presidents again as Tim Cook called it they're bullish about American innovation because of the leadership of this President and it's a stark contrast to the leadership of

the previous administration Joe Biden who I don't think spent any time trying to recruit any Investments or jobs here at home Mary we're hearing from some Republicans who are voicing concerns about how these cuts are being carried out Congressman McCormack a republican from Georgia uh tells us he's worried it's too r rapid for real people to adapt to and he says he's concerned that it could come off as discomposed in my opening remarks in the poll the most important people are the American people uh and 77% of Americans at home support a full investigation into

the waste Fraud and Abuse that the federal government um has been spending their tax dollars on so um that's the the the people the president cares about most and that's why we're fulfilling this pledge and again it should come as no secret to anybody the president campaigned on doing this the President yesterday said if you don't respond to this email you will be fired or semi fired what is it what does he mean by that again I've been asked to answer this question three times now it is semi but it's but it's in the memo

um the the president again has entrusted his cabinet secretaries um to oversee their Workforce that's why he nominated them to be cabinet secretary um and so federal workers um can um be directed to their agency leadership sure great thanks Caroline I wanted to ask about a federal judge yesterday was saying that they didn't know who the Doge administrator was and was asking the the lawyer for the administration who it was and the lawyer responded I don't know the answer to that can you tell us who the administrator of does again I've been asked and answered

this question Elon Musk is overseeing Doge there are career there are no Elon Musk is a special government employee which I've also been asked and have answered that question as well there are career officials at Doge there are political appointees at Doge I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this Podium I'm happy to uh follow up and provide that to you um but we've been incredibly transparent about the way that doge is working John thanks a lot thanks a lot Caroline since your last briefing there have been some Personnel moves that

have been announced by the president and I wanted to ask you about them one was the president replacing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown Jr what was the reason for the president uh naming a replacement for General Brown and then I'll follow up with another Personnel announcement that's been made over the last few days he thinks he's doing a bad job uh and it's time for a shakeup at the Pentagon they failed seven audits in a row um the trust in our United States military amongst the war Fighters um is

low uh the president is shaking up the Pentagon and the Department of Defense of course with secretary Heth leading um and he has the right to do that it's actually quite common from Administration to Administration to do such a thing the president uh when he swore him in as the uh chief of staff for the Air Force called him a great man and a great gentleman does he distance himself from the remarks that he made back in August of 2020 I think replacing him speaks for itself and there's one one other one other one if

I'm Sor thank you on the FBI the President also announced a new deputy director of the FBI Dan banino uh from what has been reported and maybe this is not accurate reporting you can tell me the FBI director cash Patel informed Republican Senators that it would be an individual named as the deputy who was a special agent currently at the FBI and of course Mr banino is not what was the reason for naming Mr banino to this position and was Mr uh Patel not correct in making that uh Assurance to those Senators I'm not sure

if anybody in this room has listened to Mr Bonino when he talks about the past corruption at the FBI when he talks about his experience serving as for the United States Secret Service this is a man who loves his country and who has honorably served our country in ways that many people have not he understands the depth of the corruption at these institutions which the American people reelected president Trump to shake up um and I think it's quite despicable to see many networks in this room who have had chirons on their television screens labeling Mr

banino as a far right podcaster um he is not he is a former um law enforcement uh agent he is a former secret service agent who put his life on the line to protect this country and that is why the president of the United States has entrusted him for this important role he's also um an outsider to this Washington swamp and we often see that when Outsiders are appointed to such coveted positions a lot of people in this city get very very nervous and they should be because do Dan banino and cash Patel and attorney

general Bondi are focused on rooting out the corruption at these agencies and ending the weaponization of government once and for all I'd like to end with something um as you all know J you know what James I'm feeling generous go ahead I will take it um thank you Caroline um I wanted to ask make me regret this um I I wanted to ask about the macron visit and the the Russia Ukraine talks in general it's pretty clear to my eye that president macron was performing a kind of delicate dance lavishing Praise on the president while

seeking in his own remarks to try to bind president Trump to positions and even specific language that the president has not committed to here to for one of the most bracing comments from president macron was when he said that the deal that President Trump is negotiating with the must not be quote a surrender for Ukraine all of the uh public points that we have heard from president Trump from secretary Heth and from other Administration officials talking about these negotiations have averred to quite openly to concessions from the ukrainians that will have to be made the

minerals deal the abandonment of their NATO Ambitions and other elements so far we have not heard any Administration officials suggest a single concession that the Russians should be prepared to make and so I wonder if you could assure us at a minimum that this uh negotiation process will not be as one-sided as the Europeans seem to think it is that in fact President Putin will also be made to uh engage in some concessions to reach this deal well I think the president knows how to make a deal better than anyone who has ever assumed the

office of the American presidency and in order to make a deal you have to bring both sides to the table and typically when you make a good deal both sides leave that table a little bit unhappy I'm not going to outline um concessions that the president and his team are engaged in discussing these are obviously on KN ongoing negotiations and it would be unwise of me to impede them from this Podium um but the president has made significant improvements um in ending this conflict he is committed to seeing an end to the war he wants

to see the Bloodshed and the killing stopped he wants to stop seeing um young men um being killed and slaughtered this has been going on for far too long the president inherited this mess because of the incompetence of the previous administration and he's committed to fixing it and he's made you know some of those concessions clear but I'm not going to get ahead of him on additional ones but he is um wholeheartedly committed to striking a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine also in the Middle East thank you very much guys good to see you

we'll see you later