Karoline Leavitt: Democrats have no other hill to die on

let's bring in Carolyn L the White House Press Secretary to dig more into this and other issues Carol it's great to see you it's good to have our own private briefing today it's great to see you too thanks for having me guys so the Democrats are really screaming from the rooftops about Doge all center around Elon Musk in US Aid here's just a little bit about of what they've been doing in the past few days first and foremost El mus this is a dictatorship in the making we're not going to have a partti in America

anymore so here's the interesting thing a Reuters ipsos poll that was done right after the US Aid news broke found that 56% of people would like to see all foreign assistance programs suspended which is leading a lot of people to say that the Democrats have picked a very weird Hill to die on that's because there's no other Hill to die on because president Trump continues to deliver on the promises that he made to the American people on the campaign Trail and going through the federal government line by line and making this government more efficient is

one of those priorities and one of those promises that President Trump made and as you just cited John 56% of Americans support freezing foreign aid and I read a fascinating fascinating article in the Washington Post today they interviewed voters in Pennsylvania and all of them said that they support president Trump in Elon musk's efforts to make this government more efficient what president Trump and Elon Musk in this entire Administration is trying to do is make our bloated bureaucracy here in Washington run like a profitable business and every agency has been tasked with going line by

line and ensuring that the American taxpayer payers money is aligned with the American people's interests it's a common sense solution to fixing a decades old problem of bloated bureaucracy waste Fraud and Abuse and the vast majority of Americans support it so the Democrats can whoot in holler all they want this white house will stay committed to delivering on President Trump's priorities and being good stewards of the hardworking American people's tax dollars all right Caroline uh again great to have you on the program Sandra here so uh as far as president Trump's Federal bio offer we

know that expires at midnight tonight uh the latest we've heard is that 40,000 staff have agreed to leave before I get to my question is that still about the number right now for 40,000 yes last I checked with the office of personnel management it was more than 40,000 in counting and I would add that we encourage federal workers who don't feel like showing up to the office to accept this buyout program it's a very generous offer from president Trump in this Administration I I wonder if that's about the number where the president thought he would

be right now or or perhaps that might be bigger um reportedly and we'll ask you to confirm if this is the case um president Trump is planning Mass layoffs uh if there are not more who agree to those buyouts is that the case I haven't heard the president discussed that directly so I can't confirm that but like I said we do know that more than 40,000 and Counting federal workers have agreed to this buyout program and they are looking forward I guess to having their eight-month paid vacation the president made a commitment that he was

going to encourage the federal Workforce to return to the office we know only 6% of federal workers are working in the office right now that's unacceptable and that's why the buyout program was offered I want to ask about the president's announcement of Gaza the other day which seemed to take staff members by surprise it's something that he had talked about but they didn't know he was going to make an announcement a few people I've talked to worked there at the White House W they heard that they said wait what uh I mean it's it's an

idea some people think that he's laying down the gauntlet to our allies to say well if you don't like this idea have you got a better idea but the question I have is he he went through the campaign saying that he wanted to get the United States out of its involvement in foreign entanglements this would seem to be exactly the opposite of that I don't think so John the president has made it clear that he will not be sending boots on the ground Gaza he is not committed to that he also has made it clear

that American taxpayers will not be funding this effort the president is trying to strike a deal to ensure that Gaza can actually be a habitable place for human beings who want to live in peace with real economic development and president Trump is an outsideof thee boox thinker that's again why the American people elected him because he has a different perspective to the foreign policy challenges that have been plaguing our world for many many years and so uh this is a great idea and our partners in the region have begun to discuss it with this Administration

we have the king of of Bahrain coming to the white house uh next week and the president has spoken to many of our partners and allies in the Middle East about this opportunity in Gaza okay um in in lines of all the spending cuts um there's a lot of concern and and Democrats are Penning letters to the president trying to get clarity on where he stands with the Department of Education uh is he planning to completely dismantle this uh what what right now is his thinking on that sure well first let me say the president

is wholeheartedly committed to spending cuts and of course making the government more efficient that's part of what doge is already hitting the ground to do um as when it comes to the Department of Education the president and his policy team can continue to look at options and how to uh reduce the size of the de uh the Department of Education if not abolish it completely you heard the president say half jokingly but also serious he wants Linda McMahon who will lead that agency to put herself out of a job because he wants to return the

power over our education system back to the states in fact I actually have a statistic in front of me 70% of eighth graders are at a below proficient level in math and reading 70% and that's despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on education every single year the current system located in Washington DC is not working and the president is committed to ensuring that states and parents have a greater say in our children's education system yeah I mean the state of education in America for the most part is scandalous there's no doubt about that I

wanted to ask you about the the executive order that the president signed yesterday in in what was a a brilliant moment of stagecraft at the White House surrounded by all those young female athletes as the president uh codified in an executive order the fact that transgender athletes have to stay out of women's sports but in order to really codify that that's going to take an act of Congress is the president moving down that direction well we expect Congress to act on this and if the if Congress puts a bill on this topic before President Trump's

desk that makes sense and is good law then the president is committed to signing legislation that supports the executive action he has already taken and I will just say it was a glorious moment at at the White House yesterday afternoon to see these female athletes who have worked so hard and have spoken up so courageously about the injustices that they have faced on the sports field and as a former college softball player myself it was incredibly special to see the president make the dreams of millions of female athletes across the country true and we had

a big win following president Trump's executive order within hours the NCAA announced that they will be following with the president's federal policy and by the way we expect the Olympic Committee to do the same 2028 the Olympics will be returning to the United States of America and how wonderful it will be for women across the world to see the US lead on this incredibly important and Common Sense issue Caroline uh want to uh finish by asking about the number of deportations we've seen so far perhaps this is the most public um action for the American

people that they've seen under this new presidency is the president um happy content with the number of deportations we've seen so far there's reports that those numbers have not reached the heights he was hoping no the president is very pleased with the efforts by his team Tom homman Steven Miller secretary Christy gome who has been traversing the country uh talking with border patrol agents and Ice agents who are been tasked with this very important responsibility of the largest mass deportation operation in history but as I've said before we will not get complacent and the president

has made this very bold promise to the American people and he expects everybody across DHS and here at the White House to continue to work hard every day to deport illegal criminals from American communities and yesterday I know that Mr homman was in Colorado they deported more than 100 trende aragua members that's a huge win for the American people for law-abiding citizens of this country who have been put last because of the previous administration's immigration policies and are being put first again because of the Trump administration's immigration policies Carolyn thank you for coming on and

spending time with us today and it almost feels like I'm back in the front row in the briefing room you should come join us John anytime well I I appreciated our times that we spent together chatting in the lower press office some years ago all right Caroline thank you so much come back soon thanks guys