BREAKING NEWS: Karoline Leavitt Holds White House Press Briefing After Trump-Zelensky Phone Call

good afternoon everybody how are we it's a newsy day indeed and last night we saw the very best of America after spending nearly 300 days aboard the International Space Station Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams are back on Earth these two incredible astronauts were only supposed to be up there for 8 days but because of the Biden administration's lack of urgency they ended up spending 9 months in space Joe Biden's lack of courage to act boldly and decisively was a big reason why Butch and sunny did not make it back until yesterday but president Trump doesn't

waste time immediately after taking office president Trump directed Elon Musk and SpaceX to rescue these Brave astronauts alongside NASA the President also called the acting administrator of NASA and told her to bring the astronauts home as soon as possible as acting administrator Janet Petro said herself yesterday per President Trump's Direction NASA and space acts worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier the president looks forward to welcoming Butch and sunny to the Oval Office when they are recovered this historic Mission brings new meaning to president Trump's promise to always look out for the Forgotten

man and woman on another important matter yesterday president Trump and President Putin spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace and also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia president Trump also spoke with President zalinski this morning to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their needs and requests as president Trump has said repeatedly the precious lives and money that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better

spent on the needs of their people this terrible conflict would have never started with president Trump in charge but he's determined to end it once and for all president Trump also promised maximum transparency and a commitment to rebuild the trust of the American people in our intelligence Community part of that promise was to fully release previously classified records related to the assassination of former president John F Kennedy and he made that happen yesterday this historic release consisted of approximately 880,000 pages of previously classified records that are now published the records are available to access either

online at archives.gov JFK or in person accessible to the American people at the national archives in College Park Maryland records that are currently only available for inperson viewing are being digitized and will be uploaded in the coming days on another note positive economic data continues to pour in showing the immediate impact of President Trump's progrowth agenda after suffering a steep decline in the final year of the Biden Administration the manufacturing sector came roaring back in February industrial production surged in February these are new numbers three times at a at a greater three times rate than

the expectations to its highest ever recorded level and president Trump's laser focus on massive deregulation and unleashing our domestic energy industry is leading to stabilities for Americans bottom lines as Newsweek summed it up today gas prices are plummeting under President Trump and the Trump Administration continues to make American Community safer through our ongoing Mass deportation campaign of illegal alien criminals yesterday FBI director cash Patel announced the agency captured another fugitive from its 10 most wanted list securing the extradition of Francisco Javier Roman bardelas a key senior leader of the brutal MS13 gang and the brave

men and women of ice also arrested a number of dangerous aliens across the country in recent days you will see them on this screen ice San Francisco just arrested a citizen of Guatemala convicted of sexual battery ice New Orleans arrested a citizen of Ecuador convicted of rape in suffk County New York ice Atlanta arrested a citizen of Mexico convicted of assault by strangulation ice Dallas arrested a citizen of Mexico convicted of assault with a firearm in rape with a foreign foreign object in ice Houston arrested a citizen of Guatemala convicted of indecent sexual contact with

a child in Texas these are heinous Criminal Alien monsters who the previous administration allowed to flood into our country and every time president Trump and this team Deport one of them our country becomes safer finally before I open it up to questions I want to tout how successful our efforts have been in filling out president Trump's Administration there have been a record number of 28 1 Senate confirm confirmed nominations already with another 280 in process here at the White House OPM and GSA we have filled 100% of the total number of slots and this is

a record number of placements in the first 58 days of any Administration and a testament to the caliber and the sheer quantity of talented people who want to work for president Trump to make America great again here in our new media seat today we have pavich Katie is the editor of town hall.com which is a subsidary of town hall media it's a leading conservative news and opinion Outlet based right here in Washington DC with writers and journalists reporting around the country last year Town Hall media had 60 million unique users and 1.4 billion page views

with a broad reach on a number of social media platforms with that Katie please kick us off thank you Caroline really appreciate itk you so given the back and forth with this US District drudge and the administration's use of the alien enemies act does the president plan to send new and additional flights of Venezuelan gang members now designated as foreign terrorist from the US to El Salvador or elsewhere can Americans expect to see those flights sometime soon Americans can absolutely expect to see the continuation of the mass deportation campaign that has been successfully led by

this president secretary of uh Homeland Security Christine Nome and also our secretary of state Marco Rubio since you brought up the judges I would like to point out um that the judges in this country um are acting erroneously we have judges who are acting as partisan activists From the Bench they are trying to dictate policy from the president of the United States they are trying to clearly slow walk this administration's agenda and it's unacceptable uh as the president said last night we will continue to comply with these court orders we will continue to fight these

battles in courts uh but it's incredibly apparent that is a concerted effort by the far-left to judge shop um to pick judges who are clearly acting as partisan activists from the bench in an attempt um to derail This president's agenda we will not allow that to happen and not only are they usurping the will of the president and the chief executive of our country but they are undermining the will of the American public tens of millions of Americans who duly elected this president to implement the policies that are coming out of this white house and

then one more question um Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday that he was United with Democrats and working against Americans who quote their attitude is I made my money all by myself how dare your government take my money from me or I built my company with my bare hands how dare your government tell me how to treat my customers what is the president's response to this given his upcoming tax agenda and need to work on Capital Health well we certainly hope that Democrats all of a sudden are for more money in the pockets of

the American public the president has made it incredibly clear that he is committed to tax cuts he is committed to passing a big reconciliation package later this year um ending no taxes on tips taxes on overtime no taxes on Social Security for our hardworking seniors and we encourage everybody on Capitol Hill um to support that uh when it comes to the Finish Line especially Democrats who clearly need a boost from the American public right now their approvals are at an all-time record low thanks for being with us Katie Garrett can I have one other question

but I want to follow up on Katie's question actually you said the mass deportation campaign would continue but she asked about the flights specifically will those flights Del Salvador continue while this case is being appealed we don't have any uh flights planned specifically but we will continue with the mass deportations and I would just like to point out that the judge in this case uh is essentially trying to say that the president doesn't have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil um that is an egregious abuse of the bench uh this

judge cannot does not have that Authority it is the opinion of this of this White House house and of this Administration and that's why we're fighting this in court um and it's very very clear that this is an activist judge uh who is trying to usurp the president's Authority Under the alien enemies act the president has this power uh and that's why this deportation campaign has continued uh in this judge judge bosberg is um a Democrat activist uh he was appointed by Barack Obama his wife has donated more than $10,000 to Democrats uh and he

has consistently shown his disdain for this President and his policy and it's unacceptable right I wanted to go about the the idea that these people are all forign terrorists but judge bber was originally appointed by George W bush and then elevated by Barack Obama I just feel like I should clear that up well let me just say something to that effect Garrett 67% of all of the injunctions in this Century have come against which president Donald J Trump let me say that again 60% of the injunctions by partisan activists in the judicial branch have come

against President Donald Trump and 92 % of those have been from democrata apppp appointed judges this is a clear concerted effort by leftists who don't like this President and are trying to impose uh or or or uh slow down his agenda so given that do you think it's a good use of congress's time and the president's political Capital to try to impeach and remove a federal judge which would take 67 votes you're unlikely to get in the Senate well look the president has made it clear that he believes this judge in this case should be

impeached um and he has also made it clear that he has great respect for the Chief Justice John Roberts um and it's incumbent upon the Supreme Court to re in these activist judges these partisan activists are undermining the judicial branch by doing so we have co-equal branches of government for a reason and the president feels very strongly about that Jackie what options does the president have to you know he says he's GNA follow court orders he wouldn't defy a court order but he's raised these concerns about these judges acting in such a partisan way what

option does he have to ensure that his agenda continues to move forward while this is ongoing and the the judges appear to be trying to just block and delay and impede well you're right they are trying to block delay and impede this is law fair the president uh is no stranger to it he faced it in his campaign and this is a continuation of the lawfare that President Trump faced as a candidate and he's now unfortunately facing as a president clearly these partisan activists in the judicial branch didn't get the memo on November 5th when

the American people overwhelmingly reelected this president to continue with mass deportation so White House Council and the Department of Justice are working on this they're appealing these cases uh and we will continue to use the full weight um of the the White House council's office and the president's team of lawyers to fight this in court because we know we will win even if we have to go all the way to the Supreme Court one more on PDA um Andy McCarthy said in an interview with Hugh huitt U he certainly agrees with what the president is

trying to do with the alien enemies act but he's not sure the law is completely on his side um he cites some previous Supreme Court rulings dealing with enemy combatants in Wartime says that even they have a a challeng a right to challenge their detention in court uh he raised concern also that while TDA has been designated as a terrorist organization these individuals hadn't been prosecuted for terrorism so my question is will the president ask Congress potentially to declare war on these cartels for The Invasion that he's talked about so that he's on stronger legal

footing well we absolutely disagree with the legal opinion of the individual that you mentioned we would not have moved forward with this if we didn't believe the president this was within the president's uh executive Authority uh to continue with this ma Mass deportation effort under the authority provided to him under the alien enemies act and when you read the act as I did last time at the podium a predatory incursion is absolutely what has happened with Trend de aragua they have been sent here by the Hostile Maduro regime in Venezuela and the president immediately upon

taking office designated TDA as a foreign terrorist organization and under this act it is within the president's authority to deport these terrorists and anybody trying to defend um these terrorists who have now been sent off of American soil should talk to the families of the individuals who these heinous monsters have killed and have raped if you talk to those families they are so heartened by the president's decision to take tough action and to use his executive Authority something that no other other president has been willing to do uh because president Trump does what he says

he's going to do and he is deporting these foreign terrorists from American soil to secure our homeland and he's within his rights to do that jennif Tesla on Tesla there's a a website that's trying to dox Tesla owners across the country and saying they're only going to take down personal information when uh people show that they've sold their cars what's the administration going to do about that uh I haven't seen that website but we certainly think it's despicable the violence that has taken place against Tesla the its employees and also just Americans who have chosen

to drive an electric vehicle many of them are Democrats by the way Democrats were big supporters of Tesla and of electric vehicles until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump so we would like Democrats to also come out and condemn this heinous violence that we have seen and I believe the attorney general has said she's investigating these incidents as acts of domestic terrorism Jennifer Ukraine can you say is the White House going to cause foreign um military a or in sharing with Ukraine as Russia says it's pushing for and then have a follow up

on the Federal Trade Commission sure uh when it comes to Ukraine U I do have a statement for you from the National Security adviser and also the Secretary of State uh first I'd like to reiterate what the president said earlier following his call uh with President zalinski this morning he said he just completed a very good telephone call with President zalinski it lasted approximately one hour much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs we are

very much on track and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz to give an accurate description of the points discussed that statement will be put out shortly while I have that statement for you right here uh bear with me uh as I read it today president Trump and Ukraine's President Vladimir zalinsky had a fantastic phone conversation president zalinsky thanked president Trump for a productive start for the work of the Ukrainian and American teams in Jetta on March 11th the meeting of the senior officials from both Nations significantly helped in moving toward

ending the war president zilinski thanked president Trump for the support of the United States especially the javelin missiles that President Trump was first to provide and his efforts towards peace the leaders agreed Ukraine and America will continue working together to bring about a real end to the war and that lasting peace under President Trump's leadership can be achieved president Trump fully briefed president zalinsky on his conversation with Putin in the key issues discussed they reviewed the situation in KK and agreed to share information closely between their defense staffs as the battlefield situation evolved president zalinski

asked for additional air defense systems to protect his civilians particularly Patriot missile systems and president Trump agreed to work with him to find what was available particularly in Europe the two leaders also agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the black on the way to a full ceasefire they agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war in ensuring security president zalinsky was grateful for the president's leadership in this effort and reiterated his willingness

to adopt a full ceasefire president Trump also discussed Ukraine's electrical supply and nuclear power plants he said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure in support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure President zinsky also thanked president Trump for continuing to push humanitarian concerns including the exchange of prisoners of War he noted they had just had a successful exchange and thanked the president for his leadership on that President Trump also asked president zalinsky about the

children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war including the ones that had been abducted and president Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home they agreed all parties must continue the effort to make a ceasefire work the presidents noted the positive work of their advisers and representatives especially secretary Rubio National Security adviser Mike Waltz special Envoy Kellogg and others the presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the technical issues related to implementing and broadening the partial ceasefire the presidents instructed their advisers and representatives

to carry out this work as quickly as possible the president's emphasized that in further meetings the teams can agree on all necessary aspects of advancing toward lasting peace and security that is a lengthy statement that was just given to me so thanks for bearing with me our office will of course provide this um after and as you know as I just pointed out in the statement um the president's team of negotiators and National Security Experts will be heading to Saudi again later this week to continue working on in ironing out the details but I would

just like to emphasize we have never been this close to peace and it's only because of President Trump that we are here I think a couple of years ago as you all reported on the war it was incomprehensible um to have a partial ceasefire in this conflict and today that is true because of the leadership of this President so they shared agreed to share closely share information between their defense staffs does that mean all intelligence sharing will continue to the White House is rejecting Russia's request to pause intelligence sharing in in terms of defense for

Ukraine will continue to be shared Mary thanks Caroline I have two questions one on the United States Institute of Peace and then on Supreme Court if that's okay sure so on the United States Institute of Peace uh this is a little bit wild I understand the old president refused to leave after he was removed from his position he barricaded himself in his offices had to be escorted out by police left the building without Wi-Fi telephones elevators and more and is now telling media that Doge broke in and illegally removed him so can you comment on

this sequence of events and specify did Doge illegally enter I'm really glad you brought this up Mary uh we were made aware of this story by uh individuals uh at uh Doge uh at Elon musk's team and also at the state department who were unable to access this building um and it became very clear that there was a concerted effort amongst the uh Rogue bureaucrats at the United States Institute of Peace to actually physically barricade themselves essentially inside of the building to prevent uh political appointees of this Administration who work at the direction of the

president of the United States um to get into the building there was a piece in the Daily Caller thank you for sharing the truth on this about what happened um staff contacted the MPD in an attempt to prevent Doge Personnel from entering they barricaded the doors um they also um disabled telephone lines internet connections and other it infrastructure within the building they distributed Flyers internally um en encouraging each other to basically um prevent these individuals from accessing the building I use this to say this is what uh Doge and this Administration is facing it's a

resistance from bureaucrats who don't want to see change in this city president Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and Implement change um and this is unacceptable Behavior thank you and just really quick on the Supreme Court I know it's been almost three years now since the leak of the draft Do's opinion to Politico actually uh a leak which sparked protesting outside the homes of the justices and even brought on one attempted assassination attempt I know Justice Alo said that it made the justices targets for assassination but yet the Supreme Court has

not tracked down any leaker does the White House have interest in finding out who that leaker was and can you comment on that at all I know generally speaking the president has an interest in finding leakers and he believes it's unacceptable um and it's the position of this Administration you've seen the Secretary of Homeland Security has taken tough action at her agency um leaking is unacceptable to this President and to the leaders across the board in this cabinet especially when it puts people in harm why sure thank you carine a m wased to change in

a locker room biological at schoil a complaint the doj how will the Trump doj deal with violations of President Trump's orders protecting women and girls like this I would defer you to the Department of Justice on that specific case but the president has made it incredibly clear um that is it is the policy of this Administration that there are only two genders male and female only two Sexes rather male and female um and that we are not going to tolerate um such Behavior by men uh pretending to be women uh the president will continue to

strongly stand for the rights of women and girls not just in sports and on athletic fields but also in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms go ahead thank you on FTC questions can you explain the president's thinking and his decision to fire the two Democratic Commissioners especially given that Mark met is on track to be confirmed next weekend there would be a republican majority my biggest question is why now sure um because the time was right um to let these people go and the president absolutely has the authority to do it uh and they

were given ample notice in a letter that I believe um your outlet reported on so it pretty much explains exactly why this Administration chose to let those individuals go the ultimate goal to get this to the Supreme Court to try to overturn the 1935 precedent the goal was to let these individuals go if we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court we certainly will Rachel back to those deportation fights to El Salvador can the administration provide any more details on how authorities determine that each of those men were in fact members

of a gang and if the White House can publish images photos videos of those men why can't the administration just release basic information like their identities and names we are not going to reveal operational details about a counterterrorism operation um but what I can assure you as I said on Monday we have the highest degree of confidence in our ice agents and our Customs and Border Patrol agents who have committed their lives um to targeting illegal criminals in our country particularly foreign terrorists um and they had great evidence and indication um they have the highest

degree of professionalism and they were 100% confident um in the individuals that were sent home on these flights and in the president's executive authority to do that to follow up I know in the last briefing you cited privacy concerns as a reason why the administration may not be able to reveal the identities what exactly are the Privacy rights of immigrants who were deported that the administration says were dangerous enough to be sent to Al Salvador and s in prison again as I just said we're not going to reveal the operational details of a counterterrorism operation

for quite obvious reasons we're trying to combat terrorism here in the United States of America Jeff I could ask something else about the phone call yesterday there was a couple different readouts from the kenlin and the US on a couple different points one was energy and infrastructure the US statement said energy and infrastructure the Kremlin said energy infrastructure uh what is your understanding of what the actual uh substance of that disagreement was and I have one other question on that I would defer you to the read out that was provided by the White House that's

our understanding and that's the truth and if I can ask a question about the judge as well how does a president Define a bad judge just someone who disagrees with him and it's a dangerous precedent in this case because this is a temporary ruling from Judge bosberg that he could ultimately rule in your favor is he setting up a standard here for calling for the impeachment of a judge who may ultimately rule on your side no uh it has nothing to do with uh disagreeing with the president on policy with disagreeing with the Constitution and

the law and it's trying to usurp the authority of the executive branch of this country it's having baseless reasoning for these injunctions and it's a clear effort by these judges to slow roll This president's agenda and if you just look at the injunctions that this president has faced deporting foreign terrorists from our homeland hiring and firing of executive branch of employees which when the president is the executive of the executive Branch uh you also see an injunction by a partisan activist judge uh when it comes to the Secretary of Defense trying to determine the Readiness

of our troops and the qualifications of our troops in our Armed Forces um does a single District Court Judge really have more authority over the commander-in chief and the Secretary of Defense to determine who should serve in our United States armed forces absolutely not anyone who has taken a basic Civ civics lesson can understand that and it's ridiculous laware that we are witnessing president said he supports I'm sorry the president said he uh respects the Chief Justice here does he respect him uh specifically on this case and this opinion or respects him overall and has

he spoken to any other Supreme Court Justice president respects chief justice chief justice Roberts overall he just expressed that to me in the Oval Office but it's also quite clear that the Supreme Court needs to reign in these judges who are acting as partisan activists and they are undermining the judicial branch and it's a a dereliction of Duty on their behalf di di go ahead thank you so much Caroline on the call wasy did they discuss the minerals deal at all is that back on the table and what do the ukrainians have to do to

get that back on the table and then one on the Russia call as well again I just provided a very lengthy readout of the call um that was provided by the Secretary of State and the National Security adviser um and now we have moved beyond the economic uh minerals deal we are at a place of Peace we're at a partial ceasefire and we're moving toward towards a full ceasefire and a long-standing peace uh in this conflict and that's great news for the American public klin read out mentioned that Trump and Putin spoke about potential us

Russia hockey games and um the Kremlin readout also said that Russia wanted the us to stop us intelligence and US funding to Ukraine um the president has said that that conversation did not happen just wondering if you can get us any more clarity on that and also again if it's energy infrastructure or if it's energy and infrastructure because I think there is a big difference between that again as for the readouts of the call I would defer you to ours uh and when it comes to the topic of hockey um it did come up uh

however we're more interested in securing a peace deal than scheduling hockey games right now Sean uh Hey about the deportation flight so was it the president himself who directed the planes to stay in the air after the judge order them to turn back uh the president signed the Ali invoked the aliens enemies act with a procul which then directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to move forward with the plan of action and as I said yesterday all of the planes um that were subject to the judge's written order took off

before the order was submitted in court I was asked and answer that question multiple times yesterday Kate go ahead um is the president still considering uh pressuring Russia with sanctions or tariffs to try to get a full ceasefire and is there any kind of deadline or timeline that the White House has in mind for when that pressure might ramp up again the president president had a nearly 2hour long call with President Putin yesterday we provided a readout of that call uh and we have his negotiating team heading to the Middle East this week to continue

these discussions in regards to sanctions and any other details I'm not going to give a read out of those from this Podium and on Tik Tok is Oracle the leading Contender for a deal and is it would the us back a deal that keeps Tik tok's algorithm and the underlying technology still in Chinese hands as president Trump does so well uh we don't get ahead of ourselves when we are in the midst of an art of the art of the deal so when the president and this team are ready to announce a deal on Tik

Tok which is a high priority for the president we will make that known I've seen that reporting but I'm not going to comment on it just yet sure go ahead thank you press secretary L some prominent Trump supporters have been making the case that Derek schauen deserves a pardon they argue that he did not receive a fair trial Joe Biden and other Democrats actually implied that he was guilty while the trial was going on um VM riers had these jurors under immense threat and pressure mainstream media frankly many news Outlet here today chose are complicit

here they chose to ignore the autopsy report they chose to ignore the full body camera footage of they decid to slander Derek chovin as a racist cop instead does the administration believe Derk chovin received a fair trial and will they consider a Parton mov C the president has been asked and answered this question he said it's not something he's considering at this time philli thank you uh two questions first just follow up on the readouts from those calls um when it comes to the discrepancies between the US and russan read out of that call between

President Trump and Putin is it the president's assessment as something that's getting Lost in Translation or does he believe that the Russians are trying to play games here nope the president believes in his team that put the readout out and he also put his own out on Truth social we've been incredibly transparent about all of the president's calls with foreign leaders and again I would defer you to the readout and then F Thank You Caroline White House said yesterday that gas prices across the US have fallen for the fourth straight week 34 states seeing gas

under $3 a gallon this limited ceasefire uh with Ukraine regarding oil refineries energy will that affect gas prices here in the US uh well it's certainly the president's hope that gas prices will continue to fall and he's working every single day to ensure that we do as you just mentioned there's been very encouraging data inflation is Cooling and gas prices are falling the president has established a national energy dominance Council and it's ultimately the president's goal and this Administration is working hard on it every single day to increase our energy production right here in the

United States of America to uh have a trump energy boom like we saw in our first term which will not only lead to lower fuel prices here at home but also lessen the rate of inflation that was created by the previous administration one more on Tesla Caroline Tim Waltz Governor Walt saying last night he frequently checks Tesla's stock and doing so to quote give me a little boost during the day how should Americans view politicians who take pride in the downfall of an American company I think that's quite sad but I think uh Governor walls

unfortunately is living a sad existence after his devastating defeat on November 5th Reagan Reagan go ahead Thank You Caroline uh across the country Tesla uh cars are being lit on fire dealerships are being shot up Molotov cocktails are being used uh there was a website posted yesterday that shared the addresses of private Tesla owners and reported had cash Patel's information on it uh AG Bondi has called this acts of domestic terrorism does the white have any indication that this is some sort of coordinated movement or that's it's being funded by some outside group and do

you know if the investigation by the doj is being investigated as incidents of organized Terror I believe the attorney general has made her comments clear on that um she is investigating these events as acts of domestic terrorism and we fully condemn them and as I said earlier to Jackie's question um I we think it's despicable what is happening to not just this American company but also their innocent employees and again innocent Americans who drive these vehicles we condemn it wholeheartedly sure 2es are in the process of being reinstated what is your message to these workers

and can you assure them they won't be fired again as the administration directs agencies to do more layout well the administration is complying with the Court's order again as I have spoken about repeatedly we think it's despicable um that we have judges acting as judicial activists partisan activists trying to dictate who the the president of the United States the executive of the executive branch can hire and fire we have never seen anything like this we are fighting this in court uh and we will continue to fight it all the way uh to the Supreme Court

if we have to um and as for federal employees it's been the very common sense position of this President and the administration um that bureaucrats here in Washington DC need to show up to the office just like the rest of America middle class Americans from doctors um to business owners to teachers to law enforcement officers have to show up to their offices every single day and the president has made it a clear priority um that people in this city have to do the same and we are also continue to be committed to reducing the scale

of our Workforce and to reducing the size of our federal bureaucracy here in Washington DC to save taxpayers money Annie go ahead thanks so much um I in the statement that you read um you reference the president's interest in helping return Ukrainian children to their parents for their families there's an organization that provides uh intent information about those children that um has their aid has been cut it's a Yale University program that used foreign aid and I'm curious if as part of this new thinking with Ukraine that Aid might be unfrozen I have no updates

about that or that specific program at this time Karen thanks carine just to follow up on your answer to the question on the minerals deal you said that the White House has moved beyond the minerals deal what does that mean is that no longer on the table nope it means the minerals deal was that first set of framework that you all saw in that very public meeting with president zalinsky and president Trump in the Oval Office we are now focused on a long-term peace agreement as you know on that deal or that meeting between President

zinsky and president Trump um the Ukrainian president at the time wasn't talking about a greater peace deal we are now at that place where we are talking about that so we've moved Beyond just the economic minerals deal framework and we're looking at a lasting ceasefire right now we're at a par ceasefire but again the president is sending his highly skilled intelligent and experienced team to Saudi Arabia later this week to continue fighting for peace in this conflict and I would just reiterate one more time we have never been closer to peace than we are today

thank you very much everybody we'll see you later