Transcript of the 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll where President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump appear; includes the national anthem and a short press gaggle. Trump opens with Easter greetings, announces an executive order lowering federal and state flags to half-mast reportedly in honor of Pope Francis, thanks the Marine Corps Band, the National Park Service, and the First Lady for organizing the event, and cites expected attendance of "40,000–42,000." He repeatedly claims record enlistments/recruitment levels ("highest... in 28 or 29 years"), emphasizes returning religion to public life, and makes off-the-cuff comments on topics raised by reporters (use of Signal by a Cabinet official, confidence in that Secretary, Ukraine/Crimea talks, tariffs, energy prices, immigration/Haiti, and a DC court hearing). The recording contains duplicated lines and transcription artifacts; dialogue shifts from ceremonial remarks to rapid-fire press exchanges.
Chapters
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and First Lady Melania Trump, accompanied by the Easter Bunn. Master Gunnery Sergeant Kevin Benier, accompanied by the President's own United States Marine Band, will now honor America with the singing of our national anthem.
O say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O' er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air Came through the night that our flag was still there O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave.
For.
The land of the free and the home of the brave.
Well, thank you very much, everybody, and a very happy Easter to everyone. It was a beautiful day yesterday and it's a beautiful day today. We don't have to worry about sunburn, but we looks like it's not going to be raining. It's going to be really something special. 40,000, 42,000 people are expected all throughout the day, and it's an honor to have you. I just signed an executive order putting the flags of our country, all of them, all federal flags and and state flags, at half mast in honor of Pope Francis. So he was a good man, worked hard, he loved the world, and it's an honor to do that. I want to thank everybody for being here. This is some band. I've heard this band actually indirectly for four years and very directly now for four and a half. And I like the Direct method even better. But the Marine Corps Band is very, very special. Thank you very much. What a great job. Thank you. Thank you. I also want to thank the National Park Service, the job they do in making everything so beautiful and spiffy. And I'm very difficult when it comes to that, I will tell you. Very, very difficult. And I say they have done an incredible job. You just have to look around and see. And I just want to give a special thank you to our great first lady who organized this entire event. She worked very, very hard on it. She worked very hard. I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm working on the egg roll. I said, that sounds like a lot of fun. And we're going to have a lot of fun in just a couple of minutes. But again, our country is doing very well. Our. We had the highest number of recruits, enlistments that we've had in, I think, 28 or 29 years. And I'm sure we're going to actually beat that number. It's all happened since November 5th. It's all happened. Enrollment in the military is at a record and enrollment in the police force, fire forces and all of the different law enforcement groups we have. We're setting records. And six months ago we couldn't get anybody and now we're setting records. That's sort of testament to what's happening in terms of the spirit of our country. We love our country, our and it's been something very, very special. And speaking of special, Easter is special and it's one of our favorite days. It's one of our favorite periods of time. We're honoring Jesus Christ and we're going to honor Jesus Christ very powerfully throughout our lives. All throughout our lives. Not just now. All throughout our lives. We're bringing religion back in America. We're bringing a lot of things back, but religion is coming back to America. That's why you see kind of numbers that you're seeing the spirit and the kind of numbers that you're seeing. So we're going to come down and join you right now. But I just want to wish everybody once again happy Easter and enjoy your lives. We're going to have a great four years. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. It's. He was a good man. He worked very hard. He loved the world. He really did. He loved the world. It's an honor for flags that the country as you know been taken to Antman and they'll be that way for about four days. Do you have any favorites, the American.
Pope that you would like to think?
Well, I met two of them and look, these are great gentlemen. If they weren't, they would be Pope.
President Trump, do you remain confident in except. Do you remain confident in except.
Oh, totally. Why? Why do you even ask a question like that? We have recruitments that's at an all time high. The spirit and the off course is fantastic. Great confidence.
Mr. President, can you explain why you're comfortable with Secretary Hegseth using Signal to discuss those military plans?
Are you bringing up Signal again? I thought they gave that up two weeks ago.
There was a new report this weekend that he used in a separate chat that included some family members, a personal lawyer.
It's all just the same old stuff from the video. That's an old try finding something there, sir. Your message to Catholics, sir. Walking the laws of Pope Francis. Your message to Catholics, sir. We love you all. We're with you all. They were with me during the election, as you know very strongly and it's just an honor to have the support of The Catholics and I feel very badly for them because they Love the Pope.
Mr. President, do you feel no matter.
Who the next pope in election, whatever that may be, what relationship do you hope to have with the incoming Covid? I think very good, Mr. President.
Do you feel.
Mr. President, Are you happy with how the European Union is.
Handling the tariff right now?
Are you happy with Europe right now? They've been fine. Mr. President. We're going to ultimately have a deal with anyone. If we don't, we're going to make it anyway. We're going to ultimately have the economy is very good. We don't have inflation. Energy's down at the lowest it's been in years. We hit actually $1.98 recently in a couple of states. I think we're doing really well. We're all set. There's a little transition and that's going to happen. But ultimately we're going to be the strongest that we've ever been as a nation.
Mr. President, do you feel like. All right, everyone, I don't know what the shot looked like from school 3. President Trump just did a quick gaggle with press in the head on 10. He is now moving on to the egg roll station. His back is to us. I have cell phone video in addition to what we were able to get on pool brace. We'll send out those notes very, very shortly. He says he still has confidence in Secretary.
He.
Said not signal again.
Essentially he either chose to ig that's. It's, It's. Ram. It's. Already 25% with cars, aluminum and steel taking in a lot of money out of my money to this country. That's just the beginning. Are you going to go to the Poland? I don't know yet. We're going to be briefed on it right now. Would you like to go? I don't know. I just have to look at the timing. We just lowered the flags on these Ukraine talks over the weekend. Is there a proposal from the United States that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia? So I will be giving you a full detail over the next three days, but we had very good meetings on Ukraine train wrestling. We had very good meetings actually on Iran too. We'll see how that works about that too. What's the next step here? Next step is we need a little time. We have very good meetings on here. We have very good and the tariffs are going very well. Everybody wants to get There's a very big man who loved loved the world. He especially loved people that were having a hard time and that's good with me. So he preached tolerance for. Is it for Michael? Right. We preach torrents from Cyprus. Do you agree with that or. I do. I mean, I hear they're doing that whole thing again. Here we go again. Just a waste of time. He is doing a great job.
Why do you still have.
Because he's doing a great job.
Have you spoken with Ask.
Ask the Hoodies how he's doing there?
There's a hearing today on the Alien Enemies act in the D.C. district court. Your thoughts on that, Mr. President?
Well, we were to clean up the mess of this country and we had millions and millions of people come in who are criminals, who are murderers, who are everything you can imagine. Drug lords, drug dealers. They came in from prisons and from mental institutions and I was elected to move them out, among many other things. And that's what we're doing. Hooties. How much this talks. Pete's doing a great job. Everybody's happy with him. We have the highest recruitment, recruitment numbers I think we've had in 28 years. No, he's doing a great job. It's just fake news. They just bring up stories. I guess it's sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people and that's what he's doing. So you don't always have friends with the. We're opening a fantastic budget. Yeah. And I hope we're going to get to see. It's going to be great. Thank you.
Will you comply with Supreme Court ruling on a BR.
I comply with everything, Mr. President.
Immigrants, you've ordered a lot of them to leave the country, but their travel to Haiti is. Is almost nearly impossible because flights have been suspended. What do you make of that?
Well, I make it that we have to have a safe country. If people are in our country illegally and if people are. Have records that are very bad in particular, we have to get them out. I was, as you know, elected on the basis that we would have very little crime in our country. They don't want illegal immigrants. We've closed up the border. The border is now the strongest border we've ever had.
These are Haitians who came legally through that Biden era program. Who their communities. Even in Texas, conservative voters saying these people should not be forced to leave.
Well, if they came legally, then they're going to be in good shape.
So you're not even deporting. There's no Thursday deadline.
Mr. Trump, Are you concerned about the.
Handling of sensitive information?
Hi there. Thank you. How are you doing? All right. No, you know. Good to see you, sir. How are you?
This is my beautiful fiance getting married in two weeks.
Any advice for the. For the new. Yeah. Make sure you like each other. Don't get real quick. You talked about Jesus and your opening statement. How important is this country right now? That it brings the country together. It's so important that we can do that. Religion. I said bring religion back. Religion brings you together. Such a great family. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
