Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the New Media, Apr. 28, 2025

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for coming today. It's great to be with you. This is our first official influencer briefing here at the White House. I want to thank you all so much for joining us on what is day 99 of the Trump administration. And as I promised, as my first briefing as press secretary back in January, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution. Tens of millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news, and we are embracing that change, not ignoring it. It's well past time that the White House press operation reflected the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925. And thanks to President Trump, a select group of D.C. based journalists no longer have a monopoly over press access here at the White House. All journalists outlets and voices have a seat at the table now. And you being here today for this briefing proves that. Today officially marks the 99th day of promises made and kept by President Trump. Our primary focus today is how President Trump has fulfilled one of his central campaign promises to the American people in record time. Ending the massive illegal invasion and and securing our nation's southern and northern borders. As we know, Joe Biden allowed millions of criminal illegal aliens to pour into our country over the past four years. And as we all know, a significant number of those aliens have been vicious gang members, murderers, rapists and pedophiles. Innocent Americans like Lake and Riley, Jocelyn Nungray, Rachel Morin, and many others have been murdered because of Joe Biden's open border. President Trump made a promise to the American people, to all of you and your audiences, to end the carnage and keep our country safe. And he has overwhelmingly delivered on that promise. He immediately declared a national emergency on the southern border, deployed the U.S. military and border Patrol to repel the invasion, and ended reckless catch and release policies. And as a result, between the inauguration and April 1st of this month, only nine illegal aliens were released into the United States of America. This is a staggering 99.99% decrease from more than the 184,000 illegal aliens who were released into the country under Joe Biden during that same period last year. You can't get much better than 99.99% decrease. Total attempted illegal crossings at the southwest border hit a record low in February, only to fall to another record low again last month. In March, President Trump signed the Lake and Riley act into law, requiring illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence to be detained. And he re established the successful remain in Mexico policy from his first term. The President has also restarted construction of his signature border wall. More than 85 miles have been built and are in various stages of construction and planning. He designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, invoked the Alien Enemies act to apprehend, detain and remove these massive threats who have flooded our country. And the Trump administration, as you heard from our border czar Tom Homan earlier today, is working literally 24, 7 around the clock to successfully arrest and deport illegal criminals and foreign terrorists from our communities. Your communities. We're in the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history. And despite the legacy media's fear mongering and lies about this, we will continue with these successful operations because we know that's what the American people are expecting from this president. And that's why they overwhelmingly reelected him to this office. Over the past weekend, it was announced Operation Tidal Wave was a joint effort in ICE, Miami and Florida law enforcement agencies. Nearly 800 illegal aliens were arrested during the first four days alone. I don't know if we have any Floridians in here, but you're welcome. Operation Tidal Wave is a preview of what is to come around the country. Large scale operations employing our state and local law enforcement partners to get criminal aliens off our streets. And we will not apologize for this. This is the first of its kind multi agency immigration enforcement operation coordinated by ICE with federal partners. And this multi day operation has so far resulted in nearly 800 illegal aliens apprehended in four days, including Ms. 13 murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and human rights abuses. So safe to say, President Trump made a promise to all of you, your audiences and the American public to secure our nation's borders. He has overwhelmingly delivered on that promise. And you will see. The legacy media has nitpicked stories to try to drum up sympathy for people who broke our nation's laws. This White House has sympathy for American citizens, for law abiding families who are doing what's right, who came here the right way. That includes legal immigrants who have come to this country, paid their dues, waited their turn, and are now being cheated and ripped off by, or were being cheated and ripped off by the previous administration. We are putting Americans first every day. And we applaud the ICE agents and border patrol agents who are on the ground doing this important work. That's just the border, of course. The President has been working incredibly hard to unleash the might of our economy here at home. He's in the process of negotiating trade, fair trade deals abroad with many countries around the world who have come to the table because the president is using the leverage of this office of the United States of America to leverage our economic might and to cut good trade deals. You also look at what's happening on the foreign, on the world stage. When it comes to foreign policy, the president has put the world on notice. They all understand that we have a commander in chief in the Oval Office who is going to put America and our troops first, who's going to do what's right for our country, our nation, our people, even if that means making tough decisions. And we, we are closer today to a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine, certainly than we were when we took office on January 20th. If you look at the situation in the Middle East, Israel has never had a stronger friend than they do right now in the Oval Office with President Trump. We've had more than 75 hostages who have returned home from around the world or wrongfully detained individuals. You can only do that if you have a president who's unafraid to use the leverage of the United States. So there are many accomplishments to talk about this week. I haven't even mentioned the, the restoring common sense effort of this administration to get men out of women's sports, to root out DEI and waste fraud and abuse from our federal bureaucracy. The president has done so much in such little time, and we're working very hard here every day. We appreciate all that you do on social media to push what the president is saying, but also sometimes question it. And we relish independent journalism. And I hope you all have seen the president, myself, anybody in this administration, we are unafraid to take questions that this has truly been the most transparent and accessible presidency in American history. So with that, let's kick it off. And I'm happy to take your question first. Erin. Thanks so much, Caroline, both for having us and for granting me the first question here. Sure. And I can attest to the deportations in Florida. My Uber drivers finally speak English again. So thank you for that. But my question for you is what are the administration's plans for those who continue to defy the executive orders? Most notably on my mind are the ones related to what some would call trans men. I would call men masquerading trans women, which are men masquerading as girls in girls sports. Sure. Obey federal law or you will be prosecuted. Obey federal law and you could see your federal funding cut, whether you are at college or university. We have seen the president again using the leverage of this administration and to negotiate deals with some of the biggest colleges and universities in this country. And if they don't want to come to the negotiating table to apologize for the federal laws they have broken, to apologize for allowing Jewish American students on our nation's campuses to be unlawfully bullied and harassed, then there's going to be consequences for that illegal behavior. Same thing with men in women's sports. The president signed a very strong executive order making it the policy of the United States federal government that there are only two sexes, male and female. And we are not going to tolerate biological men competing in sports or. Or impeding in private spaces for women like myself or you. And we've seen states defy this federal order. You've seen the state of Maine, unfortunately, because of their liberal governor, who nobody in that state disagrees with. I will add, being from New England, I can attest to that. People are incredibly fed up with her trying to oppose this common sense message. You've seen young women who have had to go on television to plead with their governor, please stop letting men play against me in sports. We shouldn't live in a country where that even has to happen. The. The president deeply understands that. That's why he signed that eo and when Maine decided not to follow it, the Department of Justice sued them. So anyone who disobeys federal law will be either prosecuted, sued, or say goodbye to your federal funding. Sure. How about to the back in the red tie? Hi. One of my main questions is when will the border wall be completed? Because it's been talked about for a very long time and a lot of people want to know when can we expect that to be done? Sure. I don't have an official timeline for you, but certainly it's a priority of the administration. The president has talked about this for years. Right. It was his signature campaign promise dating back to 2016. People laughed at him when he originally brought this idea up. But now the whole world recognizes a border wall is effective. It's a necessary means to secure your nation's territorial borders. Democrats like to have borders outside of their homes or walls outside of their homes for a reason, because they know it repels invaders. And that's why the president wants to do that. At the southern border, there has been more than 85 miles built just since January 20th. It's obviously the goal of this administration to build as much border wall as we possibly can, and we need Congress's help to do that. We need more federal funding. The president is working closely with Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune, to pass a solid reconciliation package that not only provides more funding for our ICE agents and Border Patrol agents on the ground, but to continue construction of that border wall as well. Sure. Go ahead.

Madam Novick, congratulations on this endeavor to.

Bring in new media.

And can I start by thanking you for including the British? Deeply proud to be the only British representative here. I hope future events you might include.

Thank you.

I've got two questions about being maybe so bold regarding my little old country across the pond. First and foremost, it's regarding trade deals. So your vice president, Vice President Barnes, has said, no free speech, no deal. The British business secretary, whose name is Jonathan Reynolds, has said that in the trade talks with the Commerce Department, the U.S. commerce Department, there has been no material. Free speech has been not a material factor in negotiations. So my first question is, is it the case that free speech is no longer part of negotiations? And my second question, if I may, is, in Britain, we have had over a quarter of a million people issued non crime hate incidents. As we speak, there are people in prison for quite literally reposting memes. We have extensive prison sentences for tweets, social media posts, and general free speech issues. Would the Trump administration consider political asylum for British citizens in such a situation?

Well, to your latter question, it's a very good one. I have not heard that proposed to the president, nor have I spoken to him about that idea, but I certainly can, and talk to our national security team and see if it's something the administration would entertain. Yes, please, to your first question about free speech in the United Kingdom. The vice President has been incredibly outspoken about this for good reason. And the president has spoken about this as well, directly with your prime minister when he was here for a visit to the White House. So it remains a critical endeavor of ours to show the Brits and your country, which we love and admire, about the First Amendment and the importance of free speech in a sovereign nation. As for the trade talks, I understand they are moving in a very positive way with the United Kingdom. I don't want to get ahead of the president or our trade team and how those negotiations are going, but I have heard they've been very positive and productive with the United Kingdom. And I will say the president always, both publicly and privately, speaks incredibly highly of your country. He. He has a good relationship with your prime Minister, though they disagree on domestic policy issues. I witnessed the camaraderie between them firsthand in the Oval Office. And there is a deep mutual respect between our two countries that certainly the president upholds.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Mr. Spicer, it's good to see you here. My predecessor, yeah, well, you know, had.

To swing by and say hi, thank you for doing this. I think it's marvelous what you guys have done to bring in new voices and it shows. It reflects the president's commitment to transparency and to bring this in. So I've got two quick ones for you. The first is you mentioned reconciliation beyond that and what he hopes to get out of that. Considering how slim the House majority is, what other legislative priorities does he want to see codified in law before this Congress adjourns?

Ms.

It's a really good question, Sean. I think reconciliation is the first and foremost question on the president's mind right now. It's a huge deal. We have to get it done. He's working closely with Congress. In fact, he's meeting with Speaker Johnson, I think, in a few minutes today in the Oval Office to discuss this very bill and measure, aside from reconciliation, which we hope and are very confident will include more funding for border wall construction and mass deportations, as I mentioned earlier. But it's also very important that we get tax cuts passed. That is the second step in the Trump economic agenda. The president has used every executive lever he can to slash burdensome regulation, and we continue to do that every day across every agency. Administrator Zeldin is doing a fantastic job at the epa, I may add, but every Cabinet secretary is taking getting rid of regulation very seriously. The president is certainly working on unleashing American energy to drive down costs. But tax cuts are a critical component of really seeing the Trump economic formula be put together. So he wants to see tax cuts passed in this reconciliation package that includes no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our seniors, of course, too. As for other measures that would be codified into law, certainly we've seen the president put forth common sense executive orders and take really common sense executive action that we would love Congress to take further action on to ensure that the president's executive auctions can remain long after his tenure. So you don't have another president come in here in eight years and undo some of the executive work the president has worked so hard on. So we want Congress to continue getting to work, but we got to get this reconciliation bill passed first. Thank you.

The second thing I have is just a question. I get a lot, and I figured I'd best address to you. You've done a phenomenal job opening up the briefing room, bringing in New voices. The President's commitment during the campaign to do long form podcasts was, I think, extremely helpful to this new media environment that we live in. But a lot of conservatives will ask me, why does he sit down with people like Terry Moran of ABC or Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic? What is the rationale behind that? Rewarding people who have very vehemently expressed disdain for him personally?

Because the President is unafraid and he is inspired by competition and he likes to talk to people face to face. And I think that's one of his best attributes and qualities. And we live in an incredibly divisive country. Unfortunately, that has been really the result and consequence, frankly, of the fake news and the hoaxes and lies they have driven at this President for the better part of the last decade now. But the fact that we still have a President who has been a victim of these hoaxes, these lies, these smears by so many legacy media outlets and reporters, yet he's still willing to sit down with them, look them in the eye, look them face to face and take them to task and share the truth with them. And his perspective, I think, is what the American people deserve in a President. And it's certainly a stark contrast to what we had in the previous administration, a President who was hiding, who actually used this, this beautiful South Court Auditorium, which we're happy to be in today. But he used this like it was a fake Oval Office. Weirdly, oddly, he was missing in action. He called lids at 2 o' clock in the afternoon. For those who don't know, a lid is when we tell the press to go home for night. And he was doing that midday. That is not acceptable around here. I will tell you. We're working very early through the very late hours of the night. And the President is willing to talk to anyone, not just journalists who have really been posing as journalists, but are actually left wing activists. But also, if you look at our adversaries and our competition abroad on a foreign policy scale, you know, well, in the first term, he went to North Korea, he talked to Putin directly, he talked to President Xi directly. The President believes in direct diplomacy, whether it is our adversaries and competitors around the world or left wing activists like Jeffrey Goldberg. Sure. First of all, thank you for having us today. It's a pleasure to be here. You mentioned, obviously, it's no secret America has been Israel's strongest friend, greatest ally. Unfortunately, as you know, Idan Alexander is still being held in Gaza. He's both an American and an Israeli citizen, last we heard, allegedly Hamas has lost all communication with him. And I was wondering if there's been any update in terms of getting Idan home. Sure. First of all, the reports last week were from Hamas media. And so we always take that, of course, with a grain of salt. We do our own verification on those reports. I talked to the National Security Council about Eden Alexandra last week, as this is obviously a priority for the administration. And all I can tell you is that I can assure you that the special envoy, Witkoff, Adam Bowler, who's been leading some of our hostage negotiations, Mike Waltz, the entire national security team, finding him and bringing him home is a priority for this administration. And they continue to work very hard on that every day. Thank you. You're welcome, Chad.

First of all, thank you for the hospitality. Always open and welcome. And thank you for the access. And I'll say to you again, for everyone, what I said to you a few weeks ago when we were here. I said, it's so refreshing to have a press secretary after the last few years who is both intelligent and articulate. So thank you for that. I think that a lot of people would be curious to know if we have any details of what the private conversation between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the President was there at the Vatican. I imagine that we don't know at this stage of the game. But more specifically, back to the border issue. The DOJ stated on Friday that they were floating the idea of the potentially subpoenaing journalists for to get access to whistleblowers. We know the last administration did not treat whistleblowers very well. There's numerous ones who, although still employed by the FBI or the dhs, have not received back pay and haven't truly. They've been employed, but they're not reinstated. So I'm wondering, does this administration have, you know, do they believe that we should reinstate the whistleblower? You know, like Agents Garrett or o' Boyle or Free Friend or, you know, Stevenson with dhs, who blew the whistle on the child trafficking involving the cartels under Joe Biden. He too, has yet to be brought back. Do we have a position on that?

Sure. Well, for each individual agency, secretaries of those agencies obviously have deference over who they hire, who they fire, who they promote. I can tell you certainly the president commends anyone who steps out and speaks the truth, especially against the malpractice that we saw over the last four years under the previous administration. I could speak to the two cases at the Treasury Department, the two whistleblowers there who blew the whistle on the Hunter Biden tax fraud case have been promoted by Secretary Bessant. So certainly we commend anyone who has the courage to step up and speak the truth. And as for those who unfortunately try to leak especially classified information to the legacy media to put our troops in harm's way, our law enforcement officials at harm's way, Leaks like that will not be tolerated. But those who are seeking to protect the truth will certainly be commended and applauded for that. Sure. Rogan, go ahead.

Hi, Caroline.

Good to see you again.

Great to see you as well. Great job this morning. And as always, you're really crushing it. My question is about the Epstein files. And a couple months ago, the DOJ released what they called phase one of the Epstein files. And they announced that a lot of those files, the remaining files, probably the bulk of the files, are actually in the New York field office. They requested that they be returned the day after. And some legacy media reports show that not only were those files returned to the doj, but that hundreds of FBI agents are going through them day after day and getting them ready for public release. Do you have any updates from the DOJ or the FBI on when those files are expected to be released and also when we might start seeing some arrests of the client list?

Sure. I can assure you that the Attorney General and her team at the Department of Justice are working on this diligently for a specific timeline. I'd have to check in with them, and we can certainly do that for you, Rogan, in the effort of transparency. But I will tell you, the Attorney General is a bulldog. She is someone you want on your team, and when she wants to get something done, she gets it done. I've seen her do it in various instances already in her time as Attorney General. And when she makes a promise, she keeps it. So I think I don't have a specific timeline on you for that, but I do know that they're working on it over there.

Thank you.

Sure, go ahead.

Thank you for having us here. I've noticed this is kind of like a repeat of 2016. The legacy media has gone. Gone back to not reporting anything on President Trump. In the beginning, we had them reporting everything that he was doing. Now they're kind of going back again to not reporting everything that he is actually doing. I'm kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I'm not the headline news girl. I'm the nuts and bolts. I'm the policy type nerd. So what direction do you advise, kind of me to go into like the White House files that y' all send out every single day. Because that's what people are used to when they want to ask me questions. They want to know kind of like the nuts and bolts of everything. Secondly, I know going into the first 100 days, Johnson's meeting with President Trump. Today, President Trump has issued a lot of executive orders. What about codifying? Is that going to be a conversation President Trump is going to have with him about possibly a timeline of just taking them from EOs, into codifying them, into making them permanent so we don't have another president, president that comes in, possibly a Democrat, that completely overturns everything that President Trump has done.

Yes, as I spoke to Sean's question earlier, absolutely. We want Congress to get to work. First thing is the reconciliation package. Like I said, border and tax cuts. That's on the president's mind. But of course, he wants to see Congress move to codify all of the incredible things and work that he's done via executive order. To your first question about the nuts and bolts, I wish more people in the legacy media were like you and didn't focus on the sensationalist headlines, but actually cared about the facts. The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news at night, signing executive orders. We do our absolute best to message that, which is again why we're welcoming independent voices like yours with following on social media, because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there. We put out fact sheets on the daily about what the president is signing. And they do get into the nuts and bolts on of each and every policy and each and every executive action that he's taking. He's signing three phenomenal executive orders today. I will share a preview with those with you on those. One of them is an executive order focused on sanctuary cities. It will direct the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to provide a list of sanctuary cities back to the administration. We will review those. If those sanctuary cities are breaking federal law, well, then the Office of Management and Budget is going to look at their federal spending again. If you're defying federal law, you are threatening your own federal spending by doing that. There is another executive order the president will sign tonight. We can provide the fact sheet for you on ensuring law and order and ensuring that federal law enforcement and local law enforcement can work together and communicate more easily. And then the third executive order, which actually speaks to the heart of your question earlier about the Uber drivers, will be a order directing the Department of Transportation to include English literacy tests for our truckers. This is a big problem in the trucking community that unless you're in that community, you might not know. But there's a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials as well, which obviously is a public safety risk. So we're going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English. That's a very common sense policy in the United States of America. So the president will be signing that later this afternoon. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome to the back in the yellow tie. Thank you, Caroline. President Trump has recently made statements about.

Eliminating the federal income tax and creating.

The External Revenue Service. When could we see that start to play out? Ms. Well, I will tell you, this is something the secretary of commerce and the secretary of treasury are both equally as excited about as is the president. And you know, part of there's many reasons for the tariffs the president has implemented and the trade deals that he is currently negotiating. Number one, we need to shore up our critical supply chains here at home. Number two, we need to increase our revenue here in the United States. We are running trillions of dollars of deficits our country will cripple if we continue down this path. And so how great it would be for the external revenue to completely replace the Internal Revenue Service. So I know the administration is focused on the External Revenue Service getting that up and running. And as you know, Customs and Border Protection is charged with bringing in the money from tariffs every day and they are bringing in billions and billions of dollars per day with the current tariff rates and where they are at. So we will continue with that effort. I think I went around the room. Oh no, one more in the back.

All good. So we know President Trump has been a champion for the 2A ever since he got into office both times. My question is, do we see anything? Is there any ongoing efforts for national reciprocity so we can carry in all 50 beautiful.

This is something the president talked about on the campaign trail. For sure, we need Congress to do it, but the president will always support our law abiding gun owners and as you mentioned, is a ardent supporter of the Second Amendment. It's more important now than ever as we see violent crime rates in our inner cities. I've said this repeatedly over the past four years. The Second Amendment was never more important than when we had an illegal immigrant crime epidemic spiking in this country. Law abiding Americans have a constitutional right to defend themselves, and the President absolutely supports that. But to national reciprocity, we do need Congress's help on that one. So thank you, guys. It's so good to see you. I could go around the room all day, but unfortunately there's work to be done. Thank you for coming to our very first influencer briefing to kick off the first 100 days of the Trump White House. It's great to see you all here and thanks for what you do.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to walk off now.