Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the New Media, Apr. 30, 2025

So.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Hello.

Hello, welcome.

It's great to see all of you.

Welcome to our third official influencer briefing.

Here at the White House in the beautiful South Court Auditorium, Joe Biden's former.

Office that he pretended to be his office.

Now we're using it for its real purposes as an auditorium and we are.

Embracing empowering new media like never before.

You are all a testament to that. We're so grateful that you're here too.

President Trump is truly the most transparent and accessible president in American history.

And we are just following his example.

That's a little bit why this press briefing today is tardy. Because the President was hosting a more than two hour long cabinet meeting with his entire cabinet. Each secretary went around the room to.

Talk about the promises they are delivering.

On for the American public and the directives they are executing at the behest of the President of the United States. Can you ever remember the a Cabinet.

Meeting in which the media were welcomed into the room to ask questions of.

The entire federal government? No, you can't. Because it never happened.

Joe Biden was afraid to speak to.

The press because he was mentally incompetent.

In driving our country into the ground.

But fortunately, President Trump has been incredibly hard at work cleaning up Joe Biden's messes and making our country great again. Yesterday marked the president's official 100th day in office. The first 100 days of President Trump's second term can only be summed up as promises made, promises kept. He has ushered in the most secure border in modern American history and he.

Didn'T need a bill from Congress to do it.

Do you all remember that they said we needed a bill. We didn't need a bill. We just needed a new president. The border is now closed and the border Biden. Biden border invasion has been halted. Illegal border encounters are down by 95%. Illegal alien godaways, one of the top threats to our public safety, are down by an astounding 99.99%. And Fox News Bill Malugian, who did exceptional reporting covering the Biden border crisis, was recently quoted saying, if Fox were to send me down there right now, I would have trouble finding a single migrant. On camera that is the Trump effect. President Trump took on the cartels and designated trend Aragua Ms. 13 and other vicious gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Under President Trump, it is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these brutal organizations presence in our country. And we are also beginning stages of carrying out the largest mass deportation In American history, we have already arrested more than 150,000 illegal aliens. And you can expect those numbers to ratchet up in the months ahead. On the economy, President Trump is rebuilding the greatest economy in the world once again. Since day one, he has focused on defeating inflation, bringing down the cost of living, and making the United States the best place in the world to do business, invest, create jobs, and innovate.

The President, later this afternoon in the East Room of the White House, will.

Be joined by CEOs from around the world who have committed trillions of dollars in investments right here in the United States of America. I don't think the President is getting.

Enough credit for the massive deregulation campaign.

That he has launched across the entire federal bureaucracy. And he himself has signed a number of executive orders to unleash rapid deregulation and reduce the cost of living for families and for small businesses. And we are seeing a big impact of this already. His deregulatory actions thus far will save nearly $11,000 per family of four over the next several years. And building on this success, the President has encouraged the rapid onshoring of jobs to restore America as our world's manufacturing superpower. He is effectively utilizing tariffs to bring the entire world to the negotiating table, offering more favorable terms for our country. When all is said and done, America will finally have fair and reciprocal trade.

And our country will finally stop being ripped off.

So far, as I mentioned, total investments under this administration are more than $5 trillion. The President has already created 345,000 jobs since taking office.

In January.

9,000 manufacturing jobs were created, compared to the 6,000 manufacturing jobs lost per month in the final two years of the Biden administration. The labor force participation rate for those without a high school diploma is up, inflation has dropped, and the price of prescription drugs last month was the largest drop ever recorded. In little more than three months. President Trump, has America headed in the right direction?

The good news is we are just getting started.

We're, we are very busy every single day here at the White House, literally working around the clock seven days a.

Week to restore the golden age of America.

Hundreds of promises have been made and kept. There is certainly more work to do.

The best is yet to come.

But we are very proud of the efforts the President has made to continue the non traditional media approach that he.

So beautifully executed on the campaign trail, which led him back to this office.

Talking to podcasters, social media content creators.

And influencers like yourself. And again, we're so proud to welcome.

You to the White House. Here today so you can ask questions.

For the whole world to hear. So Jack, great to see you and.

Why don't you kick us off?

Caroline, thanks so much for having us in today and I appreciate the administration making yourself available and making it available to us and all of our followers. And I understand that you're going to be continuing these. I think it's fantastic, really have everybody come in and be able to do this. One of the things that's been troubling me and has actually even affected me over the last 24 hours is the rise of violence that we've seen from elements of the far left, starting with things like Luigi Maggione, these support for these unhuman organizations like MS.13, Trende, Aragua and even of course the assassination Samsung, President Trump, Thomas Matthew Clark, Crooks and Ryan Routh as well as numerous incidents against anyone who owns a Tesla. Apparently you don't really see the Democrats opposing these things. You see them in many cases either either co signing it or giving a wink and nod to it at the same time that they will be demanding that we follow due process for anyone who actually is a hardened criminal or some of the worst of the worst. What is the administration doing, DOJ wise or FBI wise to combat this rise in violence that we're seeing?

It's a great question, Jack, and I absolutely agree with the premise of your.

Question, which I usually don't when I.

Take questions at a podium. But certainly you're right. We have seen a rise in political violence that stems from the left dating back to the Black Lives Matter movement, which the left and the Democrats don't want to talk about much.

But they burned down American cities and.

The Biden administration did nothing to prosecute those who created that violence, oftentimes not just destroying businesses, but also lives in communities as well. You look at the rise of violence against the President himself and his supporters. You had two heinous assassination attempts from leftist lunatics and the President is lucky and blessed to be here today because he was able to survive that political violence and those assassination attempts. Look at the recent attacks on Tesla, on Elon Musk's company.

It's quite ironic because Democrats and leftists.

Were the greatest fans of Tesla. Many Democrats drive Teslas to this very day. But then it's their same party who is doing nothing to stop or condemn or discourage this violence from taking place.

And in many cases Democrat elected officials.

Are actually inciting it and encouraging it. But that's not going to be allowed to happen anymore. The Attorney General was just in the Cabinet Room with the President and made it very clear to anyone who is.

Inciting violence or participating in violence, you.

Will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

And no longer do we have a.

Justice Department that chooses prosecutions based on one's political affiliation.

If you break the law, you will.

Be held accountable for that.

And I think we are truly restoring a fair and equal justice system in this country.

The Attorney General spoke earlier about how.

There have been several cases brought against.

Those who have perpetrated this political violence against Tesla, which is a great American made company.

And we need to see more people on the other side of the aisle.

Stepping out to discourage this violence. But I don't think we will hold our breath. We won't wait for them. The President is leading by example. And I think the restoration of justice we've seen at the DoJ under the leadership of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who's doing an incredible job as the FBI director, is a testament to that. Thank you, Dom.

Thank you. Thank you for giving me an honor to be able to ask a question and provide some transparency for the American people. Speaking of, I wanted to reference the election integrity. A lot of people in America are questioning if there's any possibility that we could see further investigations for anyone that could have violated our election integrity rights. And more importantly so is there any possibility for names such as Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton to ever just possibly get investigated for any of these questions from the American people, from any of the wrongdoings they might have done?

Well, it's refreshing to actually hear a question on election integrity because the legacy media would never ask such a question. They're so out of touch with what where the American people are on this issue. And Americans, you're absolutely right, want to have trust in our electoral system. Without free and fair elections, you cannot have a free and fair country. And President Trump has absolutely been a.

Leader on this effort, talking about the.

Irregularities we've seen in our elections, holding Democrats accountable for allowing illegal immigrants to participate in our elections.

And he actually signed a recent executive.

Order to protect the integrity of our elections. It will strengthen our voter citizenship verification laws. It also directs the attorney general to enter information sharing agreements with state election officials to identify cases of election fraud so that correspondence between the federal government and the attorney general with state and local officials has never happened before. It will allow the federal government to more easily identify these cases of fraud and then prosecute those who violate our election laws.

And it is again appalling that Any.

Politician, regardless of party, could be against ensuring only American citizens can vote in American elections. How could anyone ever be against ensuring Americans need to have proof of identification to participate in our elections? You see the Democrats falling over themselves trying to say this is somehow voter suppression. Absolutely not. We are trying to ensure that every American citizen, their vote actually counts and is not being outweighed by fraudulent votes and fraudulent ballots that we know have been cast in previous elections. So President's taking this very seriously. He signed an extremely strong executive order directing action from the AG and the Department of Homeland Security as well to clean up our elections. And we expect Congress to do more on this front as well.

Let's go over here on that question again, Caroline, thank you so much for hosting this. Really appreciate the opportunity to come in here and ask questions of your guys and appreciate the president giving us some time of yours as well. On a follow up on Dom's question, I still have a ton of my audience that is still asking questions about Hillary Rodham Clinton and the fact that it came out that her and the DNC funded this til dossier which then led to a crossfire hurricane and all the FISA abuses that went against President Trump leading up to the 2020 election. Is there, you don't have to spill the beans, but is there something, is there somebody still looking at it? We just want to know that it's not dead in the water, that Hillary's not just off scot free after knowing what her and the DNC did leading up to the 2020 election.

It's a great question, absolutely understand and.

Agree with why you're asking it, but I would want to let the president weigh in on that front.

I haven't discussed it with him, to.

Be honest with you, but certainly we can ask him and get back to you.

All right.

So Caroline, Madam Press Secretary.

You can call me Caroline.

Thank you, Caroline. Over the weekend, the White House Correspondents association had their gala. They had their dinner and Alex Thompson from Now Axios. Prior to that, Politico didn't really apologize, but came forward and said we quote unquote, missed the story of Joe Biden's demise, his health demise, his cognitive demise during the four years Jake Tapper has written the book since President Trump was elected that they missed the demise of Joe Biden as well. Fast forward to this lawsuit with cbs. Right. So the media, legacy media has not been held accountable. Will this lawsuit with CBS go to fruition? In other words? I would love to see it go to trial so that we can see so they can be held accountable. Additionally, will the New York Times be enjoined into that lawsuit? Because the New York Times has already stated that they agree with CBS and Trump has said maybe we're going to sue the New York Times as well. And as a follow up to all this, it really does dovetail because it's not just left leaning media. Fox News, Fox News put out a poll. I'm a statistician. The poll they put out was wildly biased against President Trump. Will Fox sue Fox? Will Trump sue Fox or their methodology in polling?

Two great questions. Let me hit the first one first.

As for CBS and the White House Correspondents association dinner, it was laughable. They gave an award to a journalist for talking about Biden's mental incompetence.

He wrote a story about it years.

After the American people knew that story to be true. It didn't take much, just two eyes and two ears to realize that Joe Biden was completely inept, was unfit to serve as President of the United States. And nobody in the legacy media, nobody in this city wanted to talk about it. In fact, I recall being on President Trump's campaign and calling out Joe Biden's cognitive decline. And we were accused of manufacturing deep fakes. My predecessor accused us for manufacturing deep fakes from the White House podium when she knew, and everybody in this White House knew the true status of Joe Biden's physical and mental fitness. And the mainstream media allowed that cover up to take place because they refused to dig for the truth. They tried to get the American people not to believe their own eyes. It is truly one of the greatest cover ups scandals in American history. And again, this is why we are welcoming independent journalists and social media influencers and content creators into the White House with open arms. Because all of you in this room and many of your colleagues in independent journalism talked about this online. Nobody gave you credence as far as the legacy media is concerned. And now they host cocktail parties where.

They are applauding each other and patting.

Each other on the back for uncovering the truth. It was years later and it's truly sad to see. But again, that's why we're making much needed and long overdue changes. As for the lawsuit against cbs, the President and his legal team fully intend to carry this lawsuit forward.

The President put out a very strong.

Statement in regard to that and fake news. CBS this Morning. And then as for the Fox News poll, President's right. These are fake polls. They over poll Democrats. They underpoll President Trump's supporters. It's always been the case for media polls. They consistently underestimate President Trump's support amongst the public. That's why we don't really blink when we see them. To be honest with you, we're staying focused on the mission and moving forward. The president knows everything he's doing is exactly what he promised the American public he would do. And if you look at the key issues in the polling, the president is still ahead because Americans know he is delivering on them on those issues for them. And if you look at the methodology, you're right. They're over polling Democrats under polling Republicans. It's a clear cut case of fake polling, no doubt.

If I may also misinformation though, right? And maybe as detrimental to the presidency as what CBS has done or the New York Times is doing.

Yeah, no doubt about it.

The president's spoken quite strongly about it and I know he's made some phone calls to express his, his displeasure with it as well. Kalina, go ahead.

Thank you so much for having me here, especially as a legal immigrant, because the overwhelming fake news that Hispanics don't support President Trump, but we do, and we're very excited to have mass deportations because it affects our communities. My question is about immigration reform. In daca. During the first Trump administration, we saw that President Trump, like no other president, wanted to make a deal with the Democrats to give a pathway to citizenship to 1.2 million dackout recipients. I don't know. I haven't really heard anything coming out. Is there going to be, is there any policy surrounding that situation? And is there going to be immigration reform?

Well, first of all, thanks for sharing your story. And the president overwhelmingly won the vote of Hispanic Americans in the previous election.

And swept counties on the border of.

Texas that are predominantly Hispanic counties because to your very point, Hispanic Americans and legal immigrants to this country from all.

Countries are so sick and tired of.

Seeing, we're so sick and tired of seeing the mass invasion of illegal immigrants that was allowed to occur under the previous administration.

And it was an issue the president.

Ran on and he delivered on.

These mass deportations are underway.

And it is currently the position of this administration, we are focused on removing as many illegal alien criminals from our communities as possible. And not only are we doing that for law abiding American citizens, but also legal immigrants, as you said, who are citizens now and came here the right way, waited their turn, paid their dues. It's a slap in the face to them. And so there's a lot of reforms that need to be made to our legal immigration system. The president has talked about that. But our initial focus right now and our priority is cleaning up the mess that the previous administration left us. And there's, there's more work to do, but a lot of progress has been made thus far.

C.J.

Yeah.

You know, also, thank you so much, Caroline, for having us here. You know, also on the topic of immigration, not only do I think, you know, the legal immigrant community welcomes what the president's doing, but also the black community. So I would love to get your reaction to recent comments made by Simone Sanders who said that people of color would be next in line for deportation under this president. Now that was a revelation to me and probably many others in the black community. Being a lifelong American, I'm not really sure where Tom Homan would send me other than my childhood home in Augusta, Georgia. But why do you think this fear mongering is being directed at the black community over the issue of immigration? And do you think it's offensive to conflate illegal aliens who are rapists, traffickers and sexual abusers with law abiding citizens in the black community?

It's absolutely insane and it is racist what she is saying. The president intends on deporting illegal alien criminals who broke our nation's laws and are not only impacting communities across the country, but in particular communities of color in our inner cities.

You remember the story out of New.

York City where young minority children were kicked out of their public school to make room for illegal immigrants to sleep.

On the floor of their cafeteria.

That is putting America last. Doesn't matter your race, your religion or creed, if you are a law abiding American citizen, you, President Trump is going to put you first. And shame on Simone Sanders for saying that she knows better, but she's trying to fear people into disliking this president with lies. But I think the American public are much smarter than she believes that they are and that's why they reelected President Trump.

Bo, go ahead.

Hi Caroline. So as the youngest press secretary in history who is a wife and a mom, you've become widely popular with America First Patriots. As an 18 year old, I can say you're definitely an inspiration to Gen Z. What has been the biggest highlight for you in these first hundred historic days?

Thank you for asking that and saying that, Beau. I am Gen Z. I think I heard the term zillennial because I'm right on the cusp of millennial and Gen Z. Jack is cringing at that. But there's been so many Highlights. Just being here every day is such a blessing and an honor. And I'll share a quick story to that point.

And you know the president.

I'm only here because the president believed in me and uplifted me and so many others who are working so hard across this administration. This administration is filled with young, vibrant people who come to work every day hungry and eager to help accomplish the president's goals. And I think we're seeing a real reawakening amongst young people across the country. The president spoke directly to young people during his campaign, inspiring confidence in them and restoring hope and the American dream. Basic common sense values of faith and family and freedom that truly do resonate with young people. The American dream of home ownership, of being able to afford to raise a family and to have children, it's a beautiful thing. And I think the president openly talking about it has inspired so many young minds and opened up so many young hearts. And I'm just so honored to be in this role. The president, he's wrote about it in his books and he's talked about it himself. When he was in his 20s, he was building buildings in Manhattan. So certainly he believes in the strength and the ability of young Americans across the country like yourself here at the White house at just 18 years old. Thanks for being here into the back row.

Thank you so much for having us here, Caroline. It underscores President Trump's transparency, shifting focus a little bit to what's happening on our universities. President Trump has finally put American students over violent foreign nationals. And right now, we're seeing the media whitewash the violence perpetrated on our college campuses. We see many universities trying to bypass President Trump's executive order. And my question is, how exactly does President Trump will make sure that these universities are being properly held accountable and violent foreign nationals who are taking over campus buildings are sent back home?

Yeah. Well, to Jack's earlier question about political violence, this is another form of political violence we've seen stem from the left with the pro Hamas movement that took place on college campuses and universities. In fact, I recall being in Manhattan courtroom during the Alvin Bragg case against President Trump in the midst of the campaign.

And we were in that courthouse watching.

The television as these violent riots unfolded on the campus of Columbia University. And I remember the president watching the television saying, when we are back, we are going to fix this. This is ridiculous. And immediately directed his campaign staff at the time to insert it into the speeches and to make sure the American public knew he was not going to tolerate violence on our nation's college campuses and the illegal harassment against Jewish American students. He has taken incredibly strong position on this already. He has brought many of these colleges and universities to their knees by threatening their federal funding, in a few cases, cutting federal. Federal funds. If you violate federal law, you will not receive federal funds under this administration.

It's very simple.

If you allow the illegal harassment and violence against students of any race or religion on your campus, you will not receive federal funding. You are violating Title 6, which is federal law. The President's made that very clear. And you've seen many of these colleges.

Come to the table and admit their.

Wrongdoing and apologize for it because they know they were wrong. Unfortunately, we didn't have a president at the time who was holding them accountable, who was completely silent as students were being targeted. As for the visas, same is true. The President and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who's doing a tremendous job, have taken incredibly strong action on this as well. And Marco Rubio, as our Secretary of State, reserves the right to rescind visas from foreign nationals who have the privilege of studying on our nation's colleges and universities. And if you engage in illegal behavior, if you're engaging in activity that's contrary to our nation's foreign policy interests, then you will no longer have the privilege of coming and studying here. We're going to put American citizens and American students first. And only the best and brightest should be allowed to come to our country and study at our nation's colleges and universities.

So again, such a pleasure to see.

All of you here today. Thank you so much for coming to the White House.

We hope you enjoy the rest of.

This Beautiful day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And.

And thanks for all that you do. Take care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.