Karoline Leavitt (00:00):
A couple of things I want to point out. Great economic news this morning, despite all of the naysayers in the media and also all of the so-called experts, the CPI Index report came out this morning and inflation is down. In fact, core inflation is down to the lowest level it has been in four years. This is just in 52 days of President Trump taking office. We saw airline fares fell. We saw the cost of gasoline is down as well. We also saw a $1 billion investment this morning from GE Aerospace. We saw Asahi, the Japanese beer company, announce that they're going to move manufacturing and investments to the great state of Wisconsin in response to President Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which you all know went into effect last night. So this is all good news for the American people.
(00:47)
It also shows that you can effectively utilize tariffs to bolster your industries here at home, while driving down the cost of living for the American public through deregulation and through energy. And we know President Trump is intent on passing his big tax cuts later this year. We're calling on Congress to do it. We also had a big win on Capitol Hill last night. As I talked to you all in the briefing yesterday, the president strongly supported the continuing resolution. He continues to support the continuing resolution.
(01:17)
Now the ball is in Senate Democrats' court. Do they want to shut down the government or do they want to keep it open and funded for the American people who need this government to continue moving, to continue building on the momentum President Trump has created? It's up to them. We'll see what they do. We hope that everybody on the Senate side will help to pass the bill so we can continue doing the business of the American people. I'll take a couple questions. Jeff.
Journalists (01:40):
Karoline, [inaudible 00:01:40] a sense that the market and business leaders are not understanding what the President is trying to do or that they don't like what the President is doing? How do you explain the stock market?
Karoline Leavitt (01:49):
Well, I think I talked about this yesterday and I think the president-
Journalists (01:52):
[inaudible 00:01:53].
Karoline Leavitt (01:52):
Sure. The president has also addressed the stock market yesterday. It's a snapshot of a moment in time and we expect there will be good days and there will be bad days, but ultimately, Wall Street and Main Street are going to benefit from this president's policies as they did in his first term.
Journalists (02:09):
[inaudible 00:02:09] on the Department of Education with layoffs of 50%. Can you confirm that critical services won't be cut? For instance, reassuring American families who have kids with disabilities that their programs will not be cut?
Karoline Leavitt (02:21):
Yes, so the Secretary of Education, Lynda McMahon, who's doing a tremendous job by the way, has assured the American people of that. And these cuts are a promise made and a promise kept. There is no reason that we should be spending more than most developed countries in the world and our education system is failing. If you look at our nation's report card of eighth graders are not reading at the rate that they should. Fourth graders are not learning math at the rate that they should. So we have a problem with our education system. Nobody disagrees with that, but a lot of people seem to disagree with actually doing something about it and changing the status quo. So the president wants to return education back to the state, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children's lives. And this is the first step in that process.
Journalists (03:07):
[inaudible 00:03:08].
Karoline Leavitt (03:08):
Jake.
Journalists (03:09):
Karoline, it seems President Trump has put the onus on Russia to engage in the ceasefire. If that ceasefire is broken, is there any type of enforcement or mechanism in place that President Trump would enforce on Russia if they break that ceasefire?
Karoline Leavitt (03:22):
Well, that's obviously a grand hypothetical question that I won't comment on because we're not there yet. The current state of play is that the Ukrainians have agreed to a ceasefire. The Ukrainians have agreed to the peace plan that was put on the table yesterday in Saudi Arabia by the Secretary of State and our national security advisor, whom I just spoke with before coming out here. And he informed me that he has had a call today with his Russian counterpart and the president's team continues to be engaged.
(03:49)
As you all know, Mr. Witkoff is traveling to Moscow later this week and we urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war. We are at the 10th yard line and the president is expecting the Russians to help us run this into the end zone.
Journalists (04:03):
Would president call President Putin and encourage him to engage in the ceasefire?
Karoline Leavitt (04:07):
I don't have a readout on the president's calls, but as the president always does, if that call happens, he will let you guys know.
Journalists (04:13):
Karoline, on the Chips Act, the president has called for a full repeal on [inaudible 00:04:19] appears the Senate GOP is looking for more reform on that. Is this going to be [inaudible 00:04:25] nothing as far as the president is concerned?
Karoline Leavitt (04:28):
I think the president's made his position on that quite clear.
Journalists (04:31):
The NATO Secretary General will be here tomorrow?
Karoline Leavitt (04:33):
Yes.
Journalists (04:34):
What is the President hoping to get out of that meeting? Like his asks of the NATO Secretary General?
Karoline Leavitt (04:39):
Yes, he will be here tomorrow and I suspect the president will provide guidance on that meeting after it takes place. But I'm quite confident, as he always does when it comes to NATO, he will urge the NATO Secretary the president's belief that NATO countries need to pay their fair share for their own defense. We have been spending billions and billions of dollars on NATO, which the president agrees with, so long as other countries are paying their fair share as well.
Journalists (05:04):
Is 5% still his commitment, like what he expects from the European countries, 5% of GDP for defense.
Karoline Leavitt (05:10):
Last time I spoke with him, that was his commitment, yes. Christian, go ahead.
Journalists (05:14):
Thank you. Does the president have any response to the ICC arrest of Rodrigo Duterte, the former Philippine president?
Karoline Leavitt (05:21):
I have not spoken to him about that, but I can and get back to you.
Journalists (05:24):
Separate question then.
Karoline Leavitt (05:25):
Sure.
Journalists (05:25):
There's this March 13th deadline for departments to submit their agency reduction plans. Can you give us an update on that? Is there any foot-dragging from any places within the federal government and when do you expect these cuts to go into place?
Karoline Leavitt (05:40):
Everybody is working together as one team. This is the goal that every Cabinet secretary across the board agrees with. We have to reduce our workforce. We have to make our bureaucracy more efficient. And then when the March 13th deadline hits, we can talk about that when it does.
Journalists (05:53):
On the economy, you mentioned yesterday that this is a transition period. How does the White House measure this in terms of when can you not blame it on former President Biden? When does it fully become President Trump's responsibility?
Karoline Leavitt (06:06):
Well, we've only been here for 52 days, but certainly the president is working hard every day to again bring down the cost of living, which we see is already happening. You see the cost of eggs is going down, cost of gasoline is going down because of the massive deregulatory efforts of this president. And also the fact that we are delivering on his promise to drill, baby drill already. You saw this past weekend, the National Economic Advisory put out a report, that because of the regulations we've already slashed in just 52 days, we've saved American taxpayers $180 billion. That comes out to about $2,000 per American household. That's in 52 days. So the president is working diligently and he's working hard on this every single day. And we need Congress to also help. We need Congress to pass tax cuts, which the president campaigned on and the vast majority of the American people support.
(06:56)
And as you all know, the president met with business leaders last night at the Business Roundtable, and he said to them in the room, some of you may be Democrats, but that's fine. But we need to get Senate Democrats and House Democrats on board with this tax bill because America, working America, supports tax cuts. The American people, CEOs, small business owners, and workers all want more money in their pockets. And we expect all people on Capitol Hill, Republican or Democrat, to get on board with, that because it's a wildly popular position. Thanks, guys. See you later.
Journalists (07:29):
[inaudible 00:07:29] respond to the EU tariffs. Can you say when?