Karoline Leavitt (00:05):
Good afternoon everybody. Good to see you all. Since Inauguration Day, President Trump has secured trillions of dollars in private and foreign investments. Every single day, more money is pouring into our country, which will create more jobs for hardworking Americans. Today, Schneider Electric pledged to invest more than $700 million in the United States to boost American energy infrastructure and AI. On Monday, Hyundai announced a $20 billion investment in the United States, including $5.8 billion for a new steel plant in Louisiana, which will create nearly 1,500 high paying jobs.
(00:46)
President Trump is truly turning America back into a manufacturing superpower. Yesterday, President Trump marked National Medal of Honor Day by meeting with 21 of our nation's bravest heroes and incredible patriots who have been awarded the highest military honor. Beautiful picture. The president also signed a historic executive order to protect the integrity of American elections by strengthening voter citizenship verification and banning foreign nationals from interfering in US elections.
(01:17)
These are the common sense solutions that only Democrats could oppose. But voters deserve elections they can trust and critical confidence is being restored thanks to President Trump's leadership. Later this afternoon, in the East Room, President Trump will mark Women's History Month by honoring the exceptional women around our country, including the highly talented women in his administration and his cabinet. And on an additional scheduling update, the president will hold a press conference in the Oval Office today at 4:00 PM to announce tariffs on the auto industry, and I will leave that to him to make that announcement later.
(01:54)
Unfortunately, all of this good is happening for our country, this administration is working hard on behalf of the American public every day, but the mainstream media continues to be focused on a sensationalized story from the failing Atlantic magazine that is falling apart by the hour. Here are the facts. The National Security Advisor has taken responsibility for this matter and the National Security Council immediately said, alongside the White House Counsel's Office, that they're looking into how a reporter's number was inadvertently added to this messaging thread.
(02:28)
We have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread. There were no locations, no sources, or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed. The Atlantic has even admitted this themselves. Their release of these internal messages validates the truth, which we have been saying all along. If this story proves anything, it proves that Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well.
(03:02)
And there's arguably no one in the media who loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes more than Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg is an anti-Trump hater. He is a registered Democrat. Goldberg's wife is also a registered Democrat and a big Democrat donor who used to work under who? Hillary Clinton. This is the same Jeffrey Goldberg who infamously lied about weapons of mass destruction to get us into the Iraq war, which cost trillions of dollars and thousands of American soldiers.
(03:31)
And how else has Goldberg discredited himself? By absurdly claiming that President Trump was Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign, by peddling the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax that tried to hijack President Trump's first term, by inventing the suckers and losers hoax to help Joe Biden in the 2020 election, by peddling a hoax about President Trump involving gold star families to help Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, which our campaign at the time vigorously denied. Jeffrey Goldberg didn't care. There's more, but we don't have all day, and we can now add this Signal hoax to this very long list.
(04:10)
The real story here is the overwhelming success of President Trump's decisive military action against Houthi terrorists. On March 15th, President Trump ordered a series of military operations against the terrorist Houthis to defend US shipping assets in the Red Sea, restore freedom of navigation for international shipping, and defend the United States from enemy threats. United States forces successfully struck dozens of targets across Houthi controlled territory. And as a result of these actions, several Houthi leaders were killed, including the Houthi drone chief, his deputy, and several of their drone experts and other key leaders.
(04:51)
We also destroyed command and controlled facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities, and advanced weapons storage locations. And it's important to remember why this powerful action took place in the first place. Because of Joe Biden's incompetence and pathetic weakness on the world stage for years, the Houthi terrorists grew emboldened. Immediately after taking office in 2021, Joe Biden removed the Iran-backed Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specifically Designated Global Terrorist List.
(05:23)
Did anybody in this room ask the Biden administration at the time why they made such a stupid mistake? This reckless action undid the designation put in place by President Trump during his first term, and what followed was predictable and devastating. The Houthis targeted US military ships and aircraft, hit commercial ships, including US flagged vessels, threatened our personnel overseas, and attacked our allies in the region. This resulted in more than a year of US flagged commercial ships being prevented from safely sailing through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden.
(05:59)
This had a massive negative impact on global trade of the economic security of the United States. Joe Biden was the commander-in-chief, and he sat on his hands while the United States of America was bullied and embarrassed by terrorists. President Trump and his team are putting a stop to these threats and restoring American strength around the world. The Trump peace-through-strength approach means no terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the waterways of the world.
(06:29)
But unfortunately, this is not what the Democrats and the media want to talk about. They are focused on a coordinated campaign to try and sow chaos in this White House. And this has been the most successful first two months of any administration ever, which is exactly why they are doing this. We are not going to bend in the face of this insincere outrage.
(06:51)
And here's just one example of how bad faith the Democrats criticisms are. Democrat Senator Mark Warner is hysterical over the use of Signal, which is an approved decrypted app, in the killing of Houthi terrorists. But Senator Warner himself used Signal to work with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch to connect the disgraced Steele dossier author who started the Russia hoax, which Jeffrey Goldberg later reported on. How ironic.
(07:18)
We're not going to lose Focus of the bottom line, which is that Joe Biden's weakness enabled and emboldened Houthi terrorists, and President Trump's strength and resolve eliminated those terrorists. Here in our new media seat today, we have Lyndsay Keith. She is the managing editor for Merit TV and serves as their White House correspondent. Merit TV launched one year ago and creates and distributes content across diverse platforms. We're glad to have you with us, Lyndsay. Please kick us off.
Lyndsay Keith (07:46):
Thank you, Karoline. I appreciate this opportunity for Merit TV. Two questions if I may. One on Signal, one on the economy.
Karoline Leavitt (07:53):
Sure.
Lyndsay Keith (07:54):
On Signal, how comfortable is the President with what was shared so far, now that the chain has been released?
Karoline Leavitt (08:01):
The President's view on all of this remains the same today as it did yesterday. And I think it speaks volumes about the leadership of this president, that he went directly to all of you, members of the Press Corps. He was asked, "Do you want someone else to go out and do a briefing?" And he said, "No, I will tackle this story. I will discuss it. The people need to hear from me about this situation." And so, his thoughts on this remain the same today. He has placed great trust in his National Security team.
(08:29)
And as for the usage of Signal, as the President said yesterday, as the CIA director has testified under oath, this is an approved app. It's an encrypted app. The Department of Defense, the Department of State, the CIA has it loaded onto government phones because it is the most secure and efficient way to communicate. As for, again, the original situation in this messaging thread, the National Security Council, the White House Counsel's Office continues to look into how this mistake, which the National Security Advisor has owned, occurred. And the president has ensured they are doing that.
Lyndsay Keith (09:01):
On the economy, consumer confidence hit a four-year low this month. Can you help explain to the American people how tariffs will help them in the long run?
Karoline Leavitt (09:10):
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm grateful for the question the American public will hear later this afternoon from the President directly on the topic of tariffs. And as you all know, April 2nd day, President Trump has proudly dubbed it Liberation Day for our country. What he means by that is it will be a day where the United States of America will no longer be ripped off by nations around this world. It will be a day where Americans finally see free and fair trade practices restored. We are no longer going to allow our allies, our competitors, and our adversaries to take advantage of American workers.
(09:43)
And if you think about your hometown in the state that you grew up, Main Street looks a lot different today than it did many years ago. And President Trump wants to restore America as a manufacturing superpower around the globe. He wants products to be made right here in our great country with great hardworking American hands that will ultimately result in higher wages and more money in the pockets of the American people. And he's also, in addition to tariffs, also determined to pass tax cuts later this year, as he did successfully in his first term, to put even more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans. Peter.
Peter (10:19):
Karoline, if I can ask you very quickly about the information we've seen, just to set the predicate to all this, has the president been briefed and physically seen the… He's seen all the details of the chat as printed by the Atlantic?
Karoline Leavitt (10:30):
I just spoke to the President about it, yes.
Peter (10:32):
Okay. Then let me ask you, if I can, very quickly. In the chat, Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, details F-18s, Tomahawks, as some of the weapons that were used. He details the timing involved for this, all of which occurred 31 minutes before, as he says, F-18s would launch. The DoD manual details classified information as significant military plans saying that is secret, that that's classified. So what about, there are no methods, there are no sources, but that's not what determines what's classified. So what is it about what Pete Hegseth wrote that makes you say this is not classified?
Karoline Leavitt (11:07):
Well, it's not just me saying that, Peter. It's the Secretary of Defense himself who was saying this as well. And he put out a very strong statement earlier today listing all of the things that were not included in that message that he sent to the group. And again, this message, there was no classified information transmitted. There were no war plans discussed.
(11:26)
Why did the Atlantic downgrade their allegation about war plans to attack plans? They're now playing word games because they know this was sensationalist spin from a reporter who is well known for doing this. We have said all along, no war plans were discussed, no classified material was sent. You have the Secretary of Defense saying that. You have the Director of the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI Director, all testifying to that under oath, and they should be trusted with that.
Peter (11:52):
To be clear, Americans can make the decision for themselves, but whether… You said it's not war plans. Would you characterize these as military plans, military operation plans?
Karoline Leavitt (12:04):
I would characterize this messaging thread as a policy discussion, a sensitive policy discussion surely, amongst high-level cabinet officials and senior staff. And I'm so glad, Peter, that you said the American public can decide for themselves. Because I think the American public should decide for themselves based on the outcome of this operation. And what happened in this operation? Terrorists that were allowed to run wild by the Biden administration were killed because of the direction and the determination of this president and his team. And this message also shows, this messaging thread also proved that President Trump has an incredibly dynamic team who is working incredibly hard, flying all over the world to secure world peace and to fix up the foreign policy crises that the previous administration left for this team to inherit.
Peter (12:51):
So to be clear, we all in this room and around the country would agree that we're glad no American service members were harmed and we're glad that the mission was a success. We'll stipulate that. But the President said that Pete Hegseth said none of this was classified. So given the president has seen it now and given the president understands that significant military plans are deemed classified as secret, how does the president view none of this, which details times, and weapons, and more as being not classified?
Karoline Leavitt (13:19):
I've already been asked and answered this question. The president's thoughts on this remain the same today as they were yesterday-
Peter (13:24):
On what basis, I'm asking.
Karoline Leavitt (13:25):
… as well as the Secretary of Defense. This question has been asked and answered. There was no classified material discussed. Jackie?
Peter (13:31):
On what basis, I was asking.
Karoline Leavitt (13:32):
Go ahead Jackie.
Jackie (13:33):
Thank you, Karoline. So why aren't launch times on a mission strike classified?
Karoline Leavitt (13:41):
Again, I would defer you to the Secretary of Defense's statement he put out this morning. There were various reasons he listed, things that were not included in that messaging thread, that were not classified. And again, going back to the American public, do you trust the Secretary of Defense, who was nominated for this role, voted by the United States Senate into this role, who has served in combat, honorably served our nation in uniform? Or do you trust Jeffrey Goldberg, who is a registered Democrat and an anti-Trump sensationalist reporter? This president and this National Security team are putting our national security and the American people first. We are restoring American strength around the world, and the results of this operation speak for themselves.
Jackie (14:19):
Putting aside Jeffrey Goldberg, though, just for American service members who are going to have to carry out these missions in the future, I guess the message that's coming from the response to all this that we're hearing is that nothing sensitive happened. And I guess the logical conclusion of that is that if these messages had gone out publicly prior to the launch, that that wouldn't have been a risk to service members? I don't know that they're comfortable with that. So can you explain, had these messages been published, would the plans have moved forward? Would the launch have still taken off?
Karoline Leavitt (14:57):
What I can tell you is that the president, as the Commander-in-Chief of our United States Armed Forces, and Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is an incredible man and a war fighter himself, take the lives of our American service members with the utmost responsibility, and they would never do anything intentionally to put their lives at risk. And again, they're working hard on that every single day, and we are protecting our service members while also restoring peace throughout this globe. It's something the previous administration has not done.
(15:29)
And I would just add one more point. We are not going to be lectured about national security and American troops by Democrats in the mainstream media who turned the other cheek when the Biden administration, because of their incompetence, left 13 service members dead in Afghanistan, and not a single person in the previous administration was held accountable for that botched withdrawal.
(15:51)
Joe Biden said, in fact, it was a great operation. That is despicable. It's unacceptable to this president and this Secretary of Defense. The National Security Advisor has taken responsibility for this inadvertent number being added to the messaging thread. But above all, we take the lives of our troops, safety, security, prosperity around the globe with the utmost seriousness.
Jackie (16:11):
On Goldberg's intentions, do you believe that-
Karoline Leavitt (16:13):
Jennifer, go ahead.
Jackie (16:14):
… he would release that to embarrass the administration ahead of the worldwide threats?
Karoline Leavitt (16:17):
Jennifer, go ahead.
Jennifer (16:18):
Given what you've said about the president's trust in his National Security team, can you say definitively that no one will lose their jobs? No one will lose their job at all because of this Signal situation?
Karoline Leavitt (16:29):
What I can say definitively is what I just spoke to the president about, and he continues to have confidence in his National Security team. Go ahead.
Jennifer (16:37):
One more. Can I ask one more, Karoline? On the targets in Yemen on March 15th, can you say, were 100% of the targets that were planned for March 15th, were they all destroyed? Because that would be an indication, if some of them were moved, or they were not all hit, that maybe perhaps some of the enemies were able to get some of the information in that Signal thread.
Karoline Leavitt (16:56):
What I can say about the operation is what the Department of Defense has put out there. I would refer to them for any further operational details. But there have been more than 100 strikes conducted against Houthi targets and they have hit key Houthi leaders, air defense systems, commanding control nodes, headquarters, weapons manufacturing and storage facilities. And these operations will continue until the freedom of navigation in our seas is restored and US shipping can safely transmit without the fear of attack.
(17:26)
And again, we believe that this has been a very successful operation thus far, and it will continue until this administration feels it no longer has to, and these terrorists have been taken out, which again, is something previous administration should have done. But they didn't, and now we've inherited this crisis. Steven.
Steven (17:42):
Thank you, Karoline. I'd like to clarify something about the investigation and also ask about some conservative commentary on the investigation. Mike Waltz said last night that he had spoken to Elon Musk about figuring out how Jeffrey Goldberg's number got in his phone. You mentioned the NSC and the White House Counsel's Office investigating. Can you just clarify who is investigating, who's leading that? And also Dave Portnoy, who endorsed President Trump, said today that he thinks that Mike Waltz should leave. Could you respond to that?
Karoline Leavitt (18:12):
Sure. Great respect for Dave Portnoy, but I just answered that previous question from Jennifer. As for your original question about who's leading, looking into the messaging thread, the National Security Council, the White House Counsel's Office, and also, yes, Elon Musk's team. Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat, again, to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again. Caitlin.
Caitlin (18:39):
I have two questions, one on a follow-up on something you just said. But since we have these messages released and you said that the president has now personally reviewed them. At the chat, at one point, Pete Hegseth wrote, "1415: Strike Drones on Target," and in all caps, he said, "This is when the first bombs will definitely drop." Does the president feel that he was misled by his national security advisors, whoever it was that told him there was no classified information in there, now that he's seen these messages.
Karoline Leavitt (19:05):
I've now been asked and answered this question three times by the both of you, and I've given you my answer. The president feels the same today as he did yesterday.
Caitlin (19:14):
Sorry, I might follow up on what you had just said.
Karoline Leavitt (19:15):
No. Go ahead, Philip. Caitlin, I'm not taking your follow-up.
Caitlin (19:18):
I have a follow on something you just said though, Karoline.
Karoline Leavitt (19:20):
Caitlin, I'm not taking your follow-up. Philip, go ahead. I have called on you. Thank you.
Philip (19:24):
The vice president seemed to express some frustration that Europe wasn't doing more to police waterways in their backyard, noting in that Signal thread that 40% of European trade goes through the Suez Canal. Does the president share that opinion and frustration? And then going forward, should the Europeans be responsible for policing that waterway?
Karoline Leavitt (19:44):
Well, the president was asked this question yesterday by the pool in the Cabinet Room and he answered this question. He said, yes, he believes that Europe has been, as the vice president put it, freeloading on the backs of American taxpayers and off the backs of the United States of America, and he wants to ensure that Europe pays their fair share. He's always been very honest and upfront about that. And I think the vice president shares those concerns with him as well.
Philip (20:07):
And then, one more.
Karoline Leavitt (20:08):
Sure.
Philip (20:10):
Enlisted soldiers, sailors, and marines would face consequences if they shared this type of information inadvertently with a reporter. Can you tell us more why the president is so willing to give Mike Waltz a mulligan here?
Karoline Leavitt (20:25):
Again, I have now been asked and answered the same question using different language multiple times. If anybody has another question, there's a lot of different things going on in the world. We have tariffs possibly being implemented later today. The president is going to talk about that at 4:00 this afternoon. Sure, go ahead.
Speaker 9 (20:42):
Okay. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to first and foremost thank the administration for the election integrity executive order, because so many journalists for four years were banned from talking about this very subject. So thank you to the administration for that. My question is, yesterday, President Trump, when signing the order said that there was more to come when it comes to election integrity. Would that include same-day voting and hand-counted paper ballots? And why are Democrats so against election integrity measures, like, obviously, proof of citizenship, when it comes to voting in the United States election?
Karoline Leavitt (21:16):
Well, it's a very good question. You'll have to ask the Democrats why they're against so many common-sense things, not just mandating voter ID. Why are they against men in women's sports? Why are they against deporting foreign terrorists from American soil who have been designated a foreign terrorist organization? I'm referring to Tren de Aragua. As for the election integrity executive order that the president signed yesterday, this is in an effort to restore trust in American elections.
(21:39)
There were more than 10 steps taken, 10 executive actions taken throughout this one order. It directs the department, or the attorney general, rather, and Homeland Security to prevent non-citizens from any involvement in administering elections. There's also another host of actions. We can provide the fact sheet for you, but it's a very strong election integrity executive order. And the president would also like to see Congress do something about this very important issue.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
About Judge Goldstein-
Karoline Leavitt (22:04):
Sure, go ahead.
Speaker 10 (22:05):
Karoline, the Republicans and Democrats alike have been expressing some concern about the frequency of which senior Trump officials have been using this Signal app. Has there been discussion whether there'll be a review about how often they use Signal, and if you could explain to us how they might be considering other applications to get away from something like this happening again?
Karoline Leavitt (22:28):
Sure. Well, again, first of all, Signal has been an approved app for government use. It's an encrypted app. And as I said, it's the most safe and efficient way of communicating, especially when people can't be in a skiff or inside a room physically together. I think as the president said yesterday, he wishes that everybody could be in the room and it's our goal to ensure that everybody can be. But again, no classified information was discussed in this chat.
(22:53)
And any time classified information is discussed amongst high-level officials across this administration, secure lines of communication are used, including by the way, our special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who I understand, the Wall Street Journal erroneously reported that he was on this Signal chat on a personal device while in Moscow. That is absolutely false. Steve Witkoff did not have his personal device, nor did he have his government device with him.
(23:19)
He was given a classified protected server by the United States government, and he was very careful about his communications when he was in Russia. So rest assured to the American public, this administration is taking every precaution when it comes to protecting our national security. And that's why the American people re-elected this president. Because they know that our national security is in good hands with the President of the United States.
(23:43)
Speaking of the vice president, I understand he's going to be speaking any moment now. I would hate to counter program the Vice President of the United States. You'll also hear from the president at 3:00. He will be honoring Women's History at the Women's History Month celebration. We have a lot of great women across our cabinet who will be in attendance, so we'll see you all there. And then you'll also hear from the president again at 4:00 when he talks about tariffs. So plenty of time for more questions. Sorry, it's a bit shorter today, guys. We'll see you later.
Caitlin (24:08):
Why was Jeffrey Goldberg's number in Michael Waltz's phone if he's registered democrat and anti-Trump reporter?
