Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Nov. 20, 2025

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Jul 26, 2026
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AI GeneratedThe Trump administration reports strong economic growth, characterized by job gains and lower consumer costs. A central policy focus is the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to return authority to states and local boards. Additionally, the administration is pursuing peace efforts in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and addressing domestic political tensions and international relations.
Good afternoon, everybody. I brought a very special guest with me today, as you can see,
Secretary McMahon. So I will begin my remarks, she's going to speak, and then we'll take some
questions. She'll take questions, and I'll take questions from you as well. First off, yesterday,
First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Usha Vance traveled to Marine Corps Air Station New
River in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where they spent the day meeting with students,
educators, military families, and United States Marines. Both the First Lady and Second Lady
were grateful for the warm welcome and remain deeply committed to supporting military families
and the communities that serve our great nation. May God bless all of them. In economic news,
the September jobs report showed the American economy remains strong, with 119,000 new jobs
added, more than double expectations. These gains came after the summer passage of President
Trump's historic tax cuts and multiple big trade deals with countries around the world.
In particular, construction jobs surged by 19,000 in September, the largest monthly gain in a year.
Nearly all of this solid monthly job growth came from the private sector and went to Americans
rather than foreign-born workers, the opposite of what we saw under the previous administration.
Inflation also remains under control, and wages are up by 3.8% over the year for American workers
because of President Trump's pro-growth policies. In fact, real wages are on pace to increase
roughly $1,200 for the average worker this year under President Trump. This is a complete
reversal of the failed Biden era, when we saw inflation skyrocket to 9%, causing private sector
workers to see their wages decline by approximately $3,000. We know that Americans are still hurting
from the four-decade high inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats, but President Trump is
making significant progress to fix this, and he will not stop working until he solves it.
As the President recently stated, he is never satisfied. For example, President Trump's policies
are working to make Americans' Thanksgiving more affordable this year, from their commute to the
dinner table. Nearly 100 million Americans are expected to drive next week to spend time with
loved ones for the holiday. And thanks to President Trump's Drill Baby Drill agenda, the national
average price of a gallon of gas on Thanksgiving Day is projected to be at the cheapest price
since the COVID pandemic in 2021. President Trump is bringing down gas prices and providing
significant savings to American families at the pump. And again, we expect those prices
to continue to decline. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual survey,
cooking Thanksgiving dinner will also cost less this year than it did last year and is down about
5 percent overall. The average price for a staple of the meal, a 16-pound frozen turkey,
is down more than 16 percent from last year, which will provide critical savings for families and
their budgets. President Trump's entire economic agenda is aimed at putting more money back into
the pockets of hardworking Americans. That's why he signed the largest middle-tax class
tax cuts in history into law, from no tax on overtime, no tax on tips, to no tax on social
security. And according to a new study from Piper Sandler, which is out this week, tax filers can
expect an extra $1,000 bump to their tax refund next year in what could be a record-breaking tax
refund season. So there is more good news to come. We know these refunds will make a huge difference
for Americans to help pay down their bills and use towards life's expenses. In other news this
week, President Trump took a significant step toward delivering on a core campaign promise
to finally close the Department of Education. To shrink the bloated federal bureaucracy,
the Department of Education just entered into new interagency agreements with four agencies,
the Departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State. These agencies will
now ensure the delivery of legally required programs while also refocusing them to better
serve students. This common-sense action brings the Trump administration much closer to finally
returning education where it belongs, at the state and local level, not in Washington, D.C.
The Democrats' reckless 43-day government shutdown did manage to do one valuable thing. It proved
that America does not need a federal Department of Education. During the longest shutdown in
history, the Department of Education furloughed 90 percent of its staff, and America's education
system was not impacted whatsoever. Schools stayed fully open across the country, students attended
class and received normal in-person instruction, and our wonderful teachers received their paychecks
uninterrupted. The Democrats' government shutdown made it painfully obvious that American families
do not need the Department of Education. Since its creation in 1979 during the Carter administration,
the Department of Ed has spent over three trillion taxpayer dollars without improving
student achievement. Despite peer pupil spending having increased by more than 245 percent
since the 1970s, math and reading scores are down in public schools. In fact, the most recent
nation's report card from 2024 showed that 13-year-olds' math scores are the lowest they've
been in decades, and their reading scores are the lowest since testing began more than 30 years ago.
It's clear that throwing more money at a broken system does not work, and that's why President
Trump appointed the amazing leader behind me, our Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, who is
making these monumental changes at the direction of the President. We're very grateful to have you
here today to talk about these changes and then take some questions. Hopefully, folks in this room
will have some questions on the very important topic of education. So please, Mrs. Secretary.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Caroline. It's really a pleasure to be here with you today,
and thank all of you for being here as well. My purpose here is to speak directly to the
American families, not just you, but to the American families about the work this administration is
doing in education to reverse our national decline with a hard reset of our educational system.
That reset was a top campaign promise from President Trump to send education back to the
states and end Washington's micromanagement of education once and for all. This week, we took
the most decisive steps thus far to make good on this promise to you. We have linked six groundbreaking
partnerships with other federal agencies to delegate education department programs that
are redundant with existing programs at Labor, State, Interior, and HHS. These interagency
agreements, to cut our own bureaucratic bloat, are a key step in our efforts to shift educational
authority from Washington, D.C. to your state education agency, your local superintendent,
your local school board, entities that are accountable to you, and we encourage parents
to always be involved. Cutting federal bureaucracy is never a popular move among D.C. insiders.
A chorus of anti-Trump voices have come out of the woodwork to complain that we are defunding
education, harming students, or acting without a plan. This could not be further from the truth.
The majority of Americans across the country handed President Trump the popular vote precisely
because they have seen the brokenness of a top-down education system run by the federal
government. They're painfully aware that only three out of ten students can read proficiently
at their grade level. They know that college students are collectively 1.7 trillion dollars
in debt, and less than half of college graduates get a job that actually uses the degree which they
studied so hard to get. They see more teachers than ever before leaving the profession due to
burnout, over-regulation, and lack of autonomy in the classroom. Anti-Trump voices are stirring up
fear that returning education to the states is a draconian action. When Americans hear that we are
shutting down the department, but given no other details, 51 percent oppose it. But when those same
Americans are informed of our plans to preserve important elements of our work and other federal
agencies, and to maintain the K-12 funding that is distributed to the states, that number flips
to an even greater majority at 56 percent. They support returning education to the states
and breaking up the bureaucracy. That's because the Department of Education is a pass-through
entity. It doesn't educate a single student. The money it sends to states for education can be sent
directly without waste. The Democrats' government shutdown proved that without a doubt, now
I'll reiterate what you said, that the Department of Education was not necessary during the shutdown.
Now, this is what I've seen already on my 50-state tour that I've embarked on. Educators are innovating
in their schools. States are customizing their budgets and standards, and post-secondary
institutions are planning for the economy of the future. But we're not leading them. They are
informing us. That's why our final mission as a department is to fully empower states to carry
the torch of our educational renaissance. Education is local. It should be overseen locally by those
who best know local needs. We're not ending federal support for education. We are ending
federal micromanagement and paving the way for education renewal through state reforms like
school choice, the science of reading, and restoring the right priorities in higher education.
President Trump promised to send education back to the states, and we're keeping that promise.
America's next generation will look back on the work we've carried out,
thankful for an education system that prioritizes students over bureaucracy. Thank you.
Well, thank you very much, Madam Secretary. And we'll take some questions for the Secretary if
you have them. Elizabeth, why don't you start? Thank you for joining us. You announced the
partnership to move some functions of the education department to other agencies.
Are you talking to members of Congress about codifying this so that it lasts beyond the
administration? Yes, we started our conversation, and thanks very much for asking that because there
have been some reports that Congress is in the dark on this. That's clearly not true. We've been
talking to probably, I've talked to dozens of members of Congress to explain to them exactly
what we're doing, to bring them up to speed, and to say to them, look, when we have completed some
of these transfers that are working incredibly well, then we will be looking to Congress to
codify those, make them permanent. Brian. Thank you. Secretary McMahon,
what is the update on the negotiations with Harvard? I know the President has publicly
pointed to you as somebody who's worked on that. I think you've talked about that at length,
but I'd like to understand, where are things with those negotiations with Harvard at this time?
They're ongoing negotiations, and I feel very comfortable that we are getting close to having
those negotiations finalized. It's been an open-door conversation all along.
Deanne. Hello, Mr. Secretary. The President recently posted about establishing a federal
standard for AI. Do you know if the administration has a view on the use of AI for students in
schools? And Caroline, do you know if the President personally uses AI?
I don't think so. I've never witnessed it, so I can't attest to that.
Well, I do think AI is going to need guardrails, but I have witnessed AI firsthand. I was at the
Alpha School in Austin, Texas, and the first two hours of every day in that school, students are
learning through AI. They have their headsets on. They're in front of their screens. And the AI is
really acting as like an individual tutor for those students, allowing those students that
can progress faster to do that. Those who need a little catch-up, it refeeds information to them.
After those two hours of learning the basics of what they're doing in their curriculum that day,
then they spend the rest of the day. I mean, they have good recess and all of that time,
but then they spend the rest of the day in what are called life skills, and they're actually
using the information that they've learned this morning. So I've seen some AI in action that has
really proven quite beneficial. Michael.
Thank you, Caroline. Secretary McMahon, as the Education Department continues to pare down,
can you talk about taxpayer services like charter school grants and how the department will
continue to assist kids with special needs? Well, we are going to make sure that there's
no interruption in getting that grant money out the door. I mean, that money comes from Congress.
It's appropriated by Congress, and we legally are obligated to do that. And the transitions
we're starting to make, our first programs that went over to the Department of Labor,
that was a few weeks ago, we actually signed the first interagency agreement, which we accomplished
under the authority of the Economy Act. We transferred grants for WIOA and for the Perkins
Act. And the really good news is that the Department of Labor has a much more sophisticated
technology system and grant-fulfilling system than the Department of Education does.
As a matter of fact, our executive manager that went over with that group over to Labor
said he would compare what the Labor system is to educations like held together by bubblegum
that is not connected to any other part. So we were able to get those grants out the door
more smoothly, and states have actually better access for those systems than they do at the
Department of Education. So that's a real bonus.
As part of the diversity, equity, and inclusion new regulations that came out from these
administrations, a lot of schools, whether high school or even higher education is concerned,
some of them are defying these new administration policies, even apparently according to a new report.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you.
There's been a new report from the administration saying that half of medical schools are defying
administration when it comes to DEI policies. What type of action will the administration take
for these schools that are defying DEI policies?
Well, certainly the president has been very clear, and the Department of Education has
taken measures to make sure that as schools are developing their policies or if they have
open DEI offices, they're closed, or DEI regulations and rules are stripped from their programs.
And so that will continue.
We'll take one more. Go ahead.
Thank you, Caroline. Secretary McMahon, my question is, since you said three out of ten
students are literate with regard to their reading capacity, would now the states help
to improve those numbers since you have gone back to the states?
Well, what we are finding, that the states that are making great progress, it's through
their own innovation. It's not coming from the Department of Education. I think the Department
of Education is really misunderstood about what our function is. We don't teach one student.
We have nothing to do with the curriculum that are in any states. We are a pass-through
pathway from money that's appropriated by Congress to get to the states. But what we
have seen in those states that have taken that initiative and they are embracing the
science of reading and returning that into their school programs, Louisiana has done it,
Mississippi, they call it the Mississippi miracle, because they were like, I think,
bottom or next to last in reading proficiency in Mississippi. And now they're like middle
of the pack, which has been a really big jump. Florida has, Iowa has, Tennessee.
But these are innovations that are done at the state level. This is not anything we're
dictating. And that's why I'm saying returning education to the states where they really
are already leading in their education endeavors. And 90 percent of their budget, they provide.
The federal government only provides 8 to 10 percent of the budget for education. So
let's make sure that that grant money that's coming from the federal government is getting
in their hands as efficiently as possible and getting to students. We don't want teachers
having to spend their time and money in regulatory compliance. There was one superintendent chief
who said to me that they had done some calculation in their state and that for every dollar that
went into the classroom in a grant, 47 cents was spent in regulatory compliance. So let's
get the money into the hands of our students and our teachers. Let's raise the level of
education. The other thing I'll do, and I'll quickly wrap up for you, is this 50 state
tour that I have embarked on. We've done about 14 states. We've shut down a little bit during
the shutdown. But what I am doing is visiting different kinds of schools, grammar schools,
middle schools, high schools, micro schools, private schools, charter schools, the whole gambit.
And in the end, my goal will be, as we step away and fully deliver education back to the states,
is to provide them with a best practices toolkit of all of the things that I have seen around the
country to say, hey, this is working. Check with these superintendents. Check with these governors.
And you know what I found a little bit is governors are a little competitive. So it's
kind of nice to give some of these best practices out there. It'll work because it's already working.
If we leave it with the people who are closest to the students, the president believes, as do I,
the best education is that that's closest to the child. And parents' involvement is critical
to the success. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I appreciate your comment today.
Thanks for your great work. And she's a busy lady, so we'll let her get back to work.
All right. Thank you again. Well, let's get to it. You guys were so calm with her. I wish you
were that calm with me. We'll kick off with our new media seat. As always, Javier, why don't you
start us off, and then we'll get to the rest of the room. Go ahead. Thank you very much. My name
is Javier Negre. I'm from Spain. I'm the owner of the biggest media platform in Hispanic politics
with brands like La Derecha Diario, Ida TV, or 2H and Plus, or Bicicleta in Spanish.
And I'm happy to be here. Thanks for supporting the new media. Also in the Hispanic community,
we try to fight against medias like Telemundo, Invisión, CNN, or NBC News that are spreading
fake news and attacking the ICE operations. We'll premiere this Sunday the Real America's Voice,
the writing show, the first Spanish show against communism and world culture that is promoted by
George Soros to bring communism all over the world like it happened in New York.
I have two questions for you, if you don't mind. In Mexico, young people are protesting
against President Sheinbaum. They think she's doing nothing against the cartels.
Sheinbaum used the police to attack them, young people, kids, girls, and she's attacking
journalists like me in a country where 150 journalists have been killed in the past years.
The USA Legacy Media is attacking President Trump for his comments about the fake news media
while they are not publishing anything about the murders of journalists in Mexico. Why do
you think they stay silent about the murders of journalists in Mexico and the attacks on
businessmen like Ricardo Salinas? And my second question is, Trump says he has a plan for the
narco state of Venezuela. Does he have a plan for Mexico where, according to Stephen Miller,
the cartels are controlling governments and territories?
Sure. Well, thank you, Javier, for the question, and thank you again for being here. We're proud
to have new media voices in the briefing room. As for President Sheinbaum and the
President's relationship with Mexico, I will tell you that we have seen historic strides
from President Sheinbaum and her administration in Mexico when it comes to cracking down on the
cartels. They have been incredibly cooperative with the President's efforts at our southern
border to crack down on illegal immigration and also the illegal trafficking of drugs at
the southern border. Now the President is very interested in taking additional measures
against the drug cartels. He's been very clear about that. He's spoken about it,
and this is a promise that he made to the American public. And so his national security team is
discussing these options all of the time. And on the campaign show, the President promised
to take on the cartels. He has taken unprecedented action to do so, and he has left additional
options at his disposal on the table. So those are only decisions that the President can make.
Thank you. What about the silence of the legacy media
about the murders of journalists in Mexico? 150 journalists have been killed in the past years.
Yeah, well, it's certainly something I wish the media would report on more, and it's something
that this administration absolutely condemns. I can't speak for the media, but I can speak for
the President. That's not something he wants to see. Thank you. Sure.
Thank you, Caroline. Hi.
Is there anything that Mayor-elect Mamdani could say tomorrow that would ease the President's
concerns about his future of leadership in New York?
Look, I don't want to speak for the President or get ahead of this meeting that we are currently
working on for tomorrow. As you saw, the President put out a statement tomorrow that the Mayor-elect
will be coming to the Oval Office, and so our teams are arranging those details.
I won't get into the President's thinking on it. I think you'll all hear from him directly.
I also think, I will just add, it speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist
coming to the White House because that's who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor
of the largest city in the country. I think it's very telling, but I also think it speaks to the
fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what's
right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue
cities, in a city that's becoming much more left than I think this President ever anticipated in
his many years of living in New York himself. Nancy.
Thanks, Caroline. This morning, President Trump accused six Democratic lawmakers of
seditious behavior punishable by death. Just to be clear, does the President
want to execute members of Congress?
No. Let's be clear about what the President is responding to,
because many in this room want to talk about the President's response, but not what brought
the President to responding in this way. You have sitting members of the United States Congress
who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military,
to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them
to defy the President's lawful orders. The sanctity of our military rests on the chain
of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed.
It can lead to chaos, and that's what these members of Congress, who swore an oath to
abide by the Constitution, are essentially encouraging. We have 1.3 active duty service
members in this country, and if they hear this radical message from sitting members of Congress,
that could inspire chaos, and it could incite violence, and it certainly could disrupt
the chain of command. These three members of Congress, I will also add,
knew exactly what they were doing. You look at Alyssa Slotkin. She's a former member of the CIA.
Mark Kelly was a captain in the U.S. Navy. Maggie Goodlander was a naval officer,
and notably, she is also the wife of Joe Biden's national security former advisor,
Jake Sullivan. These members knew what they were doing. They were leading into their credentials
as former members of our military, as veterans, as former members of the national security
apparatus to signal to people serving under this commander-in-chief, Donald Trump,
that you can defy him, and you can betray your oath of office. That is a very, very dangerous
message, and it perhaps is punishable by law. I'm not a lawyer. I'll leave that to the Department
of Justice and the Department of War to decide. Chris, go ahead.
But Carolyn, can I just follow up? The President and the Vice President, for that matter,
have accused the other side of encouraging political violence. Isn't that exactly what
the President is doing when he says that members of Congress should be killed?
Why aren't you talking about what these members of Congress are doing to encourage and incite
violence? They are literally saying to 1.3 million active-duty service members
not to defy the chain of command, not to follow lawful orders. Every single-
Actually, they said if you can refuse an illegal order, which is illegal,
they're suggesting, Nancy, that the President has given illegal orders, which he has not.
Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander-in-chief
and through this chain of command, through the Secretary of War, is lawful, and the courts have
proven that. This administration has an unparalleled record at the Supreme Court, because
we are following the laws. We don't defy court orders. We do things by the books. And to suggest
and encourage that active-duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous
thing for sitting members of Congress to do. And they should be held accountable,
and that's what the President wants to see. Phil.
Thank you. Ambassador Mike Huckabee had a meeting with Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S.
citizen who was convicted and spent three decades in jail for selling state secrets to Israel.
Did the White House know that that meeting was going to happen? Does the administration condone
it? The White House was not aware of that meeting, but the President stands by
our Ambassador Mike Huckabee and all that he's doing for the United States and Israel.
You said that the President was going to do what was right for U.S. citizens,
regardless of whether they lived in blue or red states. I'm curious if there's any chance
in tomorrow's meeting with Mayor-elect Mamdani that he will be able to convince the President
to abandon that promise to cut off federal funding to New York City.
Look, Phil, we'll see how the meeting goes tomorrow, and I'll let the President speak
for himself. Natalie. Thank you, Caroline. What did the President
mean when he called Reporter Piggy? Look, the President is very frank and honest
with everyone in this room. You've all seen it yourself. You've all experienced it yourselves.
And I think it's one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this President,
because of his frankness. And he calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with
reporters when you lie about him, when you spread fake news about him and his administration.
But he also is the most transparent President in history. And he gives all of you in this room,
as you all know, unprecedented access. You are in the Oval Office almost every day
asking the President questions. And so I think the President being frank and open and honest to
your faces, rather than hiding behind your backs, is frankly a lot more respectful than what you
saw in the last administration, where you had a President who lied to your face and then didn't
speak to you for weeks and hid upstairs and didn't take your questions. So I think everyone
in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President
Trump on a near-daily basis. Caroline, thank you. Two questions for you. The New York Times
is reporting that the administration is now sending a U.S. official to the G20. They are
sending Mark Diller. Can you just — can you confirm if that is true and then also explain
the shift in — I'd be happy to explain because there is not a shift. The United States is not
participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa. I saw the South African President
running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the President of the United States
earlier today, and that language is not appreciated by the President or his team.
The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognize
that the United States will be the host of the G20. They are receiving that send-off
at the end of the event. They are not there to participate in official talks,
despite what the South African President is falsely claiming. On Ukraine, there have been
reports that President Zelensky said — you know, he's looking to look at the plan that — there's
been reports about the Trump administration proposing a plan. Can you just give an update
on where Russia-Ukraine stands? And does the President plan to speak with Zelensky
anytime soon, or when can we expect that? So, I'm happy to provide an update. I've seen quite
a bit of reporting on the latest with Russia-Ukraine, so let me clarify and give you guys
the truth on where it currently stands. President Trump has made it very clear since day one,
and even on the campaign trail, that he wants to see this war come to an end. He has grown
increasingly frustrated with both sides of this war, Russia and Ukraine alike, for their refusal
to commit to a peace agreement. But nevertheless, the President and his national security team
are steadfast in seeing this war come to an end, to end the killing, and deliver on the
President's promise. Special Envoy Whitkoff, Marco Rubio, have been working on a plan quietly
for about the last month. They've been engaging with both sides, Russia and Ukraine, equally,
to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace.
That's how you get to a peace negotiation, right? That's how it worked with Israel,
with respect to Israel and Gaza, and all of the Arab countries in the Middle East. That's how
we accomplished that historic agreement, which the UN, by the way, voted to commit to and accept
this week, which was a huge monumental moment. So, they have been engaged with both sides,
and these talks are continuing. As always, I'm not going to litigate the details of this plan,
as it's ongoing and it's in flux. But the President supports this plan. It's a good plan
for both Russia and Ukraine. And we believe that it should be acceptable to both sides,
and we're working very hard to get it done. And I'll also add, I know Secretary Driscoll
did meet with President Zelensky today. We spoke with him. He was very optimistic following that
meeting. And so, again, we are having good conversations with both sides,
with respect to ending this war. Sure. Go ahead.
Can I follow up on Ukraine? You said this is a good plan. So, according to our sources,
this proposal demands major concessions from Ukraine and doesn't demand much from Russia. So,
was Russia involved in drafting this? Your understanding is wrong. Have you read
the full plan? You haven't. That's what the sources say. So, if you can give details,
maybe. You've read reporting from one side of the war. And so, I want you to understand that
the administration has talked equally with both sides. You have seen President Trump engage
directly with both President Putin and President Zelensky. Likewise, his national security team
has as well. In fact, Special Envoy Woodcock and Secretary Rubio met with some of the Ukrainians
just in the past week to discuss this very plan. And so, just like you saw with respect
to Israel and Gaza, we are hearing out both sides of this war to understand what can you commit to,
to end the war. And that's ultimately how we are going to get to an agreeable solution. That's what
the President has directed of his team. I know there's a lot of criticism out there and a lot
of doubters, but I would just remind you of the historic success that this President and his team
accomplished in the Middle East. We believe that is possible with Russia and Ukraine, and we're
hoping and working very hard to achieve that. Stephen.
Could you provide a little more context on what to expect tomorrow with the Mamdani meeting?
Will it be in the Oval Office, or is it going to be open at least partially to the press?
I don't have any more details to read out for you on the meeting quite yet, Stephen. I know it's of
great interest to you and the New York Post, but we'll keep – maybe if it opens, we can commit
to letting you in. Sure. Go ahead. Thank you, Caroline. It came up yesterday during a
confirmation hearing for the President's pick to lead the CFTC that the CFTC currently has
zero Democrat commissioners, whereas usually it's had two or more.
Does the President plan to appoint Democrats to financial regulators like the CFTC and SEC,
or does the President feel that there shouldn't be Democrat leadership at those agencies consistent
with the administration's move earlier this year to remove Democrats from the FTC and other agencies?
I'm going to be completely honest. I haven't spoken to the President about the FTC – CFTC
in quite some time, but I'm happy to check in with our Presidential Personnel Office and see
if there's any updates that we can provide you there. Sure.
Thank you. Thank you, Caroline. Last week on Fox News, President Trump said that
we've had a lot of problems with the French. How would you describe the current relationship
between France and the U.S.? Look, the relationship remains very strong.
President Trump speaks quite frequently with Emmanuel Macron. I think they have a good working
relationship. But the President is not shy to point out when he has disagreements with world
leaders as well. I mean, he's done that with respect to Mr. Macron as well.
Deanna. Deanna, go ahead. Caroline, there are reports that Qatar is acting as a mediator in
the Ukraine peace process. Can you confirm that? And why did Trump – why did the President choose
that country? I'm not going to get into further details other than what I've previously shared,
which I think was quite a bit of information. Brian.
Thank you, Caroline. Two questions. You were talking about four earlier in this briefing
about the President's orders. You were going back and forth about what the ad said and what
it said. My first question is – The ad?
The advertisement that the Senate Democrats were featured in. So the first question is,
no matter what the order is – it could be to any administration official, military or otherwise –
no matter if legal experts might think it's illegal, does the President expect those
Cabinet members, administration officials to go ahead with those orders regardless of
any outside thinking or experts? The President expects his Cabinet
officials and the administration to follow the law and to demand accountability and hold people
accountable for their dangerous rhetoric. And I would just add that if this were Republican
members of Congress who were encouraging members of the military and members of our
United States Government to defy orders from the President and from the chain of command,
this entire room would be up in arms. But instead, it is the other way around,
and I think that's quite telling. I'm going to let you all go because the President – excuse me.
I appreciate the encouragement this morning, but – this afternoon, but President Trump is about to
meet – is about to meet in minutes with Israeli hostages who this administration freed, and so
I'm going to go up to that meeting and you will hear more about that later. Thank you.
