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NoticiasTranscripción
00:00Good afternoon, everybody.
00:06I brought some heavy hitters in here with me today.
00:09Today marks one month of President Trump's return to the Oval Office, and there is no
00:14denying this administration is off to a historic start.
00:19The President has already signed 73 executive orders.
00:22That is more than double the number signed by Joe Biden and more than quadruple the number
00:28signed by Barack Obama over the same period.
00:32These executive orders have ended burdensome regulations, sealed the border, unleashed
00:37our domestic energy sector, eliminated divisive DEI from our federal government, stopped the
00:43weaponization of government, cut waste, fraud, and abuse, reinstituted America First trade
00:48and foreign policies, and ultimately restored common sense.
00:53The President also signed the Lake and Riley Act into law, which ensures ICE will detain
00:58illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence.
01:03As of today, the Senate has already confirmed 18 cabinet-level nominees, which is more than
01:08at this point under the Obama administration in 2009 and more than double the pace of the
01:13Biden administration in 2021.
01:16And today, we expect Kash Patel to be confirmed as the next director of the FBI.
01:22We are proud to announce that the President will host his first official cabinet meeting
01:26here at the White House next Wednesday, February 26th.
01:31In just four weeks, President Trump has already hosted the leaders of Israel, Japan, Jordan,
01:36and India.
01:37And next Monday, the President will host France's President Emmanuel Macron.
01:42And on Thursday, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, will visit the White House as well.
01:48As you all know, over the past month, the President has taken questions from the press,
01:52all of you, nearly every single day, sometimes on multiple different occasions in the same
01:58day, on any topic any of you wish to talk about.
02:02President Trump set the tone on this approach immediately when he took more than 12 times
02:06the questions in his first few hours in office, as Joe Biden did in his entire first week.
02:13Yesterday, we hosted a local media row here at the White House with television and radio
02:18stations from across the country that reached up to 60 million viewers and listeners.
02:25In our ongoing pursuit of transparency on this one-month celebration, I am thrilled
02:30to bring three of my colleagues and our policy experts here at the White House to further
02:34recap this incredible first month of accomplishments in greater detail.
02:38We have Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller,
02:43the Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett, and our National Security Advisor
02:48Mike Waltz.
02:49I will hand it over to them.
02:50They will deliver brief remarks on the accomplishments of this administration in the first month,
02:55and then we will open it up to Q&A.
02:57When we open up the Q&A portion, I do ask for the sake of efficiency in this room that
03:01you direct your question to the principal you seek an answer from, and I will call on
03:05you in this room.
03:06But first, I will let them roll through their remarks.
03:10And first up, I'll turn it over to Stephen Miller.
03:12MR.
03:13MILLER.
03:15It's great to be back.
03:17And I want to just thank you all for joining today, our one-month celebration of the most
03:22historic opening to a presidency in American history.
03:26No president comes close to what Donald Trump has achieved over just the last 30 days.
03:32He has packed eight years of transformative action, restoring this nation, restoring our
03:39laws, restoring fairness, restoring economic opportunity, restoring national security,
03:44in just one month.
03:46No one in this country has ever seen anything like it.
03:49And when you look at the consequentiality and the significance and the transformative
03:54nature of the actions he's taking, it truly defies description.
03:58For example, in just one area, this nation has been plagued and crippled by illegal discrimination,
04:04diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
04:06It strangled our economy.
04:08It has undermined public safety.
04:10It has made every aspect of life more difficult, more painful, and less safe.
04:15He has ended all DEI across the federal government.
04:19He has terminated all federal workers involved in promulgating these unlawful policies.
04:24He has ended diversity, equity, and inclusion in all federal contracting.
04:29He has restored merit as the cornerstone of all federal policy, restored the full, fair,
04:36impartial enforcement of our federal civil rights laws for the first time in generations.
04:41And he has cracked down on individuals across this government and nonprofits who have engaged
04:47in illegal racial discrimination against the American people.
04:50This includes making clear to every educational institution in this country that ending diversity,
04:57equity, and inclusion, ending unlawful race discrimination is a precondition of receiving
05:02federal funds.
05:04He has also saved women's sports by ending the participation of men in women's sports.
05:10He has ended radical gender ideology across the entire federal government, and he's pressured
05:16the private sector to also end and combat radical gender ideology.
05:20He's reestablished the scientific and biological truth that there are only two sexes in this
05:25country, male and female, and those are biologically based determinations.
05:31They are not based and can never be based on gender identity.
05:34That includes rooting out of the Department of Defense all DEI policies, all critical
05:39race theory, all gender madness, and once again having a military that is focused solely
05:44and exclusively on readiness, preparedness, and lethality.
05:48As I'm sure Kevin will talk about more, of course, he has undertaken a historic cost-cutting
05:53effort across the federal government, launching the first ever Department of Government Efficiency,
05:58uncovering corruption on a scale that we never thought imaginable, terminating every
06:03single federal worker that we have found to be engaged in the corruption and theft and
06:08the waste of taxpayer dollars, and already saving $50 billion in a single year, which
06:13over a 10-year period would be $500 billion.
06:18Just think about how vast and enormous that sum is.
06:21Of course, as you all know, he has renamed the Gulf of Mexico to his correct and proper
06:26name, the Gulf of America.
06:27He has renamed Mount Denali into Mount McKinley, part of a historic effort to restore patriotism
06:33and national pride all across this land.
06:36He has ended the weaponization of the federal government, restored the Department of Justice
06:40to its true mission of combating threats to this nation and keeping the American people
06:45safe.
06:46He has ended all federal censorship of free speech.
06:51This has been one of the greatest crises that has plagued this nation.
06:54For years and years and years, the federal government, violating the First Amendment
06:58to take away Americans' right of free speech, President Trump has ended that, and he has
07:03demanded that all federal workers, all law enforcement cease any effort to intimidate
07:09the rights of Americans or to police their speech.
07:13He has also restored the death penalty at the Department of Justice, including for illegal
07:18aliens who commit murder, including for those who murder cops, and including for all of
07:22those who threaten Americans with heinous acts of violence.
07:27The death penalty is back.
07:29Law and order is back.
07:30The streets are being made safe once again.
07:34On the public health front, he has launched the nation's first ever commission, the Maha
07:38Commission, Make America Healthy Again, following the historic confirmation of RFK Jr.
07:44To finally uncover the true root causes of the public health crisis in this country,
07:50the childhood disease epidemic in this country, the spiraling rates of pediatric cancer and
07:56devastating childhood sickness, he has finally created a situation where the federal health
08:03agencies in this country will be focused on preventing disease, on keeping children from
08:08getting sick in the first place, not sending them to a lifetime in and out of hospitals
08:14suffering needlessly when we can find ways to prevent this epidemic of illness.
08:19Then, of course, on homeland security, today it is officially the law of the land, at the
08:26conclusion of the congressional notification process, that six Mexican cartels and two
08:32transnational gangs, Tren de Aragua, or TDA, and MS-13, so eight organizations in total,
08:39are now formally designated as foreign terrorist organizations, which means that every single
08:44member of those organizations who operates on U.S. soil is now, as a legal matter, a terrorist,
08:50and they will be treated as terrorists.
08:54This is a sea change in U.S. policy, and this means the Department of Justice and the Department
08:58of Homeland Security, along with the rest of U.S. law enforcement and the Department
09:02of Defense, are now operating in a legal reality where these cartels are recognized as terrorists,
09:09and there will be a whole-of-government effort to remove these terrorists from our soil and
09:14to degrade their ability to threaten or undermine any American security or sovereignty interests.
09:21Border crossings, since the day he took office, are down 95 percent.
09:27I think it's almost impossible to even describe the scale and scope of that achievement.
09:32President Trump, within days of taking office, cut border crossings 95 percent, and those
09:41few who have dared to cross are being either prosecuted or deported.
09:46They're either facing significant jail time for trafficking, smuggling, harboring, aiding,
09:52impeding, or they're being immediately removed from our soil.
09:55Either way, at the end of the process, they are going home.
09:59He's re-implemented Remain in Mexico, and he has obtained historic cooperation from
10:03foreign countries all around the world in accepting their deportees back.
10:08And he has used the United States military to fully seal the southern border with a historic
10:13deployment of both active duty and National Guard troops, resumed the building of infrastructure,
10:19he has opened up Guantanamo Bay, and he's using military aircraft to carry out deportations
10:24all across this country.
10:26And ICE is joining with ATF, DEA, and FBI to carry out the largest deportation operation
10:32in American history.
10:33The criminals are going home.
10:35The border is sealed shut.
10:36America is safe, sovereign, proud, and free.
10:39We are a nation that everyone in the world understands all across this planet.
10:43You do not come here illegally.
10:45You will not get in.
10:46You will go to jail.
10:47You will go home.
10:48You will not succeed.
10:50This is the biggest and most successful change in any area of law enforcement that this nation
10:56has ever seen.
10:57And he did it in under one month.
11:01Second?
11:02Yes.
11:03Well, thank you, Caroline.
11:04Thank you, Steven.
11:05You know, one of the things that President Trump cares most about is job creation, and
11:12it was about seven years ago I had the honor of joining you in this room for the first
11:16time.
11:17And it looks like we've created a lot more jobs in the last month.
11:20Look at how many people are here.
11:21My estimate is about 180, but I didn't count.
11:24So thank you.
11:26It's an honor to be back here.
11:27I think that I just want to go over a few things and then hand it off to Mike.
11:31The first thing is that the president has told us to prioritize fighting inflation,
11:35and he had to do that because, as you know, President Biden let inflation get completely
11:39out of control, and he did it with policies that made no sense.
11:44They made no sense.
11:45You know, a lot of times you people say to us, our friends, the journalists, why are
11:49you doing that?
11:50But, you know, I like to think, why did they do that?
11:54Why did they spend so much money?
11:56And then why did the Fed print so much money?
11:58So that we had inflation as high as we've ever seen since Jimmy Carter.
12:01So why did they do that?
12:02So we're addressing inflation.
12:04We didn't have to address it in the first term because it was always in the ones, almost
12:07always.
12:08But we're going to get it back there.
12:09And how are we doing it?
12:10Well, we're doing it with a plan that President Trump and I and others have talked about in
12:14the Oval that involves like every level of fighting inflation.
12:18First, the macroeconomic level, we're cutting spending.
12:20We're cutting spending in negotiations with people on the Hill.
12:24We're cutting spending with the advice of our IT consultant, Elon Musk.
12:29And then we're also looking into supply side things like restoring Trump's tax cuts, maybe
12:35even expensing new factories so that there is an explosion of supply.
12:39If you have an explosion of supply and a reduction in government demand, then inflation goes
12:44way down.
12:45And then one of the things that you will want to say is, well, when are you going to see
12:48it?
12:49Well, the first thing that you'll see when the markets believe that we're going to get
12:53inflation under control is that the 10-year Treasury rate goes down, because that's how
12:58they think about future expected inflation.
13:00And so we're still going to see some memory of Biden's inflation.
13:03It's not going to go away in a month.
13:05But the 10-year Treasury, before the last Consumer Price Index, had dropped about 40
13:08basis points, 40 basis points because markets were optimistic about our ability to fight
13:13inflation.
13:1440 basis points is kind of not a fun thing to say.
13:17Economists talk that way, I apologize.
13:19But the way to think about it is for a typical mortgage, if that affects the mortgage rate,
13:23then it's going to save a typical family buying a house about $1,000 a year.
13:27And that's just in our first month.
13:29The second thing we've done is we've had a lot of trade talks.
13:31In fact, I was just meeting a minister from Mexico with Howard Lettnick just a couple
13:36of hours ago.
13:38And we're talking about reciprocal trade, and we're also talking about the fentanyl
13:42crisis.
13:43And so reciprocal trade is about our government treating other governments the way they treat
13:47us.
13:49We want trade to be fair.
13:50It turns out that Americans have been disadvantaged by foreign governments over and over, and
13:55President Trump wants it to stop.
13:56And the fact that struck me as most noticeable when I started to look at what President Trump
14:02was asking us to do is that last year – last year, we have data – U.S. companies paid
14:08$370 billion in taxes to foreign governments – $370 billion.
14:13Last year, foreign multinationals paid us $57 billion in taxes.
14:19We have one-quarter of world GDP.
14:21They have three-quarters of world GDP.
14:23And we're paying $370.
14:24They're paying $57.
14:25This is not reciprocal.
14:27We're going to try – or we're going to fix it.
14:30The other thing that we've done is we've had an all-of-the-above energy approach that's
14:35led by Doug Burgum and Chris and a really large team, EPA.
14:40And we've already made so many actions that are going to affect the price of energy and
14:46lower inflation.
14:47We've opened up 625 million acres to energy exploration.
14:50We've cut 50 years of red tape that makes it so you can't have permits.
14:56And we've even made it so that when you go home, if you get a new one, then you can take
15:00a shower or flush a toilet or read under a light bulb.
15:05We're doing that too.
15:07So finally, let's just think about, like, the facts that we can see right now that we
15:13think are awesome.
15:15So guess what?
15:16Small business optimism is – has gone up by the most ever since President Trump came
15:22in.
15:23ISM, which is the measure of what's going on in manufacturing, it's expanding again
15:29for the first time in years.
15:31CEO confidence is the highest it's been in years.
15:36And the reason – the reason people are thinking this is that our policies give people cause
15:41for optimism.
15:42And then I want to reiterate what Stephen Miller said, because it's so important, and
15:46it's so important for financial markets to start to digest this, that if, say, the Treasury
15:51Secretary or the – any cabinet secretary with Elon Musk is able to find some savings,
15:58say $100 billion, well, in CBO land, that's actually, like, about 10 times that or maybe
16:0512 times that over a 10-year window.
16:07And so when you're thinking about the negotiations right now over reconciliation and thinking
16:11about, well, $4 trillion, $5 trillion, well, those numbers in terms of the savings are
16:16going to end up being small because of all the waste that we're finding.
16:20And so we're incredibly optimistic about the future of inflation and the future of
16:23our economy, and we're optimistic because we're making so much progress so far, and
16:27we already see it in market prices.
16:29And with that, I'll hand it off to Mike.
16:32All right.
16:33Thanks, Bill.
16:34Well, good afternoon.
16:38What a month, and what a sea change in our foreign policy.
16:42In addition to what we're doing on the border and restoring American sovereignty, in addition
16:47to what we're doing in our economy and the job creation and the inflation reduction,
16:54we are bringing the world back to where it was at the end of President Trump's first
16:58term, which is a world of peace, prosperity, and looking forward and getting us out of
17:04the chaos that we've just seen over the last four years.
17:08So over the last month, just to name a few, I had the honor of sitting in the Oval Office
17:17as President Trump spoke with President Putin and then immediately spoke with President
17:23Zelensky, and both of them said only President Trump could bring both sides of the table
17:29and only President Trump could stop the horrific fighting that has been going on now for the
17:36better part of four years, and that only President Trump could drive the world back to peace.
17:42Both of those leaders said that in back-to-back calls.
17:45And of course, we just had our historic talks mediated by our good friends and partners,
17:53Saudi Arabia.
17:54I want to give great thanks to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for hosting and sat down
18:00for the first time in years with the Russians and talked about a path forward with peace.
18:07On top of that, and one of the things that led to that was the tremendous confidence-building
18:13measure that we had with the release of Mark Fogle.
18:15I'll remind everyone, the last time that we had an American released from the Russians,
18:22either we gave up a deadly spy, pressured our allies to give up a lethal killer, or
18:28we released, under the Biden administration, the world's most notorious arms dealer, Victor
18:34Boot, who, by the way, had one of his main clients for arms, the cartels in Mexico and
18:41Central America.
18:42We gave up none of that.
18:43This was released as a confidence-building measure, working with our great Middle East
18:48envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and our Secretary of State, as a first step towards opening
18:54these talks and then moving forward towards peace.
18:57On top of that, we've secured, just in a month, the return of a dozen, 12 American hostages
19:06from Russia, from Bulgaria, from Venezuela, the Taliban, and Hamas.
19:11Excuse me, that's from Belarus, not Bulgaria.
19:15We also had, for the first time in quite some time, we took out a senior leader of
19:23ISIS, an international financier and recruiter that the military had been trying to take
19:29out for quite some time and wasn't able to do so, frankly, because of a bureaucratic
19:35approval process.
19:37President Trump said, take him out, and that ISIS financier and leader is no longer on
19:43this earth.
19:44We've also taken action to eliminate other terrorist organizations in the Middle East.
19:50We drove, before the president was even in office, he started talking consequences for
19:56people that would hold Americans.
19:58Here to four, there's been nothing but upside.
20:00You take an American, you get some better deal.
20:03You take another one, maybe you get a better deal.
20:06No more.
20:07There is now nothing but downside for taking Americans illegally, either as hostages or
20:12illegal detainees.
20:14And when President Trump sent a very clear message across the Middle East, but particularly
20:18to Hamas, that there would be all hell to pay, we suddenly saw a breakthrough.
20:22And now we just saw the release of yet another group of hostages.
20:28There have been dozens now, including two Americans that we've seen once again reunited
20:34with their families.
20:35As part of the talks with King Abdullah, he offered, and I think the entire world is graciously
20:43accepted, to take 2,000 sick children, cancer patients, and others out of Gaza.
20:51As a humanitarian gesture, 2,000 Gazans will come out of that hellhole that it is, that
21:02wasteland that Gaza is right now, with unexploded ordnance, with debris everywhere, with no
21:08sewage, with no water.
21:10And President Trump has put forward a plan to deal with the practical reality that is
21:161.8 million Gazans now truly suffering.
21:21And then, just to bring it back to our own hemisphere, we've seen literally in the last
21:27month after years of national security experts, the generals in charge, and others testifying
21:35and ringing the alarm bells about the Chinese Communist Party's presence in our own hemisphere,
21:42particularly in the Panama Canal.
21:44We're seeing the leadership of Panama step away from the Belt and Road program, move
21:49away from China and back towards the United States, and even enter into talks and other
21:57negotiations about addressing the ports on either side of the canal.
22:02And then finally, last but not least, we've had four world leaders in the White House,
22:08in the Oval Office.
22:09We've had the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of India, the King of Jordan,
22:15and of course the Prime Minister of Israel, just in the last four weeks.
22:19And next week, we'll have the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and we'll have the
22:24President of France, Macron.
22:26So President Trump is on what we call Trump Warp Speed.
22:32We are all honored to be really serving under his leadership and his vision.
22:40And truly, when we all say, and the President himself says, he is a president of peace.
22:47He is a president focused on restoring stability.
22:50I think the entire world saw what the world would look like without strong American leadership
22:56in the last four years, and it's truly been an honor to get us back to where we were and
23:01back on track under President Trump's leadership.
23:05Thank you, Mike.
23:08Thank you, everybody.
23:09I'm sure you're very eager to ask questions of these very smart people working very hard
23:13on behalf of the President.
23:15We do have somebody in our new media seat today.
23:18We have Jon Stoll, who is the head of news at X.
23:22As you all know, you're all on X.
23:23It's home to hundreds of millions of users, a large contingent of independent journalists
23:28and news organizations across geographies and political spectrums.
23:33And at the same time, X remains the go-to platform for many legacy news outlets.
23:38And I know, as I mentioned, many of the reporters in this room use X to attract eyeballs to
23:42your work.
23:43Prior to joining X, Jon spent two decades in journalism, including several years as
23:48an editor at The Wall Street Journal.
23:50We are excited to have him in the briefing room today.
23:52Jon, we'll let you kick it off.
23:53And as I said at the top, please direct your question to the individual up here who you'd
23:58like an answer from.
23:59Jon, why don't you begin?
24:00All right.
24:01Thank you very much.
24:02I am sitting in for a thriving ecosystem of journalists, independent and emerging news
24:07organizations who do depend on X for publicity, for a business model.
24:14And so I look forward to seeing many of them in this seat in months and years to come.
24:19I also thank you, Caroline, for opening this seat up to new media.
24:24It really is a testament not only to your open-mindedness, but also to innovation, that
24:29you'd actually think about folks that are not traditionally credentialed to be in this
24:33room to be in this room, and not only have a question, but also to witness.
24:37This is a very important intersection of power and the free press.
24:43And so just the ability to witness this and be part of it, it brings everybody's game
24:48up.
24:49So thank you for that.
24:50I think this is for Mike.
24:51Well, my question is about Ukraine.
24:53Sure.
24:54For about more than 10 years, I've been fascinated, like many, with what's going on.
25:00Was in Northern Europe, working out of the Baltics when Crimea was annexed, and a lot
25:09of this came on Twitter.
25:10The platform used to be known as Twitter.
25:14A lot of European leaders would talk about their disappointment and solidarity with Ukraine.
25:21But when it came to actually doing something, it felt like they were passing a hot potato
25:23and sent it over the Atlantic.
25:26I wonder how much of what we're seeing right now out of the administration of President
25:30Trump is a call to Europe and the European leaders and the allies that we've traditionally
25:34had to pick up that hot potato and start doing something a little bit more concrete to win
25:40and preserve the peace in Ukraine.
25:42The second question I have is – it's related – is there's been some – a lot of speculation
25:48in that President Trump and the administration might be manipulated by Vladimir Putin.
25:54I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about the administration's posture and your
25:58confidence in the competence of this administration to go toe-to-toe with Vladimir Putin.
26:03Well, if there's – and I'll take the second question first.
26:05If there's anybody in this world that can go toe-to-toe with Putin, that could go toe-to-toe
26:10with Xi, that could go toe-to-toe with Kim Jong-un, and you could keep going down the
26:15list, it's Donald J. Trump.
26:18He is the dealmaker-in-chief.
26:19There is no question that he is the commander-in-chief, and I, for one, and I think all Americans
26:25and around the world should have no doubt about his ability to not only handle Putin
26:32but to handle the complexity of driving this war to an end.
26:37And then on your first piece on Europe, I'll take you back to 2014.
26:41You're right, there was a lot of hand-wringing in Europe and not a lot of action.
26:45There's also a lot of hand-wringing here in Washington under the Obama administration
26:49and not a lot of action.
26:50They literally threw blankets at the problem.
26:53And so I'll remind everyone that Putin had some type of conflict, invasion, issue with
27:00their neighbor under President Bush with Georgia, under President Obama with Ukraine 2014, not
27:07under President Trump, 45, and again with President Biden in 2022.
27:12The war should have been deterred.
27:14The war should have never happened, and I have no doubt it would not have happened under
27:17President Trump and will stop under President Trump again.
27:22But I just want to push back on this notion of our European allies not being consulted
27:26as we've entered into this process.
27:28I already mentioned the immediate phone call President Trump made to President Zelensky.
27:33He has talked to President Macron of France repeatedly last week.
27:38President Macron convened European leaders and then is coming here on Monday.
27:43Prime Minister Starmer is coming next Thursday.
27:47We've also – I've talked to every one of my national security advisor counterparts
27:54across the spectrum in Europe.
27:57I've talked to Secretary General Rutte, the leader of NATO, the Secretary General of NATO.
28:03We have repeatedly – oh, by the way, we had half our cabinet, seven cabinet officials,
28:08including the Vice President, at the Munich Security Conference, all engaging, all listening,
28:14and all making sure our allies are heard.
28:16However, we've also made it clear for years, decades even, that it is unacceptable that
28:24the United States and the United States taxpayer continues to bear the burden not only of the
28:30cost of the war in Ukraine but of the defense of Europe.
28:34We fully support our NATO allies.
28:36We fully support the Article 5 commitment.
28:40But it's time for our European allies to step up.
28:43And one of the things that Secretary General Rutte said on our call was this last couple
28:47of weeks have been a real wake-up call.
28:49And I asked him, what have you been missing the last couple of years?
28:53The fact that we are going to enter into a NATO summit this June with a third of our
28:58NATO allies still not meeting the 2 percent minimum, a commitment they made a decade
29:04ago – literally a decade ago – with a war on their doorstep, the largest war that
29:11they're all extremely concerned about, but yet it's, well, somebody else needs to pay.
29:17We've got other domestic priorities.
29:19It's unacceptable.
29:20President Trump's made that clear.
29:22And the minimum needs to be met.
29:23We need to be at 100 percent this June at the NATO summit.
29:27And then let's talk about exceeding it, which is what President Trump has been talking
29:31about with 5 percent of GDP.
29:33Europe needs to step up for their own defense as a partner, and we can be friends and allies
29:38and have those tough conversations.
29:39Peter.
29:40Thank you, Caroline.
29:41I have a Ukraine one and a Doge one.
29:42Who can talk Doge?
29:43Steven.
29:44All of us.
29:45So, Steven, we're hearing about these Doge dividend checks that would be 20 percent back
29:54to taxpayers, 20 percent to pay down the debt, 60 percent is left.
29:58Who gets that?
29:59Well, the way that it works is when you achieve savings, you can either return it to the taxpayers,
30:05you can return it to our debtors, or it can be cycled into next year's budget and then
30:12it just lowers the overall baseline for next year.
30:14So in other words, you can just transfer it into the next fiscal window and then lower
30:17the overall spending level.
30:19And that means that you can achieve a permanent savings that way, and that reduces the deficit.
30:23And when is it that people might see those checks?
30:25Well, it's all going to be worked on through the reconciliation process with Congress that's
30:29going underway right now.
30:30As you've seen, the Senate's moving a bill, the House is moving a bill.
30:34The president has great confidence in both chambers to deliver on his priorities.
30:37I would just take this opportunity to note that President Trump has made a historic commitment
30:43to the working class of this country to fight for a major tax relief and major price relief.
30:49And cutting spending, as DOJ is doing, and cutting taxes is the key to delivering on
30:53both of those promises, and President Trump is resolutely committed to doing both.
30:57And on Ukraine, I guess this is for Mike.
30:59Sure.
31:00After the president's post on Truth Social yesterday, need to know, who does he think
31:05is more responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin or Zelensky?
31:11Well, look, his goal, Peter, is to bring this war to an end, period.
31:17And there has been ongoing fighting on both sides.
31:21It is World War I-style trench warfare.
31:25His frustration with President Zelensky is, that you've heard, is multifold.
31:30One, there needs to be a deep appreciation for what the American people, what the American
31:36taxpayer, what President Trump did in his first term, and what we've done since.
31:42So some of the rhetoric coming out of Kiev, frankly, and insults to President Trump were
31:48unacceptable, number one.
31:49Number two, our own Secretary of Treasury personally made the trip to offer the Ukrainians
31:56what can only be described as a historic opportunity.
32:00That is for America to co-invest with Ukraine in their minerals, in their resources, to
32:06truly grow the pie.
32:08So case in point, there's a foundry that processes aluminum in Ukraine.
32:13It's been damaged.
32:14It's not at its current capacity.
32:16If that is restored, it would account for America's entire imports of aluminum for an
32:23entire year.
32:24That one foundry.
32:25There are tremendous resources there.
32:28Not only is that long-term security for Ukraine, not only do we help them grow the pie with
32:34But we do have an obligation to the American taxpayer in helping them recoup the hundreds
32:40of billions that have occurred.
32:43So rather than enter into some constructive conversations about what that deal should
32:50be going forward, we got a lot of rhetoric in the media that was incredibly unfortunate.
32:56And I could just tell you, Peter, as a veteran, as somebody who's been in combat, this war
33:03is horrific.
33:04And I think we've lost sight of that, of the literally thousands of people that are dying
33:10a day, families that are going without the next generation.
33:14And I find it kind of, you know, frankly ridiculous.
33:17So many people in Washington that were just demanding, pounding the table for a ceasefire
33:22in Gaza are suddenly aghast that the president would demand one and both sides come to the
33:27table when it talks to, when it comes to Ukraine.
33:32A war that has been, arguably, far greater in scope and scale, and far more dangerous
33:40in terms of global escalation to U.S. security.
33:43And I do have one for Caroline.
33:46Does President Trump have a bet with Trudeau about this USA-Canada hockey game tonight?
33:51And when there is a big hockey game on, is the president watching for the goals or for
33:57the fights?
33:59Probably both.
34:00I think he's watching for the United States to win tonight.
34:02I know he talked to the USA hockey team this morning.
34:06He talked to the players after their morning practice around 10 o'clock.
34:10And I also spoke to some folks from that team after.
34:13They were jubilant over President Trump's comments to the team.
34:16I believe they're going to put out a video of that call.
34:19So he looks forward to watching the game tonight, and we look forward to the United States beating
34:23our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.
34:24Bloomberg.
34:25Go ahead.
34:26My question is for Mike Walsh.
34:27Can you give us a readout of Kellogg's meeting with Zelensky that just wrapped up?
34:28And in particular, Zelensky publicly rejected this deal about the rare earth minerals.
34:38Where does that stand?
34:39Well, we're going to continue to have – he needs to come back to the table, and we're
34:43going to continue to have discussions about where that deal is going.
34:47Again, we have an obligation to the taxpayer.
34:49I think this is an opportunity.
34:51The President thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine going forward.
34:54There can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine's future and for their security
35:02than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long term.
35:07And then a key piece of this has also been security guarantees.
35:11Look, the reality that we're talking about here is, is it in Ukraine's interest?
35:18Is it in Europe's interest?
35:20It certainly isn't in Russia's interest or in the American people's interest.
35:24For this war to grind on forever and ever and ever.
35:28So a key part of his conversation was helping President Zelensky understand this war needs
35:34to come to an end.
35:35This kind of open-ended mantra that we've had under the Biden administration, that's
35:40over.
35:41And I think a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that.
35:44And then the other piece is there's been discussions from Prime Minister Stormer and
35:49also President Macron about European-led security guarantees.
35:54We welcome that.
35:55We've been asking Europe to step up and secure its own prosperity, safety, and security.
36:01So we certainly welcome that.
36:03And we certainly welcome more European assistance.
36:05As I told my counterparts, come to the table with more if you want a bigger seat at the
36:12table.
36:13And we've been asking for that for quite some time.
36:15And has Russia pushed for sanctions in your talks with them?
36:18And have you consulted with international partners and allies about potentially rolling
36:22back sanctions in these negotiations to end the war?
36:25The talks with our Russian counterparts, both with my counterpart, the National Security
36:30Advisor, Secretary Rubio's counterpart, the Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Lavrov,
36:37it really was quite broad, focused on what is the goals for our broader relationship,
36:46but very clear that the fighting has to stop to get to any of those brighter goals.
36:50And as a first step, we're just going to do some common-sense things, like restore the
36:55ability of both of our embassies to function.
36:59And again, this is common sense.
37:03In foreign policy world, they call it shuttle diplomacy.
37:07We have to talk to both sides in order to get to both sides to the table.
37:11And both sides have said only President Trump could do that.
37:14Deanna.
37:16And my question is for Mike Walsh.
37:17All right.
37:18The President has called Zelensky a dictator.
37:19Does he view Putin as a dictator?
37:20And does he want Zelensky out of power?
37:21I know he's called for elections.
37:22And then, thirdly, the head of the Defense Committee in Ukraine's parliament just has
37:35claimed that the U.S. has stopped selling weapons to Ukraine.
37:39Is that true?
37:40Well, most of our weapons that have gone to Ukraine have been part of a drawdown authority,
37:45where we've literally taken them out of our stocks and then eventually, through appropriations,
37:51started buying them again to refill our stocks.
37:54I'll just state that there has been a lag in a lot of that process.
37:58So many of our stocks, as we look at our operations around the world, are becoming more depleted.
38:04And that's one of the reasons many people have had a lot of concern about, when does
38:09this end?
38:10How much is it going to take?
38:11How many lives will be lost?
38:14How much will we spend as a member of Congress?
38:16We repeatedly asked the Biden administration those questions, and we never got a satisfactory
38:22answer.
38:23Look, President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky.
38:29The fact that he hasn't come to the table, that he hasn't been willing to take this opportunity
38:37that we have offered, I think he eventually will get to that point.
38:42And I hope so very quickly.
38:44But President Trump, as we made clear to our Russian counterparts, and I want to make clear
38:49today, he's focused on stopping the fighting and moving forward.
38:53And we could argue all day long about what's happened in the past.
38:56Reagan.
38:57Thanks.
38:58I have a question for Stephen.
39:00Excuse me.
39:01I just called on Reagan.
39:02Reagan, go ahead.
39:03I have a question for Stephen and a question for Mike.
39:04Sure.
39:05Stephen, I can start with you.
39:07There have been reports that Trump is unhappy with the rate of deportations and he wants
39:11them to be higher.
39:12Is the President happy with the rate of deportations?
39:15And are there any plans to speed up the process?
39:18Well, first of all, we all appreciate the encouragement from the media to deport as
39:22many illegal aliens as humanly possible.
39:24So thank you.
39:25And I will promise you that the full might of the Department of Homeland Security, the
39:30Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and every element and instrument of national
39:35power will be used to remove with speed all criminal illegals from the soil of the United
39:42States of America to enforce final removal orders and to ensure that this country is
39:47for American citizens and those who legally belong in this country.
39:51We inherited an ICE that was completely shuttered.
39:54We inherited a Department of Homeland Security whose sole mission was to resettle illegal
39:59aliens within the United States of America.
40:01In 30 days, the President sealed the border shut, declared the cartels to be terrorist
40:07organizations, has increased ICE deportations to levels not seen in decades, and we are
40:13shortly on the verge of achieving a pace and speed of deportations this country has never
40:18before seen.
40:21There have been reports that there's some underground opposition to Trump's pick for
40:25Undersecretary of Defense and Policy Elbridge Colby.
40:29Have you or anyone from the administration been personally lobbying senators to support
40:35Elbridge Colby?
40:36Look, I've worked with Elbridge Colby in the past.
40:41He has the President's full support to be the Undersecretary of Policy, which will be
40:46a critical policy arm for Secretary Hegseth going forward that will implement a lot of
40:51these policies.
40:53And really, that's been to the extent of it.
40:55I think there's been a lot of kind of breathless, I don't know, back-and-forth in the press.
41:03But we're full speed ahead to get the President's team in place so we can implement his America
41:08First policy.
41:10Mike has spoken pretty extensively.
41:11Does anybody have questions for Stephen or for Mr. Hassett?
41:15Anybody wants to talk about the economy?
41:17Sure.
41:18IRS?
41:19Okay.
41:20Go ahead.
41:21This would be for either one of you.
41:22So we have reported, several other outlets have reported that about 3,500 people are
41:28due to be – lose their jobs at the IRS by the end of the week.
41:32If the goal of these spending cuts across the federal government has been to reduce
41:37the debt, why impose some of the deepest cuts we've seen so far at the agency responsible
41:42for raising revenue for the federal government?
41:44Well, I think our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive
41:49and effective.
41:50And there are many, many – more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes, and not all
41:56of them are fully occupied.
41:57And the Treasury Secretary is studying the matter and feels like 3,500 is a small number
42:03and probably can get bigger, especially as we improve the IT at the IRS.
42:08So I think that it's absolutely something that is on the table for good reasons.
42:11And the point is that – don't just talk about the IRS.
42:14Talk about all of government, that there are so many places – I live in D.C., you maybe
42:19live in D.C. – where you never – nobody's going into the buildings.
42:22People aren't commuting because nobody's doing their job.
42:24We look back and we see that there are all these people doing two jobs while they're
42:27getting a government payroll on the payroll.
42:29So the point is we're fixing that, and the IRS is a small part of that picture.
42:33So you're saying that everybody who's being let go was doing a bad job?
42:38I'm saying that we're studying every agency and deciding who to let go and why.
42:42And we're doing so very rationally with a lot of support from analysis.
42:46Because we're being told by a lot of people who have been let go at other agencies that
42:51they were told they were being dismissed because of poor performance, when in some cases they
42:56haven't even had a performance review yet because they've only been on the job a couple
42:59of months.
43:00Yeah, I've never seen a person who was laid off for poor performance say that they were
43:05performing poorly.
43:06Okay.
43:08Good point.
43:09Sure, Kaitlan.
43:10I have a question.
43:11I'll start with you, Kevin, now.
43:12Thank you for being here.
43:13And then I've got a question for Mr. Waltz.
43:14On these potential checks that you might send out from DOJ, is there a concern as you're
43:18thinking through this that they could be inflationary?
43:20Oh, absolutely not.
43:22Because imagine if we don't spend government money and we give it back to people, if they
43:27spend it all, then you're even.
43:29But they're probably going to save a lot of it, in which case you're reducing inflation.
43:32And also, when the government spends a lot, that's what creates inflation.
43:35We learned that from Joe Biden.
43:36And so if we reduce government spending, then that reduces inflation.
43:40And if you give people money, then they're going to save a bunch of it.
43:43And when they save it, then that also reduces demand and reduces inflation.
43:46Okay.
43:47So you're not worried about it.
43:48No, I'm not.
43:49And Mr. Waltz, to follow up on Peter's question, you wrote in an op-ed in the fall of 2023
43:52that, quote, Putin is to blame, certainly like al Qaeda was to blame for 9-11.
43:56Do you still feel that way now, or do you share the President's assessment, as he says
44:00Ukraine is to blame for the start of this war?
44:02Well, it shouldn't surprise you that I share the President's assessment on all kinds of
44:06issues.
44:07What I wrote as a member of Congress was, as a former member of Congress, look, what
44:12I share the President's assessment on is that the war has to end.
44:17And what comes with that?
44:18What comes with that should be, at some point, elections.
44:22What comes with that should be peace.
44:24What comes with that is prosperity that we've just offered in this natural resources and
44:29economic partnership arrangement.
44:31And end to the killing, and European security and security for the world.
44:37The President's not only determined to do that in Europe, he's determined to do it in
44:42the Middle East.
44:43And just a few months ago, we had an administration that had tried for 15 months, week after week,
44:50sitting with you here, and couldn't get us to a ceasefire, couldn't get our hostages
44:54out.
44:55Now we're at that point.
44:56We're back to the maximum pressure on Iran.
44:58And we will, we have just begun, and we will drive towards a ceasefire and all of those
45:04other steps.
45:05I'm not going to pre-negotiate or get ahead of the sequencing of all of that.
45:09It's a very delicate situation.
45:11But this is a President of peace.
45:13And who here would argue against peace?
45:15Okay, so you do share that assessment.
45:16And can I follow up?
45:17In 2017, then President Trump.
45:18Go ahead, Jordan.
45:19Go ahead, Jordan.
45:21You just had two questions, Kaitlan.
45:22Jordan, go ahead.
45:23I have a quick follow-up.
45:24Jordan, go ahead.
45:25Go ahead.
45:26You were speaking about tariff revenue, and you also addressed a question about the IRS.
45:33President Trump has spoken about replacing income tax with tariff revenue, especially
45:37with all this waste, fraud, and abuse that we're seeing cut.
45:40Is that a possibility?
45:41Absolutely.
45:42And, in fact, if you think about the China tariff revenue that we're estimating is coming
45:47in from the 10 percent that we just added, plus the de minimis thing, that it's between
45:53$500 billion and $1 trillion over 10 years, is our estimate.
45:57And that's something that is outside of the reductions that markets are seeing through
46:01the negotiations up on the Hill.
46:03And so we expect that the tariff revenue is actually going to make it much easier for
46:07Republicans to pass a bill.
46:08And that was the President's plan all along.
46:10And then I have a question for Stephen Miller about DOJ.
46:14So you spoke about DOJ.
46:16You said roughly $50 billion is set to be cut in a year of waste, fraud, and abuse by
46:23unelected bureaucrats.
46:25We're hearing this ironic narrative from the President's critics and the left-wing media
46:28that Elon Musk is an unelected bureaucrat and he's doing all this terrible stuff.
46:33Isn't one of DOJ's objectives to get rid of the federal bureaucracy, the deep state?
46:40And also, who was running the White House when Joe Biden was in office?
46:43Because I don't know a single person who believes it was Joe Biden.
46:47You're tempting me to say some very harsh things about some of our media friends.
46:53Yes, it is true that many of the people in this room for four years failed to cover the
46:58fact that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent and was not running the country.
47:05It is also true that many people in this room who have used this talking point that Elon
47:10is not elected fail to understand how government works.
47:13So I'm glad for the opportunity for a brief civics lesson.
47:16A president is elected by the whole American people.
47:19He's the only official in the entire government that is elected by the entire nation, right?
47:26Judges are appointed, members of Congress are elected at the district or state level.
47:29Just one man.
47:30And the Constitution, Article 2, has a clause known as the Vesting Clause, and it says the
47:34executive power shall be vested in a president, singular.
47:38The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president.
47:44That president then appoints staff to then impose that democratic will onto the government.
47:50The threat to democracy, indeed the existential threat to democracy, is the unelected bureaucracy
47:56of lifetime tenured civil servants who believe they answer to no one, who believe they can
48:01do whatever they want without consequence, who believe they can set their own agenda
48:06no matter what Americans vote for.
48:08So Americans vote for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say they don't want to change.
48:13Or Americans vote for radical reform under energy policies, but EPA bureaucrats say they
48:17don't want to change.
48:18Or Americans vote to end DEI, racist DEI policies, and lawyers in the Department of Justice say
48:24they don't want to change.
48:26What President Trump is doing is he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy
48:33by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American people.
48:42Thank you very much, everybody.
48:44I'm looking at the clock.
48:45We've almost had an hour of time.
48:46I know a couple of these individuals have a meeting to get to at 2 p.m., so you're welcome
48:51to follow up with my team for further questions.
48:54We're going to let these guys get back to running the United States government, and
48:57we will see you all later.
48:59President Trump will be speaking at 3 o'clock at the Black History Month reception.
49:02So thank you.
49:03It's good to see you.
49:04We'll see you in a bit.
49:05Thanks.