Trump's Press Secretary Ruthlessly Rips On Woke Reporter For Lying At Press Brief
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00:00Jeff.
00:01Caroline, I was wondering if — is Elon Musk going to attend the President's first
00:04Cabinet meeting tomorrow?
00:05He is, as a matter of fact.
00:06I spoke to the President about that before coming down here as well.
00:10And Elon, considering he is working alongside the President and our Cabinet secretaries,
00:15this entire administration will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about DOJ's efforts
00:20and how all of the Cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud, and abuse at their
00:24respective agencies.
00:25We look forward to the meeting tomorrow, and I think you'll be hearing from the President
00:28and his Cabinet.
00:29They're on campus tomorrow.
00:30I hope you guys are excited.
00:31So some of those Cabinet members were caught off guard by the email from Saturday.
00:35Nobody was caught off guard.
00:37A few departments said they were caught off guard.
00:39The FBI was.
00:40The DOJ was.
00:41Did anonymous sources say that, or did the Cabinet secretaries say that?
00:44The Cabinet secretaries and others have said that they were not aware that this was happening.
00:48So I'm wondering, will there be a give-and-take tomorrow at the Cabinet meeting?
00:52Is Elon Musk or the President open to any type of dialogue about who is actually in
00:57charge of the chain of command of these workers?
00:59I would reject the premise of your question, Jeff.
01:02The Cabinet secretaries have not said that.
01:04I know anonymous sources, probably career bureaucrats, have leaked that to many of you
01:07in this room.
01:08But as I said at the beginning of this press conference, everybody is working as one team,
01:12and the President respects the decisions of his Cabinet secretaries to tell his staff,
01:16their staff, not to respond to that email because they did so out of interest of national
01:20security and they don't want to obviously risk confidential information.
01:24It's pretty common sense.
01:25Dasha.
01:27Musk has obviously been doing a lot of work.
01:29He's been working every day and a lot of the time weekends.
01:32He is designated as a special government employee, which means that he can only work 130 days
01:38per year.
01:39Is the White House expecting him to limit his work to 130 days, or are you going to
01:44work around those rules?
01:45Do you want to see him extend beyond the 130 days?
01:48So today is February 25th, so I think we've been here about 35 days, roughly.
01:53So ask me in another 100 days.
01:56Daniel.
01:57Caroline, thank you.
01:58You opened up with a major announcement from Apple, $500 billion, 20,000 jobs, doubling
02:03its advanced manufacturing fund.
02:06What does that signal that such a global brand could make what it called its largest ever
02:10spend commitment just a month into President Trump's second term?
02:13What does that signal about his economic vision for the country?
02:17President Trump is a dealmaker, and he has restored confidence in business leaders around
02:22this entire world.
02:23Apple is one of the largest companies on the face of the planet.
02:26They employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.
02:29But the president wants to see more Americans employed, more investments here in the United
02:33States of America.
02:34And this is another fulfillment of the president's campaign promises.
02:37I recall President Trump at his rallies on the campaign telling the world that if and
02:42when I am elected, America is going to be back and we want your investments to be driven
02:47onshore.
02:48We want you to hire American workers and you will have the lowest regulatory burden, the
02:52lowest tax cuts.
02:53And the president has already proven he's committed to slashing regulation.
02:56He's counting on Congress to implement those tax cuts.
03:00And so people are encouraged by the president's, again, as Tim Cook called it, they're bullish
03:04about American innovation because of the leadership of this president.
03:08And that's a stark contrast to the leadership of the previous administration, Joe Biden,
03:12who I don't think spent any time trying to recruit any investments or jobs here at home.
03:17Mary.
03:18We're hearing from some Republicans who are voicing concerns about how these cuts are
03:22being carried out.
03:23Congressman McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, tells us he's worried it's too rapid for real
03:27people to adapt to.
03:28And he says he's concerned that it could come off as discompassionate in his words, that
03:33it could risk undercutting the strong message that he feels you're trying to send about
03:36the need to cut government waste.
03:37Well, I think that that was one comment from one senator.
03:41And I think as I cited in my opening remarks in the poll, the most important people are
03:45the American people.
03:47And 77 percent of Americans at home support a full investigation into the waste, fraud
03:53and abuse that the federal government has been spending their tax dollars on.
03:57So that's the people the president cares about most.
04:00And that's why we're fulfilling this pledge.
04:01And again, it should come as no secret to anybody, the president campaigned on doing
04:05this.
04:06The president yesterday said, if you don't respond to this email, you will be fired or
04:08semi fired.
04:09What is it?
04:10What does he mean by that?
04:11Again, I've been asked to answer this question three times now.
04:14It is semi fired.
04:15But it's but it's in the memo.
04:17The president, again, has entrusted his cabinet secretaries to oversee their workforce.
04:22That's why he nominated them to be cabinet secretaries.
04:25And so federal workers can be directed to their agency leadership.
04:30Sure.
04:31Great.
04:32Thanks, Caroline.
04:33I wanted to ask about a federal judge yesterday was saying that they didn't know who the Doge
04:38administrator was and was asking the lawyer for the administration who it was.
04:44And the lawyer responded.
04:45I don't know the answer to that.
04:46Can you tell us who the administrator of Doge is?
04:48Again, I've been asked to answer this question.
04:50Elon Musk is overseeing Doge.
04:52There are career there are no Elon Musk is a special government employee, which I've
04:56also been asked and have answered that question as well.
04:59There are career officials at Doge.
05:01There are political appointees at Doge.
05:03I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium.
05:06I'm happy to follow up and provide that to you.
05:10But we've been incredibly transparent about the way that Doge is working.
05:13John, thanks a lot, Caroline.
05:17Since your last briefing, there have been some personnel moves that have been announced
05:21by the president.
05:22And I wanted to ask you about the one was the president replacing the chairman of the
05:27Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, Jr.
05:30What was the reason for the president naming a replacement for General Brown?
05:35And then I'll follow up with another personnel announcement that's been made over the last
05:38few days.
05:39He thinks he's doing a bad job and it's time for a shakeup at the Pentagon.
05:43They failed seven audits in a row.
05:45The trust in our United States military amongst the warfighters is low.
05:49The president is shaking up the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, of course, with
05:53Secretary Hegseth leading.
05:55And he has the right to do that.
05:56It's actually quite common from administration to administration to do such a thing.
06:00The president, when he swore him in as the chief of staff for the Air Force, called him
06:06a great man and a great gentleman.
06:08Does he distance himself from the remarks that he made back in August of 2020?
06:12I think replacing him speaks for itself.
06:14James.
06:15One other one.
06:16I'm sorry.
06:18On the FBI, the president also announced a new deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino.
06:25From what has been reported, and maybe this is not accurate reporting, you can tell me,
06:29the FBI director, Kash Patel, informed Republican senators that it would be an individual named
06:37as the deputy who is a special agent currently at the FBI.
06:41And, of course, Mr. Bongino is not.
06:43What was the reason for naming Mr. Bongino to this position?
06:48And was Mr. Patel not correct in making that assurance to those senators?
06:53I'm not sure if anybody in this room has listened to Mr. Bongino when he talks about the past
06:59corruption at the FBI, when he talks about his experience serving for the United States
07:04Secret Service.
07:05This is a man who loves his country and who has honorably served our country in ways that
07:10many people have not.
07:11He understands the depth of the corruption at these institutions, which the American
07:15people reelected President Trump to shake up.
07:18And I think it's quite despicable to see many networks in this room who have had chyrons
07:23on their television screens labeling Mr. Bongino as a far-right podcaster.
07:28He is not.
07:29He is a former law enforcement agent.
07:32He is a former Secret Service agent who put his life on the line to protect this country.
07:37And that is why the President of the United States has entrusted him for this important
07:40role.
07:41He's also an outsider to this Washington swamp.
07:44And we often see that when outsiders are appointed to such coveted positions, a lot of people
07:48in this city get very, very nervous.
07:50And they should be, because Dan Bongino and Kash Patel and Attorney General Bondi are
07:54focused on rooting out the corruption at these agencies and ending the weaponization of government
07:59once and for all.
08:00I'd like to end with something.
08:02As you all know-
08:03James, as you were just about to do.
08:05You know what, James?
08:06I'm feeling generous.
08:07Go ahead.
08:08I'll take it.
08:09Thank you, Caroline.
08:10Sure.
08:11I wanted to ask about-
08:12Don't make me regret this.
08:15I wanted to ask about the Macron visit and the Russia-Ukraine talks in general.
08:18Sure.
08:19It was pretty clear to my eye that President Macron was performing a kind of delicate dance,
08:23lavishing praise on the President while seeking, in his own remarks, to try to bind President
08:27Trump to positions and even specific language that the President has not committed to heretofore.
08:33One of the most bracing comments from President Macron was when he said that the deal that
08:39President Trump is negotiating with the Russians must not be, quote, a surrender for Ukraine.
08:45All of the public points that we have heard from President Trump, from Secretary Hexeth,
08:49and from other administration officials talking about these negotiations have averred to,
08:54quite openly, to concessions from the Ukrainians that will have to be made.
08:57The Minerals Deal, the abandonment of their NATO ambitions, and other elements.
09:02So far, we have not heard any administration official suggest a single concession that
09:06the Russians should be prepared to make, and so I wonder if you could assure us, at a minimum,
09:11that this negotiation process will not be as one-sided as the Europeans seem to think
09:15it is, that in fact, President Putin will also be made to engage in some concessions
09:20to reach this deal.
09:21Well, I think the President knows how to make a deal better than anyone who has ever assumed
09:26the office of the American presidency.
09:28And in order to make a deal, you have to bring both sides to the table, and typically, when
09:32you make a good deal, both sides leave that table a little bit unhappy.
09:36I'm not going to outline the concessions that the President and his team are engaged in
09:41discussing.
09:42These are obviously ongoing negotiations, and it would be unwise of me to impede them
09:46from this podium.
09:47But the President has made significant improvements in ending this conflict.
09:51He is committed to seeing an end to the war.
09:53He wants to see the bloodshed and the killing stopped.
09:56He wants to stop seeing young men being killed and slaughtered.
10:00This has been going on for far too long.
10:02The President inherited this mess because of the incompetence of the previous administration,
10:06and he's committed to fixing it.
10:08And he's made some of those concessions clear, but I'm not going to get ahead of him on additional
10:12ones.
10:13But he is wholeheartedly committed to striking a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine, also in
10:17the Middle East.
10:18Thank you very much, guys.
10:19Good to see you.