White House Press Briefing - Oct. 13, 2026

[0:06] Good morning. I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people [0:17] as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he [0:25] has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time. I'm looking forward to [0:34] working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz [0:40] with energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to President Trump. [0:49] Just look no further than last night in Youngstown, Ohio where President Trump delivered another [0:57] blockbuster rally out on the trail. The arena was overflowing with enthusiasm as thousands came out [1:05] to support President Trump as well as special guest Jake Paul and football legend John Gruden. [1:13] The President also announced the Department of War has officially selected Cleveland, Ohio as the new [1:20] home for the U.S. Navy's submarine component repair center. This massive 46,000 square foot facility [1:30] will manufacture, repair, and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines. This is [1:39] historic. Everyday Americans are showing up in droves to attend these rallies because of President Trump's [1:47] America First agenda of lower taxes, higher wages, and one of my favorite secure borders. But it doesn't [1:59] stop there. President Trump is planning to hold rallies in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, where I will be with him, [2:10] and Georgia building off of the incredible momentum generated over the last several days from his [2:18] stops in Tennessee, New York, Texas, and Nebraska. He is an energetic president. Attendance is at record [2:28] highs as enthusiastic, hard-working Americans are lining up and packing arenas to support President Trump [2:36] and Republicans. It's not hard to see why. President Trump is fighting and delivering for American workers [2:47] every minute of every day. Real wages are up 1.2 percent since President Trump took office, [2:57] with average annual earnings outpacing inflation by $800. Under Biden, real wages fell nearly 4 percent, [3:07] with the average private sector worker's annual purchasing power declining by nearly $3,000 annually. [3:16] President Trump is the first president in modern history to actually lower prescription drug prices, [3:24] delivering the biggest drop in 63 years. President Trump has created more than 1 million private sector [3:32] jobs in his second term, including nearly 112,000 factory construction jobs and 72,000 manufacturing jobs [3:42] this year alone. And thanks to President Trump, we are once again bringing back American energy dominance, [3:50] because energy security is national security. President Trump secured the biggest oil deal in [4:00] world history, delivering the U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in [4:10] Venezuela. He had a historic one-day war, and now we have a booming economy and a great relationship [4:18] with Venezuela. The U.S. achieved record domestic oil and gas production in 2025 and record crude and [4:27] petroleum product exports in 2026. Building off of his historic boom in energy production, [4:35] in the first 15 months of this administration, we have secured trillions of dollars in new investments, [4:41] trillions of dollars, including $1.4 trillion from the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion from Apple, [4:50] and $340 billion from Amazon. No other president could have gotten these deals done. Just weeks ago, [4:58] President Trump announced that Masabi Metallics will build a massive $15 billion steel complex in Iowa, [5:08] the largest steel plant ever built in the United States. This facility, a historic facility, [5:17] will create 1,750 new permanent jobs and support up to 6,000 construction jobs, [5:24] and generate an estimated $95 billion in economic output. In addition, President Trump and Andurl announced [5:36] Arsenal 2, the biggest American shipyard push since World War II in Maryland. This new facility will [5:45] create about 3,100 direct jobs and support more than 11,000 indirect jobs. President Trump also unveiled a [5:55] South Korea energy investment package of up to $200 billion in the United States. This is an amazing deal. [6:03] This includes as much as $120 billion to build eight large-scale nuclear power plants, something we've [6:12] needed as the United States and something President Trump promised on the campaign trail and something [6:17] President Trump is delivering on, just like he delivers on every promise. In addition to that, [6:27] there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline and terminal to service the Pacific Rim and sell fuel to [6:37] our allies, as well as $22.3 billion for a six-gigawatt natural gas power facility in Texas. Not only is the [6:48] Trump administration bringing in trillions of dollars to invest throughout the country, but we are also [6:54] protecting your tax dollars by addressing fraud head-on. Since taking office, the Trump administration [7:01] has uncovered over $260 billion of fraud, stopped $72 billion of fraud annually through administrative [7:12] actions and recovered $58.9 billion through indictments, settlements, and civil monetary penalties. [7:22] Above all, President Trump is working to secure the Western Hemisphere. For centuries to come, [7:31] President Trump signed an unprecedented agreement giving the United States lasting control over security [7:39] interests in Greenland. President Trump has used the power of tariffs to stop China from producing [7:47] fentanyl precursor chemicals. The fentanyl killed many of our citizens, and he is hard at work in ensuring [7:55] that that that won't happen. And here at home, fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is down [8:02] 56 percent. And fentanyl-linked deaths plunged 22 percent in a single year because of President Trump. This is a [8:12] president and administration that is looking out for you, the American people, and I'm thrilled to officially be [8:21] part of this incredible journey together. And with that, I will take your questions. Here in our new media [8:30] seat, we have Nick Gelbertson from Breitbart. Hi, Katie. Welcome to the briefing room, and congrats on the [8:36] new position. One of the things that your predecessor, Caroline Levitt, did is open this room up to more [8:42] voices, not less. At Breitbart, that's something our founder, Andrew Breitbart, certainly believed in, [8:48] and whether that's adding this new media seat, adding new media voices to the pool. Can you tell us what [8:53] you plan to do to continue to ensure that new media voices continue to be heard here at the White House? [8:59] Yeah. Well, firstly, my predecessor, Caroline Levitt, did an incredible job, and I completely agree with [9:05] the choice of new media seat. We are absolutely going to keep it, and we're going to expand on it [9:10] to the extent possible. We love new media, and we want to be able to embrace it. Absolutely. And then, [9:17] just to follow up, too, you did touch on presidential travel. The president's been all over the place, [9:22] and you kind of laid out his schedule over the next couple days, but is it only going to intensify [9:27] here in the next couple of weeks up to midterms? Absolutely. You can expect more of the midterm [9:32] blitz. Just now, we've added Kentucky, and we have a few other stops as he goes down to [9:39] Florida. So it'll be Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida. [9:42] Katie. Hi, Katie. [9:44] Hello. We will take Peter Ducey. [9:47] Thanks, Katie. [9:48] Yes. [9:48] Nice to meet you. You're starting as White House Press Secretary three weeks before a midterm [9:54] cycle that President Trump himself says will be very tough for Republicans. [10:00] Is your job just to speak about White House matters, or is it to make things less tough for [10:06] Republicans in the midterms? [10:08] Well, but Peter, I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, [10:16] multiply, and expand upon President Trump's incredible agenda for the American people. [10:21] And what I hope to do in this position is to take that into an official capacity and only build on, [10:27] only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins he's making for Americans. [10:34] For Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he's been able to [10:40] accomplish. My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the President, [10:46] as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be leading the way as with that. [10:52] And I want to ask you a policy question. [10:55] Has the U.S. stopped sharing intel with Ukraine? [10:59] I'll have to get back to you on that. [11:00] Katie. [11:01] Alina Shirazi. [11:03] Katie. [11:03] Yes. [11:04] Katie. [11:05] Katie. [11:05] Alina Shirazi. [11:07] Katie. [11:08] Hi. Congrats on the job. [11:09] Thank you. [11:10] First of all, and I have two questions for you, if I can. [11:14] First of all, on Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Daily Mail has been reporting on her since last year. [11:19] The President said yesterday to reporters that he is considering firing her. Do you know a timeline [11:25] for that? And also, potentially, who could be on the shortlist to replace her if he does? [11:29] We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, [11:36] and we wish her well. [11:38] Okay. Second question for you, if I may, a personal question. Your family is in California, [11:45] your husband, you have four children. I'm wondering how you manage, how are you going to manage that? [11:51] Caroline Levitt left because she wanted to spend more time with her family. And also, [11:55] did she give you any advice on how to handle this job and the people in this room? [11:59] Well, first of all, I want to give my husband an amazing shout-out. We have four kids, [12:05] ranging from 12, 10, 8, and 6. Three of them are boys, so we have a handful. [12:10] And I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority. I love being with my kids. [12:17] The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. So my president, [12:24] excuse me, my husband, that's a good one. My husband is out here for the week because we have [12:33] two birthdays in our family, and we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family. [12:38] So he brought the entire crew out here. Bless him. It's a lot. And we will be moving out here. [12:44] And as far as your second question is, yes, Caroline has been an incredible support. [12:51] She gave me great and wonderful feedback on how to balance. I think this job [12:56] is not one you necessarily balance. And I would love to share that in my career, [13:01] I stayed home with my kids from 2014 to 2020 in the process of having them. And then when I [13:07] started working again, I was able to integrate them into my life. There are many photos of which are [13:12] not public, the kids and I at Fox Bureau, where they are sitting with me in the pod before a hit. [13:17] So I intend to, to the extent possible, include my family, include my kids in my work. Though my [13:24] work will be demanding, they will always be a priority. And President Trump is the most family [13:30] friendly president we've ever had. He has hired more women with families. And the fact that he knew [13:35] I had four kids and he knew that this job would be demanding and still placed his trust in me [13:40] shows that I know I'm capable of being able to step up to that. So thank you for that question. [13:45] In fact, I am going to end it because President Trump is heading out to Marine One for our historic [13:51] trip to Alaska. And we can ask him all of the questions out there. So thank you so much. [13:57] The Press... [14:03] Ms. to the question on the President will be back on Thursday and that's what I will answer. [14:08] I'll leave it there. [14:09] The Press... [14:12] Ms. He will, he will answer those questions out in Marine One for our. [14:15] The Press... [14:20] Thank you. [14:21] Thank you.