White House Press Briefing with Katie Zacharia — CBN News

[0:04] Good morning. I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people [0:15] as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he [0:23] has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time. I'm looking forward to [0:32] working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz [0:39] with energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to President Trump. [0:48] Just look no further than last night in Youngstown, Ohio where President Trump delivered another [0:55] blockbuster rally out on the trail. The arena was overflowing with enthusiasm as thousands came out [1:04] to support President Trump as well as special guest Jake Paul and football legend John Gruden. [1:11] The President also announced the Department of War has officially selected Cleveland, Ohio as the new [1:18] home for the U.S. Navy's submarine component repair center. This massive 46,000 square foot facility [1:28] will manufacture, repair, and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines. This is [1:38] historic. Everyday Americans are showing up in droves to attend these rallies because of President Trump's [1:46] America First agenda of lower taxes, higher wages, and one of my favorite secure borders. But it doesn't [1:58] stop there. President Trump is planning to hold rallies in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, where I will be with him, [2:08] and Georgia building off of the incredible momentum generated over the last several days from his [2:17] stops in Tennessee, New York, Texas, and Nebraska. He is an energetic president. Attendance is at record highs [2:27] as enthusiastic, hardworking Americans are lining up and packing arenas to support President Trump [2:34] and Republicans. It's not hard to see why. President Trump is fighting and delivering for American workers [2:46] every minute of every day. Real wages are up 1.2 percent since President Trump took office, [2:55] with average annual earnings outpacing inflation by $800. Under Biden, real wages fell nearly 4 percent, [3:06] with the average private sector worker's annual purchasing power declining by nearly $3,000 annually. [3:15] President Trump is the first president in modern history to actually lower prescription drug prices, [3:23] delivering the biggest drop in 63 years. President Trump has created more than 1 million private sector [3:30] jobs in his second term, including nearly 112,000 factory construction jobs and 72,000 manufacturing jobs [3:41] this year alone. And thanks to President Trump, we are once again bringing back American energy dominance, [3:49] because energy security is national security. President Trump secured the biggest oil deal in world [3:59] history, delivering the U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in [4:08] Venezuela. He had a historic one-day war, and now we have a booming economy and a great relationship with [4:17] Venezuela. The U.S. achieved record domestic oil and gas production in 2025 and record crude and petroleum [4:26] product exports in 2026. Building off of his historic boom in energy production in the first 15 months of [4:34] this administration, we have secured trillions of dollars in new investments, trillions of dollars, [4:42] including $1.4 trillion from the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion from Apple, and $340 billion from [4:50] Amazon. No other president could have gotten these deals done. Just weeks ago, President Trump announced [4:58] that Masabi Metallics will build a massive $15 billion steel complex in Iowa, the largest steel plant [5:09] ever built in the United States. This facility, a historic facility, will create 1,750 new permanent jobs [5:20] and support up to 6,000 construction jobs and generate an estimated $95 billion in economic output. [5:31] In addition, President Trump and Endural announced Arsenal 2, the biggest American shipyard push since [5:39] World War II in Maryland. This new facility will create about 3,100 direct jobs and support more than [5:47] 11,000 indirect jobs. President Trump also unveiled a South Korea energy investment package of up to $200 [5:56] billion in the United States. This is an amazing deal. This includes as much as $120 billion [6:04] to build eight large-scale nuclear power plants, something we've needed as the United States and [6:11] something President Trump promised on the campaign trail and something President Trump is delivering [6:17] on, just like he delivers on every promise. In addition to that, there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska [6:30] LNG pipeline and terminal to service the Pacific Rim and sell fuel to our allies, as well as $22.3 billion [6:40] for a 6-gigawatt natural gas power facility in Texas. Not only is the Trump administration bringing in [6:48] trillions of dollars to invest throughout the country, but we are also protecting your tax dollars by addressing [6:55] fraud head-on. Since taking office, the Trump administration has uncovered over $260 billion [7:04] of fraud, stopped $72 billion of fraud annually through administrative actions, and recovered $58.9 [7:14] billion through indictments, settlements, and civil monetary penalties. Above all, President Trump is [7:24] working to secure the Western Hemisphere for centuries to come. President Trump signed an unprecedented [7:32] agreement giving the United States lasting control over security interests in Greenland. President Trump [7:40] has used the power of tariffs to stop China from producing fentanyl precursor chemicals. The fentanyl killed [7:50] many of our citizens, and he is hard at work in ensuring that that won't happen. And here at home, [7:56] fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is down 56 percent, and fentanyl linked deaths plunged 22 [8:05] percent in a single year because of President Trump. This is a president and administration that is looking [8:13] out for you, the American people, and I'm thrilled to officially be part of this incredible journey together. [8:21] And with that, I will take your questions. Here in our new media seat, we have Nick Gelbertson from Breitbart. [8:32] Hi Katie, to the briefing room, and congrats on the new position. One of the things that your predecessor, [8:38] Caroline Levitt, did is open this room up to more voices, not less. At Breitbart, that's something our founder, Andrew Breitbart, certainly believed in. [8:46] Um, and whether that's adding this new media seat, adding new media voices to the pool, [8:51] can you tell us what you plan to do to continue to ensure that, um, new media voices continue to [8:56] be heard here at the White House? Yeah, well firstly, my predecessor, Caroline Levitt, did an incredible job, [9:01] and I completely agree with the choice of new media seat. We are absolutely going to keep it, [9:08] and we're going to expand on it to the extent possible. We love new media, and we want to be [9:13] able to embrace it. Absolutely. And then just to follow up too, you did touch on presidential travel. [9:18] Um, the president's been all over the place, and you kind of laid out his schedule over the next couple [9:23] days, but, um, is it only going to intensify here in the next couple of weeks up to midterms? [9:27] Absolutely. You can expect more of the midterm blitz. Uh, just now we've added Kentucky, [9:34] and we have a few other stops as he goes down to, uh, Florida. So it'll be Georgia, Kentucky, [9:40] and Florida. Yes. Hi, Katie. Um, hello. We will take Peter Ducey. Thanks, Katie. [9:47] Yes. Nice to meet you. Um, you're starting as White House Press Secretary three weeks [9:52] before a midterm cycle that President Trump himself says will be very tough for Republicans. [9:58] Is your job just to speak about White House matters, or is it to make things less tough [10:05] Republicans in the midterms? Well, Peter, I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, [10:12] which was hoping to amplify, multiply, and expand upon President Trump's incredible agenda for the [10:18] American people. And what I hope to do in this position is to take that into an official capacity [10:24] and only build on, only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins he's making [10:31] for Americans. For Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, [10:37] what he's been able to accomplish, my goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with [10:43] the President, as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be leading the way as with that. [10:50] And I want to ask you a policy question. Has the U.S. stopped sharing intel with Ukraine? [10:56] Ms. I'll have to get back to you on that. [10:59] Ms. Katie. [11:00] Ms. Alina Shirazi. [11:01] Ms. Katie. [11:02] Ms. Katie. [11:02] Ms. Yes. [11:02] Ms. Katie. [11:03] Ms. Katie. [11:03] Ms. Katie. [11:04] Ms. Katie. [11:04] Ms. Katie. [11:05] Ms. Alina Shirazi. [11:06] Ms. Katie. [11:06] Ms. Hi. Congrats on the job, first of all. [11:08] Ms. Thank you. [11:09] Ms. And I have two questions for you if I can. [11:13] First of all, on Kimberly Gilfoyle, the Daily Mail has been reporting on her since last year. [11:18] The President said yesterday to reporters that he is considering firing her. [11:22] Do you know a timeline for that? And also, potentially, who could be on the shortlist [11:26] to replace her if he does? [11:28] Ms. We have asked Ambassador Gilfoyle to resign. [11:33] She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well. [11:37] Okay. Second question for you, if I may, a personal question. Your family is in California. [11:44] Your husband, you have four children. I'm wondering how you manage, how are you going to manage that? [11:50] Caroline Levitt left because she wanted to spend more time with her family. And also, [11:53] did she give you any advice on how to handle this job and the people in this room? [11:58] Ms. Well, first of all, I want to give my husband an amazing shout-out. We have four kids, [12:04] ranging from 12, 10, 8, and 6. Three of them are boys, so we have a handful. [12:09] And I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority. I love being with my kids. The idea of [12:17] not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. So my president, or excuse me, [12:23] my husband. That's a good one. My husband is out here for the week because we have two birthdays in [12:33] our family, and we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family. So he brought the [12:37] entire crew out here. Bless him. It's a lot. And we will be moving out here. And as far as your second [12:44] question is, yes, Caroline has been an incredible support. She gave me great and wonderful feedback [12:52] on how to balance. I think this job is not one you necessarily balance. And I would love to share that [12:58] in my career, I stayed home with my kids from 2014 to 2020 in the process of having them. And then when [13:05] I started working again, I was able to integrate them into my life. There are many photos of which are not [13:10] public, of the kids and I at Fox Bureau, where they are sitting with me in the pod before it hits. So I [13:17] intend to, to the extent possible, include my family, include my kids in my work. Though my work will be [13:23] demanding, they will always be a priority. And I, President Trump is the most family friendly [13:29] president we've ever had. He has hired more women with families. And the fact that he knew I had four kids, [13:35] and he knew that this job would be demanding, and still place his trust in me, [13:39] shows that I know I'm capable of being able to step up to that. So thank you for that question. [13:44] In fact, I am going to end it because President Trump is heading out to Marine One for our historic [13:49] trip to Alaska. And we can ask him all of the questions out there. So thank you so much. [13:55] The Press, did you come back on Friday? Did the President speak with Ambassador Gilroyal? [14:01] Thank you. The question on, the President will be back on Thursday and that's what I will answer. [14:06] I'll leave it there. [14:11] He will answer those questions out. [14:14] Can you take a million pounds?