Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Briefs Members of the Media, Oct. 13, 2026

[0:07] Good morning. I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people [0:18] as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he [0:27] has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time. I'm looking forward to [0:36] working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz [0:42] with energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to President Trump. [0:51] Just look no further than last night in Youngstown, Ohio where President Trump delivered another [0:58] blockbuster rally out on the trail. The arena was overflowing with enthusiasm as thousands came out [1:07] to support President Trump as well as special guest Jake Paul and football legend John Gruden. [1:14] The President also announced the Department of War has officially selected Cleveland, Ohio as the new [1:22] home for the U.S. Navy's submarine component repair center. This massive 46,000 square foot facility [1:31] will manufacture, repair, and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines. [1:41] This is historic. Everyday Americans are showing up in droves to attend these rallies because of [1:48] President Trump's America First agenda of lower taxes, higher wages, and one of my favorites secure borders. [2:00] But it doesn't stop there. President Trump is planning to hold rallies in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, [2:10] where I will be with him, and Georgia building off of the incredible momentum generated over the last [2:18] several days from his stops in Tennessee, New York, Texas, and Nebraska. He is an energetic president. [2:27] Attendance is at record highs as enthusiastic, hardworking Americans are lining up and packing arenas to [2:36] support President Trump and Republicans. It's not hard to see why. President Trump is fighting and [2:47] delivering for American workers every minute of every day. Real wages are up 1.2 percent since President [2:57] Trump took office, with average annual earnings outpacing inflation by $800. Under Biden, real wages fell [3:08] nearly 4 percent, with the average private sector worker's annual purchasing power declining by nearly [3:14] $3,000 annually. President Trump is the first president in modern history to actually lower prescription drug [3:25] prices, delivering the biggest drop in 63 years. President Trump has created more than 1 million private sector [3:34] jobs in his second term, including nearly 112,000 factory construction jobs and 72,000 manufacturing jobs this year alone. [3:46] And thanks to President Trump, we are once again bringing back American energy dominance because energy security [3:55] is national security. President Trump secured the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering the U.S. [4:04] majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela. [4:13] He had a historic one-day war and now we are have a booming economy and a great relationship with Venezuela. [4:22] The U.S. achieved record domestic oil and gas production in 2025 and record crude and petroleum product exports in 2026. [4:33] Building off of his historic boom in energy production in the first 15 months of this administration, [4:39] we have secured trillions of dollars in new investments, trillions of dollars, including $1.4 trillion [4:47] dollars from the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion from Apple and $340 billion from Amazon. [4:55] No other president could have gotten these deals done. [4:57] Just weeks ago, President Trump announced that Mesabi Metallics will build a massive $15 billion [5:07] steel complex in Iowa, the largest steel plant ever built in the United States. [5:15] This facility, a historic facility, will create 1,750 new permanent jobs and support up to 6,000 construction jobs [5:27] and generate an estimated $95 billion in economic output. [5:35] In addition, President Trump and Endural announced Arsenal 2, the biggest American shipyard push since World War II in Maryland. [5:45] This new facility will create about 3,100 direct jobs and support more than 11,000 indirect jobs. [5:53] President Trump also unveiled a South Korea energy investment package of up to $200 billion in the United States. [6:02] This is an amazing deal. [6:04] This includes as much as $120 billion to build eight large-scale nuclear power plants. [6:13] Something we've needed as the United States and something President Trump promised on the campaign trail [6:17] and something President Trump is delivering on, just like he delivers on every promise. [6:22] In addition to that, there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline and terminal to service the Pacific Rim [6:38] and sell fuel to our allies, as well as $22.3 billion for a 6-gigawatt natural gas power facility in Texas. [6:49] Not only is the Trump administration bringing in trillions of dollars to invest throughout the country, [6:54] but we are also protecting your tax dollars by addressing fraud head-on. [7:00] Since taking office, the Trump administration has uncovered over $260 billion of fraud, [7:08] stopped $72 billion of fraud annually through administrative actions, [7:14] and recovered $58.9 billion through indictments, settlements, and civil monetary penalties. [7:23] Above all, President Trump is working to secure the Western Hemisphere. [7:30] For centuries to come, President Trump signed an unprecedented agreement, [7:35] giving the United States lasting control over security interests in Greenland. [7:42] President Trump has used the power of tariffs to stop China from producing fentanyl precursor chemicals. [7:51] The fentanyl killed many of our citizens, and he is hard at work in ensuring that that won't happen. [7:57] And here at home, fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is down 56%. [8:04] And fentanyl-linked deaths plunged 22% in a single year because of President Trump. [8:12] This is a president and administration that is looking out for you, the American people, [8:19] and I'm thrilled to officially be part of this incredible journey together. [8:25] And with that, I will take your questions. [8:31] Here in our new media seat, we have Nick Gilbertson from Breitbart. [8:35] Nick Gilbertson from Breitbart. [8:35] Hi, Katie. Welcome to the briefing room, and congrats on the new position. [8:39] One of the things that your predecessor, Caroline Levitt, did is open this room up to more voices, not less. [8:45] At Breitbart, that's something our founder, Andrew Breitbart, certainly believed in. [8:50] And whether that's adding this new media seat, adding new media voices to the pool. [8:54] Can you tell us what you plan to do to continue to ensure that [8:58] new media voices continue to be heard here at the White House? [9:01] Yeah, well, firstly, my predecessor, Caroline Levitt, did an incredible job, [9:05] and I completely agree with the choice of new media seat. [9:09] We are absolutely going to keep it, and we're going to expand on it to the extent possible. [9:13] We love new media, and we want to be able to embrace it. [9:17] Absolutely. And then just to follow up, too, you did touch on presidential travel. [9:22] The president's been all over the place, and you kind of laid out his schedule over the next couple [9:26] days. But is it only going to intensify here in the next couple of weeks, up to midterms? [9:30] Absolutely. You can expect more of the midterm blitz. Just now, we've added Kentucky, [9:37] and we have a few other stops as he goes down to Florida. So it'll be Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida. [9:43] We will take Peter Ducey. [9:48] Thanks, Katie. Nice to meet you. [9:52] You're starting as White House press secretary three weeks before a midterm cycle that President [9:57] Trump himself says will be very tough for Republicans. Is your job, just to speak about [10:04] White House matters, or is it to make things less tough for Republicans in the midterms? [10:10] Well, Peter, I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, [10:17] multiply, and expand upon President Trump's incredible agenda for the American people. [10:23] And what I hope to do in this position is to take that into an official capacity [10:27] and only build on, only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, [10:33] all of the wins he's making for Americans. For Americans to understand how much has changed in [10:39] this brief period of time what he's been able to accomplish, my goal is to be able to communicate [10:44] that in complete tandem with the President, as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be [10:50] leading the way with that. And I want to ask you a policy question. [10:56] Has the U.S. stopped sharing intel with Ukraine? [10:59] Ms. I'll have to get back to you on that. [11:02] All right. [11:03] Alina Shirazi. [11:04] Yes. [11:05] Alina Shirazi. [11:08] Hi. Congrats on the job, first of all, and I have two questions for you if I can. [11:16] First of all, on Kimberly Gilfoyle, the Daily Mail has been reporting on her since last year. [11:21] The President said yesterday to reporters that he is considering firing her. Do you know [11:26] a timeline for that, and also potentially who could be on the short list to replace her if he does? [11:31] Ms. We have asked Ambassador Gilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, [11:38] and we wish her well. [11:39] Okay. Second question for you, if I may, a personal question. Your family is in California, [11:47] your husband, you have four children. I'm wondering how you manage, how are you going to manage that? [11:53] Caroline Levitt left because she wanted to spend more time with her family, and also did she [11:57] give you any advice on how to handle this job and the people in this room? [12:02] Well, first of all, I want to give my husband an amazing shout-out. We have four kids, [12:07] ranging from 12, 10, 8, and 6. Three of them are boys, so we have a handful. [12:12] And I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority. I love being with my kids. The idea of [12:20] not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. So my husband is out here for the [12:34] week because we have two birthdays in our family, and we are very, very protective of celebrating [12:39] birthdays as a family. So he brought the entire crew out here. Bless him. It's a lot. And we will be [12:45] moving out here. And as far as your second question is, yes, Caroline has been an incredible support. [12:53] She gave me great and wonderful feedback on how to balance. I think this job is not one you [12:58] necessarily balance. And I would love to share that in my career, I stayed home with my kids from 2014 to [13:05] 2020 in the process of having them. And then when I started working again, I was able to integrate them [13:11] into my life. There are many photos of which are not public, of the kids and I at Fox Bureau, [13:17] where they are sitting with me in the pod before a hit. So I intend to, to the extent possible, [13:22] include my family, include my kids in my work. Though my work will be demanding, [13:27] they will always be a priority. And President Trump is the most family-friendly president we've ever had. [13:34] He has hired more women with families. And the fact that he knew I had four kids, and he knew that [13:39] this job would be demanding and still places trust in me shows that I know I'm capable of being able [13:45] to step up to that. So thank you for that question. In fact, I am going to end it because President [13:49] Trump is heading out to Marine One for our historic trip to Alaska. And we can ask him all of the [13:56] questions out there. So thank you so much. [13:59] The Pressure to come back on Friday. Did the President speak with Ambassador Gilfoyle? [14:04] The President will be back on Thursday. And that's what I will answer. I'll leave it there. [14:10] The Pressure to come back on Friday. He will answer those questions out in Marine One. [14:15] The Pressure to come back on Thursday. [14:20] And that's what I will answer. I'll leave it there.