President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt held her first White House briefing on Tuesday, fielding questions from reporters for just over 45 minutes.
The press secretary announced some new changes to the briefings, discussed the wildfires in California, recent deportations, and the federal government spending freeze, among other topics in answering questions from 20 different reporters from various outlets.
When asked how often she would be doing a briefing, Leavitt replied, “the president, as you know, is incredibly accessible,” noting that Trump answered questions in the Oval Office and on his trip last week to the press pool that was with him.
“The president is the best spokesperson this White House has,” she said.
Here are five takeaways from the first press briefing.
Briefing room changes
To kick off the first White House briefing, Leavitt announced that “new media” journalists will get the first questions in the inaugural briefing.
Axios’ Mike Allen received the first question, Breitbart’s Matt Boyle received the second and the Associated Press’s Zeke Miller had the third question. The Associated Press is traditionally the first question in a White House briefing, a protocol that has spanned multiple administrations.
“America’s trust in mass media has fallen to a record low,” Leavitt told the room full of journalists, adding that many young Americans are consuming their news from other sources, like independent outlets.
Some of the seats to the right of her podium, which typically went to press office staff, will go to “new media” outlets. Leavitt also encouraged podcasters, social media influences and content creditors to apply for White House credentials.
She also said the White House would reinstate the press privileges of dozens of outlets that were “wrongly revoked by the previous administration,” including roughly 440 journalists.
No clarity on California water
Leavitt didn’t clarify what Trump meant by his recent claim that the U.S. military entered California and “turned on the water” in the aftermath of devastating wildfires. The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) pushed back on Trump’s notion, and said the military did not enter the state.
Trump had just visited the Los Angeles area on Friday, meeting with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), while on the ground.
Leavitt did not provide much clarity on just how the water was “turned on” or what the military did in detail in order to back Trump’s claim.
“The water has been turned back on in California and this comes just days after President Trump visited Pacific Palisades and, as you all saw, applied tremendous pressure on state and local officials in Pacific Palisades, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to turn on that water,” Leavitt said.
When asked what the military’s role was, she said the Army Corps of Engineers has been on the ground in California to respond to the wildfires and repeated that the “water was turned on” because of pressure from Trump on local and state officials. She did not elaborate.
Egg prices addressed
Leavitt was asked about the increase in egg prices since the tail end of the Biden administration and the start of Trump’s. She replied that the Trump administration should not be responsible for the uptick, blaming the media for its reporting on the situation.
Instead, she said the prices of eggs were due to the Biden administration’s inflation policies, noting that the price of goods in general has risen.
“There is a lot of reporting out there that is putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs,” she said.
“In 2024, when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office or upstairs in the residence sleeping— I’m not sure— egg prices increased 65 percent in this country,” she said, adding that the cost of other groceries also went up during the Biden administration.
It was one of several shots Leavitt took at Biden, including that his access to the media dwarfed that of Trump in just the first few days of the new administration.
The price of eggs has risen steeply in the past few weeks, in part due to bird flu outbreaks that has caused a shortage of chickens producing the eggs.
Leavitt then ended the briefing by encouraging the Senate to move swiftly on confirming Trump nominees, including Department of Agriculture nominee Brooke Rollins, so the administration can address the egg shortage.
Funding freeze defended
The White House defended the move by Trump to impose a widespread pause on federal grants and loans, an executive order that goes into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. EST.
“It is a temporary pause, and the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the federal funding that has been going out the door,” Leavitt said.
She emphasized that programs providing direct benefits to Americans, such as Medicare, Social Security and food stamps, were not impacted by the pause and that the focus is on ensuring government spending aligns with Trump’s agenda.
“It does not affect individual assistance going to Americans,” she said.
When questioned about the legality, Leavitt said it is “certainly within the confines of the law” and that it is within the president’s power to freeze the funding after Democrats and nonprofit grounds have expressed outrage over the move.
Several states have reported that the portal access to Medicaid, which administers healthcare aid to low income individuals, appears to be down in all 50 states. Leavitt, when asked about those reports, said she would get to back to the press corps on that with an answer.
Deportations highlighted
The press secretary was questioned about individuals who have been deported under the Trump administration so far and how many of them had a criminal record. She responded: “All of them, because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and, therefore, they are criminals.”
She opened the briefing by showing examples of deportations in recent days and outlined what crime the person had committed.
Leavitt said it is a “priority” to deport violent criminals but that it’s not off the table to deport anyone who entered the country illegally.
“It’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal but that’s exactly what they are,” she said. “If they broke our nation’s laws, yes, they are a criminal.”
Additionally, when asked about the dozens of attorneys general who have said that the Trump moves to end birthright citizenship was unconstitutional, Leavitt replied, “we are prepared to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.”
A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship for the children of many migrants last week, arguing that the move is unconstitutional.
