[0:07]Hello everybody. Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience as always. Let's begin with some scheduling announcements for the remainder of President Trump's very busy week. Today at 3:00 p.m., President Trump will host a Black History Month reception in the East Room of the White House. I know many of you will attend and we will see you up there. Tomorrow, President Trump will host a Board of Peace meeting at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, where he will announce that member states have pledged more than $5 billion towards the Gaza humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, and have also committed thousands of personnel to the international stabilization force and local police to maintain security and peace for Gazans. Tomorrow afternoon, the President will travel to the great state of Georgia, where he will visit two local businesses and give a speech on his efforts to make life affordable for working people. On Friday, President Trump will host a working breakfast with governors in the East Room here at the White House, and on Saturday night, President Trump and the First Lady will host the annual Governors dinner. Next, I'd like to provide an update on the economy. We're seeing promising signs every day that 2026 is going to be a record successful year for the American people, just as President Trump promised them. The January jobs report shattered expectations, highlighting how the President's pro-growth economic agenda is fueling American prosperity. The economy added 172,000 new private sector jobs to kick off the year. That's more than two and a half times economist's predictions. The labor force participation rate went up while the unemployment rate fell. The prime age labor force participation rate is now at its highest since 2001. Most importantly, 100% of all job creation under President Trump continues to be in the private sector. This is truly remarkable. That's 615,000 private sector jobs that have been added in President Trump's second term thus far. These are real working people, these are real American families who will be living out their American dream. Meanwhile, federal government employment has shrunk to its lowest level since 1966, saving taxpayers $29 billion annually. And all of the net job growth under President Trump has gone to native born Americans, ending the disgraceful pattern under Joe Biden of job gains going to non-citizens and illegal aliens. Additionally, on inflation, the new CPI report is even more proof of the progress made by President Trump. Despite all of the doom casting from the so-called experts, the President has managed to utilize powerful tariffs to secure trillions of dollars in investments into our country and rebalance our trade deals while simultaneously cooling inflation. Year over year inflation fell to 2.4% in January, beating expectations again and marking the lowest level since May. Core inflation, the best measure of inflation, dropped to its lowest level in nearly five years. Meanwhile, real average hourly earnings for all private sector workers rose in the month of January, which means more money is going back directly into people's pockets. After only one year of President Trump back in office, real earnings for all private sector workers have outpaced inflation by nearly $1,400, earning back roughly half of the $2,900 they lost under Joe Biden when 40 year high inflation was stealing Americans' purchasing power. President Trump's policies are and will continue to allow Americans incomes to go further for bills, retirement, and achieving the American dream. A key part of the American dream is buying a home. It's and that is finally becoming more affordable under this President. This past week, it was announced the annual mortgage costs for a new home has fallen by $4,000 so far under President Trump, after rising by roughly $15,000 under Joe Biden. As a result, mortgage affordability has reached a four-year best following recent bold action by the President to make home ownership more attainable for American families, not large Wall Street corporate institutional investors. At the same time, national median rates rents have fallen to a four-year low and have declined for six consecutive months. The annual rental costs for a new rental unit has fallen nearly $100 so far under President Trump, after rising more than $3,000 under Joe Biden. And many are crediting that to the President's deportation efforts to remove illegal aliens from our communities and therefore from housing that should be used for American citizens. At the grocery store, the price of eggs, dairy, cheese, fresh fruit, apples, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, and butter have fallen since President Trump took office, and he is continuing to fight for even lower prices at the grocery store for the American consumer. At the gas pump, fuel prices are down by almost 10% over the past year. The average national price for a gallon of regular gas is now less than $3 and is approaching $2.70 in some states and much lower than that in many states across the country as well. We've seen in several states gas is under $2 a gallon. And at the pharmacy, prescription drug prices are down over the past year, with even more price relief ahead for American patients, thanks to President Trump's most favored nation drug pricing deals and the great healthcare plan, which he is calling on Congress to pass as soon as possible. What President Trump wants Americans to understand is that this is only the start and the best is yet to come. The historic success that we have seen since he took office is just the beginning of enormous growth and opportunity that we are about to witness and I know the President looks forward to hitting the road and being with the great people of Georgia tomorrow to talk about just this. So with that today, I know there's a lot of news. I will open it up to take your questions and we're going to start as always with our new media seats. The great Michael Graham from Inside Sources. Thank you for being here, Michael. Thank you for having us. And uh thanks to for my 200 newspaper partners around the country. So you mentioned gas, but you didn't mention natural gas. And back where you live, your friends and family are paying among the highest prices for natural gas to heat their home and for electricity generation, the number one source of power across New England. The cheap gas is in Pennsylvania, the two highest places to buy gas in the country, New York City and Boston. The problem is the blue states will not allow the gas to travel to produce electricity or to reach customers. When President Trump first came back in office, there was some talk him and Governor Hogle in New York possibly reaching a deal. When will consumers in the Northeast feel relief from President Trump's energy uh policies and what can he do about state objections to expansion of infrastructure then I have a quick follow. Sure, absolutely. Well, the President has promised all Americans across the country and in particular in the Northeast where we do face much higher costs of electricity and of energy, unfortunately, uh because of the Democrat policies in the area. From the federal government's perspective, the President and the National Energy Dominance Council, Secretaries Right and Burgham are doing all we can when it comes to federal permitting. Uh the drill baby drill agenda is obviously underway. The President has has made a huge push for more fossil fuels in this country. Uh you look at what he did last week with respect to coal. Coal truly keeps the lights on in this country. We learned that in the recent winter storms. However, there's only so much that can be done at the federal level. That's why the President has called on Blue State Governors to participate in this energy dominance agenda, uh including governors in New England and the Northeast. By contacting Governor Hokal directly to get this constitution pipeline underway. This is not only going to bring down the cost of energy in the Northeast, it's also going to support job growth and and energy affordability and more opportunity for workers in the Northeast. And I just have a a quick statistic here on energy that I found fascinating. And it's obviously true because I'm saying it up here. Red states with Republican legislatures currently enjoy lower average retail electricity prices than blue states with Democrat legislatures. Uh and that's exactly why the President is calling on all blue state governors, uh across New England and the Northeast to get on board. Let's bring prices down for all Americans, whether they live in a red or a blue state. So right down the street from your Almonata State from College is talking about building an ICE facility uh that's causing a lot of political in New Hampshire and for the Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte, seem to be some miscommunications are you on both sides. Even Republican supporters of Trump who live in the town said we're not sure we want this. What's your message to the folks in New Hampshire about this proposed ICE facility? The message is that uh illegal immigration while the border is secure, is still a problem across our entire homeland. And the previous administration allowed nearly 20 million illegal aliens from countries all over the world into our country. And the President and Secretary No have done a phenomenal job at deporting uh nearly 3 million illegals have left the country either through deportation or self-deportation under the over the past year. Uh but obviously there are a lot more illegal criminals left in our homeland. That includes in New England. Uh there are many within our communities in New Hampshire, uh in Maine and definitely in Massachusetts and in the Boston suburbs that need to be arrested, detained and deported back to their home countries. Um and so the President and Secretary Nome and I know ICE are engaged with local governors across the whole country, including in New Hampshire to open more detention facilities. This is an unfortunate consequence of the previous administration's border invasion. Um that the President has thankfully put a stop to, but of course we still need to grapple with the illegal alien criminals who are here and that requires more detention space. Thank you, Michael. Garrett. Um on Iran. I'm not asking you for like military secrets here but can you you know I would be so unwise. Unless you want to give her. Can you share a little bit about the president's thinking on whether or not to strike Iran, who he's talking to, what information he's consuming and why a strike might be necessary on a nuclear program he says was obliterated by the last US strike. Well, there's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against the uh against Iran. Uh the President had a very successful operation as commander-in-chief with operation Midnight Hammer as you know, as you just said, uh totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities. Um, the President has always been very clear though with respect to Iran or any country around the world. Diplomacy is always his first option and Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and with this administration. Uh, he's talking to many people, of course, his National Security team first and foremost, uh, and you know who the members of that team are. Uh, and this is something obviously the President takes seriously. He's always thinking about what's in the best interest of the United States of America, of our military, of the American people, um, and that's how he makes decisions with respect to military action of any kind. And on the flip side of that, he's got the State of the Union speech next week. If he is going to take military action, does the administration believe it's important to sort of convince the American people, sell the American people, will we hear something about that in the State of the Union to make the case for why something like that might be necessary to risk American lives? Look, again, I'm not going to engage in a hypothetical. Good try, Garrett, but I didn't you can't catch me there. I will say with respect to the State of the Union, you'll be hearing more about what is to come from the President's speech very soon at the appropriate time. It is going to be a very good and powerful speech, so everyone should tune in. Ed. Caroline, thank you. I got two questions for you. Um about Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Um the administration's decided to appeal a judge's ruling that in essence was trying to put the slavery displays back arguing that the federal government believed it had the power to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. The judge said it does not. The administration said that you were planning to uh put up a updated interpretive materials to provide a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall. What more was the administration or is the administration planning to add? I'm not familiar with the specific instance, Ed, to be honest with you, but I will check in with the appropriate people who are overseeing this and we'll get you a more firm answer. One other question then. On yesterday in his statement about Jesse Jackson, the President said despite the fact that I'm falsely and consistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left Democrats all. It was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way. Where or when does the President believe he's been falsely called racist? You're kidding, right? I will pull you plethora of examples. I'm going to get my team in that room to start going through the internet of radical Democrats throughout the years, Ed, who have accused this President falsely of being a racist. And I'm sure there's many people in this room and on network television across the country who have accused him of the same. In fact, I know that because I've seen it with my own eyes. And the President very much looks forward to having a an event later this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. to celebrate Black History Month and to talk about his policies are advancing opportunity and prosperity for all Americans through uh record tax cuts. Through the Trump accounts that all Americans can access regardless of race. These are great thing for the next generation of Americans. The President has also awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to strengthen educational outcomes at historically black colleges and universities across the country. Uh again, the President is protecting the hard earned benefits of the 2.4 million black veterans who honorably served in our nation's armed forces by reducing the black backlog of veterans waiting for their VA benefits uh and for their home loans through the Veteran Department of Veterans Affairs. So, there is a lot this President has done for all Americans regardless of race and he has absolutely been falsely called and smeared as a racist and I'm happy to provide you those receipts and we gladly will right after this briefing. Jennifer, go ahead. You mentioned the five billion pledges for the board of peace. Will we be able to get a breakdown of which countries are providing each of those pledges? Sure, we're happy to provide that breakdown, and I'm also happy to provide the list of countries that will be attending tomorrow. I know it's more than 20 countries. I know there's a lot of interest in that. I'll spare myself reading you the list of 20 countries from the podium, but we will provide it. And the President will be opening the meeting tomorrow with remarks and will sort of formally be chairing the meeting at the beginning before he departs for Georgia tomorrow. And then on the sewage bill, the sewage pipe that broke on the Potomic. Can you give us an update on the federal government's response and officials had told CBS that some of that aging infrastructure is a concern that this particular pipe wasn't even of the most urgent concern. Do you know if the government is is looking into which other pipes could be at risk of of collapsing? Well, the next step in this process is for any of the three local jurisdictions involved, whether that's the Commonwealth of Virginia, the state of Maryland and Governor Moore, or the District of Columbia to step forward and to ask the federal government for help. Uh and to ask uh for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Governor Moore in Maryland for far too long. In fact, it's no secret uh that Maryland's water and infrastructure have been in dire need of repair. There their infrastructure has received a nearly failing grade in the 2025 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the same grade they've received five years earlier. There has been no improvement under the leadership of Governor Moore. He's clearly shown he's incapable of fixing this problem, which is why President Trump and the federal government are standing by to step in. And for all of the environmentalists in the room and across the District of Columbia, let's all hope and pray that this governor does the right thing and asks President Trump to get involved because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster, uh if the federal government does not step in to help, but of course we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request. That's part of the legal process to move forward. Peter. So, uh you said that any of the three Democrats just need to ask. A few minutes ago, Maryland's Governor Wes Moore asked. He said, if the President wants me to ask nicely, our response is this. Please, Mr. President, do your job. To which I say, I'll ask the President, and we will provide you with the next steps. But in all seriousness, the federal government has been preparing plans. We the White House has been in contact with FEMA with the Army Corps of Engineers, with the Environmental Protection Agency. Again, we've been standing by. This is a problem we want to fix. Not just uh for the federal government, but for everyone who lives in the District of Columbia, including all of you, so you're welcome. And to your point about that, there are a lot of events coming up for America 250. The President wants people from all over to come to the nation's capital. Is he worried that by the summer, the Potomic River will still smell like poop? He is worried about that, which is why uh the federal government wants to fix it and we hope that the local uh authorities will cooperate with us in doing so. Steve. What will the $5 billion be used for in in Board of Peace and will that be sort of a down payment for much more money? You'll be hearing more about that tomorrow at the meeting. If you recall at the first meeting when we were in Davos, uh Jared Kushner did provide a very detailed powerpoint presentation for the vision of Gaza, the reconstruction and the humanitarian efforts, of course, providing local security on the ground. That will be part of the discussion tomorrow is how can we maintain security. Uh first you must uh achieve security to get to prosperity, uh which is sort of the second part of this plan. So you'll be hearing more about that tomorrow, but I would just point out, $5 billion worth of investment. We're talking about reconstructing Gaza. I remember when those words came from the President's lips uh in the East Room many months ago and all of you in the press were bewildered at how the President uh could have such an ambitious goal of rebuilding Gaza, which is obviously a place that has been just turmoil by violence and chaos for many, many years. But we are well underway in doing that and it's a historic accomplishment for this President. Secondly, is the President seeing enough progress in the Iran talks to let negotiations go a little further and where do things stand after yesterday's talks? I think you heard uh from the administration in the State Department yesterday that there was a little bit of progress made, but we're still very far apart on some issues. I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with some more detail in the next couple of weeks, and so the President will continue to watch how this plays out. Sure. I'll follow up on that. Thank you, Caroline. On on these Iranian talks. I mean, how much time is the President willing to give it before he is seriously maybe considering military action? Is he willing to give it that full two weeks and has he given the Iranian officials a deadline on when he wants to see a deal? It's a fair question, Rachel, but I'm not going to set deadlines on behalf of the President of the United States from this podium. And then just one more on the shutdown. Um we're now in this partial shutdown, um over uh DHS funding. Has the President personally spoken to the Democratic leaders in Congress? Can we expect to see them at the White House to try to make a deal on this? Uh not to my knowledge. He hasn't had any direct conversation or correspondence with Democrat lawmakers recently. It doesn't mean he's not willing to. I'm just not aware of any conversations that have taken place. I do know the White House uh and the President's representatives have been in direct conversations with both Democrats and Republicans. But of course, Democrats are the reason that the Department of Homeland Security is currently shut down. Um they have chosen to act against the American people for political reasons, uh and now we have FEMA workers, the men and women of the United States Coast Guard, men and women of TSA who keep our airports moving, who will be working without paychecks, uh for no good reason other than the Democrats wanting to pick a fight with Donald Trump. And the President thinks that is irresponsible and despicable. He wants the government to be open. We've been engaged in good faith negotiations with the Democrats. Last night, they sent over a counter proposal that frankly was very unserious and we hope they get serious very soon because Americans are going to be impacted by this. Sure. Yes. Thank you. Uh Governor Moore in Maryland signed a bill that is ending the law enforcement cooperation with ICE. And by doing that, a lot of local sh is not happy and they're in fact they met today in Annapolis to come up with either legal action. What is the message to the White House to all shers and to the residents of Maryland? Well, first of all, it's another despicable action by Governor West Moore. Why would you prevent your state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal law enforcement? If you just ask them to your point, if you ask Sheriff across the country, if they want to have that level of cooperation and coordination with the federal government, of course they do. It makes their jobs easier. It keeps them out of hostile and dangerous environments. It allows them to detain illegal alien criminals who have committed heinous crimes in our country with with um the most safe circumstances possible. So the President, of course, continues to always stand on the side of law enforcement, and this is another just horrible and frankly political action taken by Governor West Moore. And unfortunately, the people of his state are going to reap the consequences of it. Sure. Thank you, Caroline. Uh two questions. First, the President has talked a lot about housing affordability. And several countries that are facing housing shortages, including Canada, for example, have imposed a ban on non-citizens like foreigners, um from buying their houses. Do you know if that's a strategy that the President would be willing to deploy? Well, first of all, the President is obviously committed to deporting illegal aliens from our country and those who are not lawfully present in the United States, which he has done at a record pace, which has led to the falling of rents, as I pointed out in my opening remarks. Uh secondly, the President has recently announced that he is fighting for a ban on institutional investors in Wall Street billionaire corporations, um from buying up single family homes that should be lived in in his opinion by American families. We know this is going to have a remarkable impact on the housing market and on prices and supply and demand for the American consumer and the American family. And then thirdly, the President is also expediting permitting as fast as we possibly can to build more homes, to increase supply to obviously bring down the cost of of of home ownership and in purchasing homes for the American people. And then also, as I mentioned as well, we do see mortgage rates falling. So all of this is is combining to make housing more affordable in this country. There's still a lot more to do. The President is still digging his way out of the mess that was created uh by Joe Biden's administration and jacking up mortgage rates and jacking up housing costs. Uh but we do see very positive trends in this direction and the President wants the United States to be a nation uh of owners, not renters. He wants families to live in homes, not institutions and big corporations. Michael. Second, uh on Ukraine, yesterday's Zelensky said in an interview that he doesn't, he says that it's not fair that the President is saying that Ukraine has to make concessions and not Russia. He's saying this publicly and not Russia. Has the President seen these comments? And when the President says that Ukraine has to make concessions, is he referring to giving up Dunbass? I think the President would respond to that by saying he does not think it's fair that thousands of Ukrainians are losing their lives and Russians too in this deadly war. And that's why the President and his team have committed a tremendous amount of time and energy in bringing this war that is very far away from the United States of America, but nevertheless, this is a President of Peace. And so he's committed a tremendous amount of time and energy to bringing this war to an end. Just yesterday, there was another round of trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine. There was meaningful progress made, uh and both parties, both sides agreed to update their respective leaders and to continue to work towards a peace deal together. So there will be another round of talks in the future, but I think the President views this entire situation as very unfair. Not just for Russians and Ukrainians who have lost their lives, but also for the American people, and the American taxpayer who were footing the bill for this war effort before President Trump put a stop to it. And I would just remind uh remind everyone around the world that the United States is still selling weapons to NATO that are then being sent to Ukraine in their defense of their freedom uh and their borders. Michael. Caroline, Russia is reportedly joining Iran for joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman this week. Has the President issued any kind of warning to Russia or even China not to involve itself at the US decides to strike Iran? Uh not to my knowledge, no, or not that I would dictate from this podium. I wouldn't reveal the President's private conversations with world leaders, uh with respect to that. Again, when it comes to Iran, uh the President uh has a decision to make and he will do that. And I'm not going to broadcast what that decision may be ahead of him.
[25:56]One more. Go ahead. Last week we saw the underlying affidavit for the search warrant that was executed in Fulton County, and there was not any mention in that document about foreign election interference in the 2020 election. I'm wondering if DNI Gabert has uncovered that in Georgia or in Puerto Rico where we know her team was sent as well. I don't have an update for you on that today. I would defer you to uh the director's office herself.
