a lot of us are very festive in our Green Peter Ducey I like it uh first today I want to address the devastating tornadoes in storms that have impacted many states throughout the South and the Midwest as of this morning more than 40 innocent lives have been lost and many communities have been totally destroyed the president has been actively monitoring the situation and the Trump Administration is engaged with Governors and local officials to restore affected communities and livelihoods everyone impacted is in our prayers and president Trump is fully prepared to assist state and local officials
as they recover from the horrific damage uh the president has had a very busy weekend making our country and the world's a much safer Place president Trump ordered decisive military action against the houthi terrorists in Yemen these houthi terrorists have engaged in piracy violence and terrorism against American ships for years under the Biden Administration costing billions of dollars and putting innocent lives at risk Joe Biden's pathetic weakness invited these unacceptable attacks but there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Donald Trump and the world is officially on notice America has a commander-in-chief whose
peace through strength approach is unwavering and should not be tested as the president said no terrorist force will stop american commercial enable vessels from freely sailing throughout the world houthi terrorists and their Iranian backers should not cross president Trump again and the president has made that clear today on another important matter president Trump signed a proclamation invoking the alien enemies act regarding the invasion of the United States by the foreign terrorist organization Trend de aragua at the president's Direction the Department of Homeland Security carried out a counterterrorism operation to rep in nearly 200 violent Trend
araga terrorists which will save countless American lives thanks to the great work of the Department of State these heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threats to the American public public TR aragua is one of the most ruthless terrorist gangs gangs in the world and they are responsible for some of the most heinous crimes that have occurred in our nation's history in recent years including the Savage murders of beautiful lak and Riley and Joselyn Nung president Trump promised lakan and joselyn's families during his
campaign that he would demand Justice for their beautiful girls and that's exactly what he did as the president acknowledged during his inaugural address on January 20th he pledged to invoke this act and he has no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and inv invasions president Trump will continue his historic efforts to seal the border and prevent these illegal Invaders from coming here in the first place as the New York Times is acknowledged over the weekend president Trump's policies are working here's how the time summed it up illegal Crossings at the US Mexico
border are down to their lowest level in decades once crowded migrant shelters are empty instead of heading north people stranded in Mexico are starting to return home in bigger numbers the border is almost unrecognizable from just a couple of years ago when hundreds of thousands of people from around the world were crossing into the United States every month in scenes of chaos and upheaval this is the Trump effect in action and again those are the words from the New York Times we didn't need a border security Bill we just needed president Trump all of these
actions taken together are contributing to a wave of optimism about the direction of our great country ACC according to brand new polling from NBC News more registered voters say the United States is heading in the right direction than at any point since early 2004 Americans support president Trump's Common Sense approach that's getting our country back on track in record time meanwhile the president's critics can't say the same that same new NBC poll also found that the Democrat Party has reached an all-time low in popularity it turns out when you let your your hatred of President
Trump get in the way of doing what is best for America the people reject you who would have thought joining us today in our new media seat is Kelly Meyer she is a White House correspondent with news Nation news Nation started in 2021 and is one of America's fastest growing cable news networks with a focus on news for all of America it's part of a large larger ecosystem nextar which is home to news Nation the political website the hill the broadcast network the CW in local nextar stations with that kick us off please Kelly thank
you Caroline what do you say to Americans who want Safe Streets but are concerned due process is being violated the president is using every lever lever of his executive Authority and his constitutional Authority within the bounds of the immigration laws of our country to ensure that our streets are safer for law-abiding American citizens and this Administration is focused on detaining arresting and supporting illegal criminal aliens and as you saw this past weekend the president used his authority under the alien enemies act to deport foreign terrorists trend aragua is now a designated Forest foreign terrorist organization
uh and as I said there were nearly 200 Trend aragua members who were sent to El Salvador this weekend countless lives will be saved because of this action and if you talk to the families the angel families as I mentioned Lake and Riley and Joselyn NR they understand and the grave cost of Life at the hands of these illegal terrorists and um the president is proud to deliver on that promise for them and just to follow up on that this will be challenged later today in the courts does the president um you know does this
allow allow him to defy the court order without having this uh the checks and balances and the separation of power uh no in fact this Administration acted within the confines of the law again within the president's constitutional Authority and under The Authority granted to him under the alien enemies act we are quite confident in that uh and we are wholly confident that we are going to win this case in court Peter thank you Caroline if you guys can't send 200 Trend araga terrorists at a time to El Salvador where you going to send them instead
it's a very good question uh you'd have to ask the courts and the people on the left who are trying to fight this Administration uh for doing uh the the business that this President sought out to do which is to deport um these foreign terrorists and we're very grateful to president buelli and to El Salvador for accepting these heinous Monsters uh where they will face Justice and if these guys are terrorists at war with the United States is President Trump considering anything more lethal to address them than just sticking them on a plane somewhere else
well it sounded like you had a little bit of curiosity in the premise of your question so I want to address it these are designated foreign terrorists the president signed a proclamation on February 20th 2025 designating TDA as a foreign terrorist organization that was in consultation with the attorney general and the Secretary of Treasury um that was pursuant to 8 us code 1189 the president has the right to do that and I think nobody would argue that trende araga should be designated a foreign terrorist organization if you want to have that argument I'm happy to
do it these are heinous monsters rapists murderers kidnappers sexual assaulters predators who have no right to to be in this country and they must be held accountable and something different there is now a member of the European Parliament from France who does not think the US represents the values of the Statue of Liberty anymore they want the Statue of Liberty back so is President Trump going to send the Statute of Liberty back to France absolutely not and uh my advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it's only because of
the United States of America that uh the French are not speaking German right now so they should be very grateful uh to our great country Kelly is the administration prepared to give the court What It Wants in terms of the time of the flights that departed that went to El Salvador and some of those details that the judge is asking for in trying to determine the timing clearly the five named individuals were not deported compliance but looking more broadly wanting to know about the timing of flights and so forth uh because the verbal order did
say turn around the flights if there's an issue so is the administration prepared to provide that information I'm prepared to provide it right now all of the planes that were subject to the written order the judge's written order um took off before the order was entered in the courtroom on Saturday and the administration will of course be happily answering all of those questions that the judge poses in court later today and for people who have due process questions about making certain that there wasn't anyone who was swept up who did not meet the criteria that
you laid out is there a way for the administration to provide more detail about how that was determined who the individuals were that met uh this um deportation order yes I can assure the American people that uh customs in Border Patrol and ice and the Department of Homeland Security are sure about the identities of the individuals who were on these planes uh and the threat that they pose to our homeland they take this incredibly seriously they are putting their lives on the line to deport these designated terrorists from our country and they should be trusted
to do that and that's exactly what the American people elected this president to do thanks car just to follow up on that then so you're saying definitively you can that the administration can prove everyone that was put on those flights sou Salvador was either a member of trener AUA MS13 or some other entity we've already provided the breakdown in the effort of transparency about the 261 illegal aliens who were deported um 130 seven of those were deported under the alien enemies act 101 of those were Venezuelans removed via title 8 which as you know are
just regular immigration proceedings um in 23 of them were MS-13 Salvadorian gang members there were also two MS-13 ring leaders as part of that group of 23 who president bu Kelli particularly expressed his gratitude for their return so he can demand Justice in his home country jennif what what criteria though other than say tattoos or maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time are you are they using to determine that someone is actually a member of one of these organizations intelligence and the men and women on the ground in the interior of our
country uh who are finally being allowed to do their jobs their hands were tied under the previous administration and as I said they take their jobs very seriously they should be trusted and respected by the American public um with this operation and of course as I said to Kelly the administration will provide um all details to the questions that the court poses Jennifer one more follow up on that can you say how much the US is paying El Salvador to imprison these these Venezuelans and then a different question on Russia I was wondering if you
could give us an update on the ceasefire negotiations and is there anything you can share on the list that Putin gave passed along to president Trump for the the things he's requesting sure to your first question it was approximately $6 million um to El Salvador uh for for the Detention of these foreign terrorists and I would point out that is Pennies on the dollar in comparison to uh the cost of Life uh in the cost it would impose on the American taxpayer to house these terrorists in maximum security prisons here in the United States of
America and I would uh Echo the message of our secretary of state Marco Rubio who expressed his gratitude to president buchelli and El Salvador's government uh for their cooperation in this deal as for Russia as you know the president announced last night on Air Force One on his return from his very uh busy weekend in Florida uh that he will be speaking to President Putin tomorrow I won't get ahead of those negotiations but I can say we are on the 10th yard line of peace and we've never been closer to a peace deal than we
are in this moment and the president as you know um is determined to get one done sure I have two questions for you one on the flights but but first on the president's post overnight uh saying that he is that the pardons that were issued by President Biden preemptively to to members of the January 6 committee um that they're now null and void have attorneys here at the White House told president Trump that he is the legal authority to undo a pardon simply because it was signed by autopen as as he said the president was
begging the question that I think a lot of journalists in this room should be asking about whether or not the former president of the United States who I think we can all finally agree was cognitively impaired I know it took people some time to finally admit that but we all know that to be true as evidenced by his disastrous debate performance against President Trump during the campaign I digress on that um but the president was raising the point that did the president even know about these pardons uh was his legal signature used without his consent
or knowledge and that's not just the president or me raising those questions Caitlyn according to the New York Post there are Biden officials from the previous White House who raised those questions and wondered if the president was even consulted about his legal binding signature being signed onto documents and so I think it's a question that everybody in this room should be looking into because certainly um that would propose uh perhaps criminal or illegal Behavior if staff members were signing the president of the United States autograph without his consent is on the record talking about issuing
preemptive pardons to these people but was he aware of the of his signature being used on every single pardon that's a question you should ask the Biden is there any evidence on that that he wasn't aware of it you're reporter you should find out SE the flight so I have I have a question on the the timeline of the flights you keep talking about the judge's written order which hit the docket uh Saturday night at about 7:26 p.m. but he issued a verbal order before that at about 6:45 and 6:48 p.m. based on the court
hearing a verbal order from the the bench does the White House feel the need to comply with a verbal order from this judge again as I said all of the planes um subject to the written order of this judge departed us soil US Territory before the judge's written order but what about the verbal order which of course carries the same legal weight as a written order and said for the plains to turn around if they really well there's actually questions about whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order as a written
order and our lawyers are dep are um determined to ask and answer those questions in court Sean hey uh so on Friday the president suggested at length that it should be illegal to criticize judges but he has repeatedly criticized judges who rule against him and Elon is calling for impeachment of Judges who have opposed the administration so how are those two things not in Conflict I have not heard the president talk about impeaching Judges I know you mentioned Mr musk's tweet but I have not heard the president of the United States ask that Mary hey
thanks Caroline I want to ask about this video I saw this morning set to the tune of I believe closing time about deportations of illegal migrants what's the strategy behind the white houses videos they've been putting out on this and can you kind of talk us through the thinking on these videos sure I think the white house and our entire government clearly is leaning into the message of this President um and we are unafraid to double down and to take responsibility and ownership of the serious decisions that are being made the president was elected with
an overwhelming mandate um to launch the largest uh Mass deportation campaign in American history and that's exactly what he is doing and to this very day we are now I think 56 or seven days into the administration by my count um the president still receives an overwhelming public support uh for the policies that he is enacting so we are unafraid um uh uh to message effectively what the president is doing on a daily basis to make our uh Community safer and the specific video you referenced I think it sums up our immigration policy pretty well
you don't have to go home but you can't stay here go ahead thanks Caroline I have two questions first will president Trump put sanctions on Russia if the talks on Tuesday don't go as hoped and secondly have any illegal immigrants self-de deported through CBP home yet to your first question it's something the president has floated and certainly he's willing to do if necessary I don't have anything to read out and I would never get ahead of the president on such a serious decision to your second question about the CBP home app I would have to
check in with the Department of Homeland Homeland Security but it's a great question and we're very proud to repurpose this app which the Biden Administration abused to facilitate the mass illegal entry of illegal immigrants into our country it was like a FastPass at Disneyland um that's not happening under this Administration we are encouraging illegal immigrants to actively self Deport um to maybe save themselves from being in one of these fun videos sure John good to see thank you uh after president Trump strafe bombed the houes yesterday he said that if they retaliate he was going
to personally hold Iran accountable for that holding them accountable what would that look like uh well I would defer you to what the president put out this morning John where he said very clearly I will read it let nobody be fooled the hundreds of attacks being made by houthi the Sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen who are hated by the yemeni people are all created by Iran any further attack or retaliation by the houthis will be met with great force and there is no guarantee that the force will stop there Iran has played the
innocent victim of Rogue terrorists from which they've lost control but they haven't lost control they are dictating every move giving them the weapons supplying them with money and highly sophisticated military equipment and even so-called intelligence every shot fired by the houthis will be looked upon from this point forward as being a shot fired from the weapons and Leadership of Iran and Iran will be held responsible and suffer the consequences and those consequences will be dire that is a statement from the president of the United States just moments ago I have nothing additional to share but
our message to Iran is bet better take this President seriously and I think the houthis learned that the hard way this past weekend as I said in my opening remarks there's a new sheriff in town and this President is not just going to sit on his hands and allow terrorists to launch attacks on Commercial vessels in US naval ships th those actions will not be tolerated sure Edward yeah thanks uh carine on the economy so after mostly a down week last week in the economy you know you've been very vocal as well as other cabinet
members about how we're in a transition and about how um you know this economic transition and there's a plan a long-term plan for for tariffs on this how concerned is the president that the markets and Americans for lack of a better term will freak out over these tariffs and be concerned about a long-term plan sure I think I've been asked this question and answered this question respectfully Edward um I we are in a period of transition the president has made that clear he also has made his belief in tariffs and what they will do for
our great country clear restoring wealth back to our country and if you look at the president's first-term economic formula massive deregulation tax cuts lowering the cost of living with an energy boom which the American people can expect soon um Wall Street and Main Street should both be assured by what president Trump did in his first term it's the exact same formula in fact I would argue it's even better this time around and if you look at some of the economic indicators in the last week the latest CPI report last week beat expectations inflation is cooling
core inflation dropped for the for first time in four months the national average of the price of gas is down 42 cents from one year ago and there was also a new report out this morning about wholesale egg prices they continue to fall a dozen eggs are now $310 cheaper since January 24th 1st that's a 47% decrease overall so I think the American people do have great reason to be optimistic about this economy and as I've said repeatedly it continues to be true the Administration has a whole of government effort um to fix the economic
mess created by Biden so the president's pointed to that April 2nd tariff uh deadline so to speak is the Tariff back and forth sort of done now is we're just all looking towards April 2nd well I think the president would tell you that all options are always on the table um and he's always ready to respond if he feels the United States is being unfairly treated by our allies and also our competitors around the world but yes the April 2nd uh day is a big day for the country as the president has said reciprocal teror
will go into effect we'll have more details on that as the date nears but our entire trade team secretary lutnick secretary bessent uh the vice president has been quite involved in these talks and discussions as well about what that will look like um and the president as you always do you will hear from him directly on it Deborah Saunders how are you fine how are you doing good thanks um former paron attorney Elizabeth Wyer believes she was fired for refusing to sign off on a move to restore gun rights to Mel Gibson doj's Todd blanch
says no um but I'm I want to know is the administration dedicated to restoring uh gun rights to felons have serve their times I asked this because I've talked to people who are pardon they felt that was important of of course this isn't necessarily for a pardon what is the president's thinking on this issue after you've served your sentence should you have done right it's an important question it is one I have not spoken to the president about with on his views but I will take it to him this afternoon I will tell him you
asked and we will get you an answer you're welcome Jonathan thanks a lot Carol a question for you regarding the administration complying with judges orders I want to ask about an Administration spokesperson uh whose the borders are Tom Homan he was on Fox News we love Tom homman and he was talking about the deportations and he said the following he said we're not stopping I don't care what the judges think which seems to me just reading that uh that you don't care what orders come from the federal bench is that the case can you clarify
that please well I think since you just quoted Tom I'll quote Tom he said I don't care what the judges think uh but I can assure you that the administration is complying with the court order and as I've said repeatedly from this Podium all of the flights that were subject to the judge's written order departed before the written order and we are prepared to make that uh case in court later this afternoon and then if I could on Russia the president as you pointed out Caroline made some remarks on Air Force One coming back from
Florida and he seemed to indicate that the conversation tomorrow concerns essentially dividing up assets dividing up territory associated with the war in Ukraine has president zinski given president Trump that Authority is that what is going to take place tomorrow well as you know the president and his entire National Security team have been engaged directly with president zalinski and the Ukrainian team um and that has been part of the discussion between the president's team and the ukrainians as for where those lines will be drawn or any specifics I am not going to get into that from
this Podium it would be um unwise for me to get ahead of the president's call with President Putin tomorrow but again I can assure you in the effort of transparency as this President always does you will hear from him or one of us directly after that phone call tomorrow Reagan Thank You Caroline there's a lot of folks on the judicial Grant right now the president has about 40 judicial appointments that he could make at this moment uh do you have an upline an update on what the timeline would look like for those judicial appointments and
does the president have a list of potential nominees that he's voting I do not have a update on a timeline nor do I have a list but I can certainly have our team gather that for you and provide it you're welcome um sure go ahead Thank You Caroline sure thank you Caroline so the president is visiting the Kennedy Center this afternoon to attend a board meeting um a question about what happened a few weeks ago the kened desent got bomb threats targeting a performance by shingu Performing Arts which is an American company showcasing China before
communism this company has been targeted unfortunately by the CCP 4 years I'm wondering this Administration have an has a response to this and also as the president is putting an emphasis on arts and culture what administration's Mage to potentially foreign State actors who trying to disrupt that in the US don't disrupt it this Administration will take that very seriously and hold you accountable we obviously condemn any violence or threats of violence against American institutions and the president will be traveling to the Kennedy Center later this afternoon I look forward to going with him as you
know he is now the chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center where he hopes to restore um arts and culture that Embrace American tradition don't disparage it as we have unfortunately seen over the past several years the president will be doing a tour of the center um in his business developer mind I'm sure he will make some recommendations on how the center itself can be improved but also we'll be discussing uh perhaps some future plays and musicals and the you know theatrical programs um that the center will be hosting under the his new leadership
and the board's new leadership Daniel the president will the president be uh discussing uh with Putin tomorrow the future of Vladimir zilinski sort of a followup to John's question again I've been asked and answered this question now I'm not going to get ahead of the president's discussion tomorrow but after the phone call takes place I can certainly provide a read out Daniel Caroline thank you so much you mentioned earlier in the briefing that you guys are at the 10 yard line of Peace given the amount of progress that you've made in such a short amount
of time is that an indictment of the previous administration's foreign policy stance and is it just more proof that you need to talk to people to S of get things done I think so I think the previous administration is the reason this War began as president Trump often says this war would have never started if he were still in office it only started because of the incompetence and the weakness of the previous administration and president Trump is very proud of the progress that he and his team have made in such a short amount of time
um and hopefully tomorrow that progress will move forward sure thanks um there have been some media reports just in the last few hours that the Administration has decided to withdraw from the international center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine which uh is designed to hold Putin accountable for war crimes um are you able to confirm that and if that has occurred why has that occur I'm not able to confirm it because I have not heard that I will caution I know there have been many uh inaccurate and misleading reports from Reuters
lately so I would caution anybody taking that seriously um but I can check in and get back to you carine is it the president's belief that the justice department should be investigating members of the January 6 select committee is he directing the doj to do that as the president made it very clear in his address on Friday I believe some of you were there I was there he made his vision for what he would like to see of the Department of Justice uh very clear but he said that he has appointed great people in attorney
general Pam Bondi and also in our FBI director cash Patel um to do what they think is best for our justice system and to stop the weaponization of justice that we saw under the previous administration against not just president Trump but his supporters as well we want to restore the Department of Justice to an institution that focuses on fighting Law and Order and crime and putting real criminals Behind Bars not targeting Americans because of their religion or their political speech we saw that under the previous administration and it's unacceptable to this President and just to
follow up really quickly on just homan's comments from earlier a few weeks ago in noal office the president said he will always abide by the courts we heard what Tom homman said earlier today so I'm only asking just to be clear for the American people it is the administration's belief that they were that that you feel like you were bound to comply by the judge's orders we are complying with judges ERS uh question on the Storm sure what role does the president see for FEMA with these storms he's talking about getting rid of FEMA States
handling their own disasters he plan a change of the federal government response of these storms there hasn't been a change yet that doesn't mean there couldn't be in the future um but as of right now the president the entire Administration are actively monitoring the storms as I said in fact before I came down here there was an email note in my inbox from the Department of Homeland Security on what they are actually doing state by state across the board so rest assured secretary no her team is on it and I would defer you to the
department employment and security for any further details one more question uh the president referenced power plants with a conversation with uh Vladimir Putin what what is he referring to with power plants what does that there's a power plant that is on the border of Russia and Ukraine that was up for discussion with the ukrainians and he will address it in his call with Putin tomorrow the nuclear correct yes car do you have a question yes um I wanted to ask you if you would be releasing more granular data about the people who are were sent
to El El Salvador this week um particularly will you be releasing their names um I don't believe so because of the privacy concerns at this point in time that doesn't mean we won't eventually I would defer you to the Department of Homeland Security for more details on the individuals on the flights but we have been incredibly transparent in giving you the breakdown of the numbers and also some of the crimes committed by these heinous criminals and individuals um kidnapping sexual abuse of a child robbery aggravated assault on a police officer I would remind everybody in
this room that trende aragua is a foreign terrorist organization operating within the United States of America because the previous administration allowed them to invade our country these are monsters who tortured raped and murdered a 12-year-old Joselyn NR they murdered 22-year-old nursing student lakan Riley they led a multiex state sex trafficking operation involving smuggling women into the United States holding them in stash houses in Louisiana Florida New Jersey Texas and Virginia enforcing them into prostitution and they kidnapped and murdered a 33-year-old woman in Texas they sexually and physically assaulted a woman and her daughter in Wisconsin
they conducted a mass shooting in Illinois they pedal untraceable ghost guns across New York City took over in Aurora Colorado apartment complex where they kidnapped and tortured victims and by the way many of you in the mainstream media said that didn't happen it turned out that it did and because of the effective immigration policies of this Administration those foreign terrorists were detained and they are no longer operating on American soil and we have President Trump to thank for that we'll see you guys later at the Kennedy Center thanks so much
