OAN Staff Gabriella Sable
3:15 PM – Tuesday, January 28, 2025
In her first press briefing as White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt provided transparency on key issues, including news media access to the White House, federal grant freezes, and the administration’s approach to illegal immigration. She emphasized efforts to modernize media engagement, ensure accountability in federal funding, and address who takes priority for deportation.
Leavitt began the Tuesday briefing by explaining that the White House would allow access to nontraditional media.
“It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025,” Leavitt said.
“We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news-related content,” continued Leavitt. “And whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room. We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.”
Leavitt added that the seats normally occupied by the press secretary’s staff would now be chairs for new media.
“Starting today, this seat in the front of the room, which is usually occupied by the press secretary’s staff, will be called the new media seat,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt expressed that the White House would restore press passes for journalists who had theirs taken during the Biden-Harris administration.
“This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment, so it’s why our team will work diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt went on to assure the American people and journalists that the new pause on federal grants would not affect individuals who receive federal assistance.
“This is not a blanket pause on federal assistance in grant programs from the Trump administration,” Leavitt stated. “Individual assistance, that includes, I’m not naming everything that’s included, but just to give you a few examples, Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, uh, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause.”
According to Leavitt, the point of the freeze on federal grants is to be mindful of Americans’ tax dollars.
“It is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Leavitt said. “That is something that President Trump campaigned on. That’s why he has launched the Department of Government Efficiency, which is working alongside the [Office of Management and Budget].”
Leavitt added that another reason for the pause is to ensure that grants being allocated do not conflict with executive orders signed by President Trump.
“That’s why OMB sent out this memo last night, because the president signed an executive order directing OMB to do just this,” Leavitt continued. “The reason for this is to ensure that every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions that this president has taken.”
“It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the Green New Scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies and no more funding for Green New Deal social engineering policies,” Leavitt explained.
Leavitt argued that an influx of federal grants and programs is what caused the inflation crisis.
“It’s a big reason we’ve had an inflation crisis in this country, and it’s incumbent upon this administration to make sure, again, that every penny is being accounted for honestly,” Leavitt stated.
During the briefing, Leavitt also answered questions regarding the topic of mass deportation.
When asked about who takes priority for removal, Leavitt said that anyone who enters the United States illegally is a criminal and can therefore be deported.
“[President Trump] is focused on launching the largest deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals,” said Leavitt. “And if you are an individual a foreign national who illegally enters the United States of America, you are by definition a criminal.”
Leavitt added that violent illegal immigrants take priority but it doesn’t stop ICE officers from removing non-violent criminals from the country.
“We want to deport illegal criminals, illegal immigrants from this country, but the president has said that, of course, the illegal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country,” explained Leavitt. “And who have terrorized law-abiding American citizens absolutely, those should be the priority of ice, but that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our nation’s borders are off the table.”
She also noted that ICE Officers feel respected and empowered to do their jobs.
“We receive data from DHS and from ICE every single day, uh, from what we hear on the ground, ICE agents are feeling incredibly empowered right now because they actually have a leader in this building who is supporting them,” Leavitt said. “And doing their jobs, that they were hired to do, which is to detain arrest, and deport illegal criminals who have invaded our nation’s borders over the past four years.”
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