2025 12 11 Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Dec. 11, 2025 part002 (14 28min)

like to remind you and everybody at home why this is on the brink of happening. Democrats wrote Obamacare. They passed it without a single Republican vote, and then they ballooned it with these expensive COVID subsidies that completely distorted the health insurance market, and then they doubled down extending those subsidies and setting their own expiration date right now in 2025, which the administration is obviously well aware of, and we are working. The President is working with his health care policy team here at the White House, as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill to find a solution. You said he's working to find a solution he wants to see a solution to lower health care costs. He does. But these subsidies are expiring at the end of the year. So what is the plan and what is he going to do to put this in place in the next two, three weeks? You'll hear more from the President and from the White House on that very soon. As for wanting a solution to lower health care costs, I'm glad you said it because the President is doing just that. He has made unprecedented progress towards lowering health care costs in this country and drug prices. He's secured numerous, most-favor nation drug price deals with many more to come. As you know, the one big beautiful bill, the working-family tax cut, significantly expanded access to health savings accounts for those on Obamacare. Again, a Democrat written program and approved program, which has led to higher health care costs in this country. So it goes back to the issue of affordability. Democrats are now pretending they want a solution to this issue, but they created the problem. The President and Republicans are currently coming up with creative solutions and ideas to lower health care costs for the American people, and you'll continue to hear more from them on that. Were these subsidies expired? I just said you're going to continue to hear more from the President and Republicans on this issue. I'm sure Bloomberg, go ahead. I think you're right. The President said he was going to be holding a call with the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia. Have those calls taken place? Is there a route out you can share? The President has not yet engaged in those calls, and when he does, I'm sure you'll hear from him directly as you always do after foreign leader calls or from somebody here at the White House. I do know with respect to the conflict in the peace deal in Thailand and Cambodia and some of the conflicts you've seen arise reports of that in the press over the past couple of days. The President addressed it in Pennsylvania. The administration is obviously tracking this at the highest levels and is very much engaged. I spoke with Secretary Rubia about it this morning. The Press, I will see your U.S. officials be meeting Saturday with European and Ukrainian officials to discuss the display. Look, the United States and the Chum administration continues to be very much engaged in trying to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. President had a call with your Europeans yesterday. His special envoy, Whitkov and his team continue to talk with both sides literally as we speak. If there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement, if we feel like those meetings are worthy of someone on the United States' time this weekend, then we will send a representative. It's still up in the air whether we believe real peace can be accomplished and we can truly move the ball forward. The President is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war. And he is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting. He doesn't want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end. And the administration has spent more than 30 hours in just the past couple of weeks, meeting with the Russians and the Ukrainians and the Europeans and speaking with them as well. So we'll see about the meetings this weekend and stay tuned. The President says that he's the latest proposal that was sent over yesterday. He's aware of it, yes. Ed. Thanks, Caroline. So the Fed Chairman, the President says that he's interviewing candidates. So I would just want to be clear. So the pick has not been locked in, and could we get an announcement before Christmas? Ms. Sanders, I know every business outlet in the world is just chomping at the bit for a scoop or something on this Fed Chair announcement. I'm not going to get ahead of the President. I know there's been a lot of reports about potential meetings this week with potential candidates. Look, as always, this is a decision the President himself is going to make. And I know there's a lot of reporting out there from anonymous sources who claim to know something. I would wait and see what the President himself does and announces. And I certainly won't be the one to get ahead of him on that. On the economy. It's a Michael. Go ahead. On the next Fed Chair, does the President have an expectation that his pick will lower interest rates next year to his liking? I think the President has been quite clear about what he believes the Fed should be doing, which is lowering interest rates. I know there was a quarter-point reduction this past week, and the President was pleased to see that, but he thinks more should be done. Philip. The Press is going to give the U.K. line a long-use advancement at each 200 gyps. Why is the President willing to allow China to have access to one of America's chief technological advantages? Look, I will tell you just a couple of things. The President put out his own statement on this, which I do think highlights his exact thinking. What you see from the President on Truth Social is most of the time what you hear from the President behind closed doors privately. He told President Xi that we will, the video will only be shipping H-200 products to approved customers in China to allow under-conditions that will allow for continued strong national security. The administration continues to maintain a strict export control regime, and we are ensuring that the blackwell chip and other advanced technologies stay right here in America, and these H-200 chips will only be sent to China after undergoing a security inspection here in the United States. Elizabeth. Thank you, Caroline. You're sitting here on the left, so I'm going down here. You put out a video recently telling immigrants in New York City they have the right to stand up to ice. Are you concerned this will desire New York City residents to resist price operations? And what will Trump administration do with this happens? The Trump administration is definitely concerned about the rise in violence, in attacks, in physical threats, that we have seen against our brave men and women who wear the ice uniform. Again, these are agents who are just simply doing their jobs, they are enforcing our nation's immigration laws, and we've seen more than a 1,000 percent increase in violent attacks on them, and their families, they've been docks, they've been harassed many of them, have been physically assaulted and attacked. So we condemn that wholeheartedly. I know the administration has done a lot to protect our ice agents, and the president stands firmly behind them in conducting these enforcement operations, and there's a lot of talk from Democrat politicians in New York, but the Trump administration will continue to do our jobs in every state, and that's to remove illegal aliens and public safety threats from American communities. The Secretary of the United States. Sure. Thank you so much. No? I'll go to the gentleman who's very eager and then to you. Obviously, Jasmine Crockett, who the president has openly criticized, just entered Texas as Senate race. I asked Mike Johnson, who said that Texas largely supports a president Crockett, on the other hand, says that Trump is an example of extremism. She says that her support is a referendum on Trump. I'm curious to get your thoughts on this. Has Trump made any statement since she's been, since she's announced her candidacy? Not to my knowledge, as you know, from the White House podium as a government employee, I'm not privy to comment on future elections, but I do think the president has made his thoughts on Ms. Crockett quite clear, and I do believe he thinks she is wholly unqualified for the office that she is seeking. Joey. Yeah, thanks, Caroline. A federal judge today ordered the immediate release of Kilma or Brego Garcia from ICE detention. Does White House have a response to that? And does the administration plan to appeal that decision? Absolutely. The White House, the administration, opposed this activism from a judge who is really acting as a judicial activist, which we've unfortunately seen in many cases across the country. A Brego Garcia is present in our country illegally. He is a proven human trafficker. He is a proven gang member. The administration has evidence of that. And as you saw from the Department of Homeland Security, they issued a statement saying they'll continue to fight this legal battle in court. Okay, Caroline. Two questions. I have one on Venezuela to follow up. But first on affordability, since we were talking about the economy at the beginning, if the economy is as strong as the president has said it is, then why is he telling parents two weeks of work Christmas that they should only buy two or three dolls for their children? Look, what the president is saying is that if we want products made right here in America, if we want them to be made from American small businesses, which is a large part of the reason the President has effectively implemented tariffs, then we're going to have better quality products right here in the United States. Maybe you'll pay $1 or $2 more, but you will get better quality and you'll be supporting your fellow Americans by buying American. And that's what the President was saying. Again, with respect to affordability, every economic metric, Caitlin, and I wish you would report more on it, does in fact show that the economy is getting better and brighter than where it was under the previous administration. I will repeat inflation as measured by the overall CPI has slowed to an average 2.5 percent pace. Real wages are increasing roughly $1200 for the average worker. Gas prices are down in almost every single state across the country. Again, in 22 states, it's below 275. You look at the tax cuts. Those are going to go into effect next year. So the best is yet to come. The President is digging our country out of the economic hole that the previous administration put us in, and that's what he's talking about. One year ago, as you know, in grocery prices have been up. So we've covered the economy, but there's mixed signals in terms of what that looks like. But inflation is down from where it was. As measured by the overall CPI, it has slowed to an average 2.5 percent pace. This is down from what the President inherited in January. The President inherited 2.9 percent in January. Today, it's at about 2.5 percent. So we're trending in the right direction. With more to come, and I would remind you, when President Trump left office in his first term, inflation was 1.7 percent. And the previous administration jacked it up to a record high 9 percent. So, again, in 10 months, the President has clawed us out of this hole. He's kept it low at 2.5 percent, and we believe that number is going to continue to decline, especially as energy and oil prices continue to decline as well. We're going to be able to buy it or buy it. And they're just saying it's not going to be recorded on it being high on the Biden. My predecessor was standing at this podium. But now you want to ask me a lot of questions about it, which I'm happy to answer. But I will just add, there's a lot more scrutiny on this issue from this press corps than there was. Well, in the previous administration said that, too. My predecessor stood up at this podium, and she said, inflation doesn't exist. She said the border was secure, and people like you just took her out her word, and those were two other lies. Everything I'm telling you is the truth, backed by real factual data, and you just don't want to report on it, because you want to push untraned narratives about the President. Go ahead. I'm not going to take your fall. Go ahead. Does the White House, is the White House optimistic about the upcoming redistricting, though, in Indiana? And what happens if it fails? We'll see how the vote plays out. That's a political matter, and frankly, a legal one, and I won't comment on it here. Brian. Thank you, Caroline. I'm going to go back to the Fed if two topics are what I'm interested in. The first one on the Fed. The President did say yesterday that he was meeting with Kevin Ward. This is your favorite story, your own prize. It is. It is our favorite story. The President said yesterday he was meeting with Kevin Ward, just to talk about the Fed share, an interview for a Fed share. Well, can you just say how that interview went with you? I won't comment on private meetings without the President's approval to do so. The second thing is on the Netflix Warner Brothers deal. The President did address this also yesterday. He said that he believes that the sale of CNN should be attached to that deal with Netflix or with the paramount if that happens down there with them. Can you just explain what the President's plan to do going forward to continue to make that case similar to what he made yesterday? Well, I think the President's comments yesterday about the sale of CNN and new leadership is evidenced by my exchange with the CNN reporter in this room. Their viewership has gone down. Their ratings has declined. And I think the President rightfully believes that network would benefit from new ownership. With respect to this deal, he has a great respect for both companies who are bidding against one another, and I won't weigh in any further than that. In the back, go ahead. Thank you. I wasn't calling on either of you, but I'll take both your questions and then to you. Go ahead. I have two questions. One is South Korea, one under Japan. First question. The recent US South Korea trade fact sheet made no mention of agricultural product. That's the United States working to completely open its rice and beef market to South Korea and second question on Japan. China is using its military power to surround the Okinawa Japan. Isn't the United States concerned about the military completely between China and Japan? And what action will the United States take? Okay. To your first question on South Korean beef export to South Korea, I will check with our trade team and we will get you an answer on that. To your second question with respect to Japan and China, the President has a phenomenal relationship with the new Prime Minister of Japan, as you know. He was pleased to meet her when we went to Asia a couple of months ago, and they have spoken a few times since. They continue to be engaged with one another and Japan is a great ally of the United States as evidenced by their personal relationship and our continued trade relations with Japan. With respect to China, the President also has a good working relationship with President Xi, which he believes is a good thing for our country. And he believes that the United States should be in a position to have a good working relationship with China while maintaining our to have a good working relationship with China.