Trump’s press secretary talks about first priorities

WASHINGTON (TNND) — President-elect Donald Trump laid out his plan for America in his first press conference since winning the election on Monday, discussing tariffs, regulations, Iran, vaccines, TikTok and more.

Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, says he will release his “America First” economic agenda on day one. She says Trump will use executive actions to cut regulation, free up America’s energy independence and leverage America’s authority to negotiate good deals for Americans.

You’ve already seen him do this as president-elect,” Leavitt said. “When you issue statements when it comes to tariffs, you saw Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fly to Mar-a-Lago within minutes of President Trump putting out this statement.

Tax cuts are the top priority for Trump, according to Leavitt, but that change must make its way through Congress.

“We have the Senate, we have the House, and we are confident that President Trump can sign the largest tax cut in history again, just as he did in his first term,” she said.

At his press conference on Monday, Trump announced a investment of 100 billion dollars into the US artificial intelligence sphere to take place during the four years of his presidency with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son. This investment brings both capital and new jobs to the United States.

“Critical infrastructure in AI, which is obviously the future,” Leavitt said. “We have to make sure we build that future at home and hire American workers to do it. And that was also part of the pledge yesterday: that the CEO of SoftBank will hire 100,000 American workers.”

During the press conference, Trump began negotiating for Masayoshi to double down and hire 200,000 American workers.

“I bet President Trump will get what he wants when it comes to that promise,” Leavitt said.

Trump also said federal workers who do not return to in-person work could be furloughed, but some experts said the collective bargaining agreement reached with the Biden-Harris administration on access to remote work is binding.

“Things are going to change in Washington DC,” Leavitt said. “The American people are tired of seeing bureaucrats in Washington who don’t even show up for work and live off their taxpayer-funded salaries.”

To cut down on large and burdensome government and streamline federal work, Trump created Ministry of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“It will be an outside organization working to consult with the government and advise them on ways to cut waste,” Leavitt said. “One of them is getting rid of this massive federal workforce, or scaling it down significantly, I should say, and this will of course be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.”

Trump’s inauguration is on January 20, and that’s when he will begin executing his agenda. Until then, however, President Joe Biden is still in office.

Biden has started selling off unused segments of Trump’s border wall in the limping session of his presidency.

“It is an immediate priority for President Trump to restart construction of the border wall, and it is despicable that the current commander in chief, Joe Biden, has sold the very useful material that he knows President Trump will use for pennies on the dollar ,” Leavitt said.

The border wall was specially designed by Customs and Border Patrol agents to stop illegal crossings.

“We’ve had an increase of more than 20 million illegal people over the last four years,” she said. “It’s crumbling our infrastructure in our inner cities, it’s led to an increase in violent migrant crime across the country, and it’s unacceptable that the current president, Joe Biden, is doing this.”

Leavitt says Trump will also begin border protection and mass deportations on day one.

“The way to do that is to allow federal and local law enforcement to work together to identify the criminals in our American community and send them home,” she said.

In addition to domestic policy, Trump will have to focus on foreign relations amid the turmoil in the Middle East and war in Ukraine.

Trump is committed to stopping the billions of tax dollars flowing into Ukraine, according to Leavitt.

“Taxpayers are tired of funding this war, many lives have been lost on both sides,” she said. “I think all Americans agree that we want peace around the world, and President Trump was a peacemaker in his first term and he will do so again in his second term.”

Trump will also stand up for Israel and “not bend the knee to extreme left-wing activists who are terrorist sympathizers,” according to Leavitt.

She says the Biden administration has done it on American college campuses and abroad with the Iranian regime.

“President Trump will take tough action against Iran, he is currently working with his team to bring these hostages home,” Leavitt said. “As you heard him say yesterday, ‘There will be hell to pay if Iran does not heed these warnings’.”

And the future of TikTok?

The parent company ByteDance has until January to sell the company according to the current plan. The CEO of TikTok has already met with Trump since his election.

“He loves TikTok, it has a special place in his heart,” Leavitt said. “He will find a common solution.”

For more on Trump’s Day-1 priorities, watch the video player above or visit National News Desk’s YouTube channel for Leavitt’s full interview.