Washington DC [US], January 29 (ANI): In her first press briefing on Tuesday (local time), the youngest US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that US President Donald Trump has taken action to provide relief to US citizens to help deliver emergency price relief.
Criticising the previous President Joe Biden’s administration, Leavitt said that Trump ended regulatory constraints and war on American energy.
“On the economic front, President Trump took immediate action to lower cost for families who are suffering from four long years of the Biden administration’s destructive and inflationary policies. President Trump ordered the heads of all executive departments and agencies to help deliver emergency price relief to the American people, untangle our economy from Biden’s regulatory constraints and end the reckless war on American Energy,” she said.
Leavitt said that Trump restored common sense in the federal bureaucracy and signed executive orders to make the US a merit-based society.
“President Trump also signed sweeping executive orders to end the weaponisation of government and restore common sense to the federal bureaucracy. He directed all federal agencies to terminate illegal diversity, equity and inclusion programs to help return America to a merit-based society,” she said.
Referring to Trump’s order of recognising only two sexes- male and female, she said sanity has returned.
“President Trump also signed an executive order declaring it is now the policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes- male male and female. Sanity has been restored,” she said.
Leavitt further said that by the order of Trump, the press briefing room will work to restore the press passes of 440 journalists which were revoked by the Biden administration.
She said that this was in effort to ensure that the legacy of Former White House Press Secretary James S Brady continued.
Notably, the US Press Briefing Room was renamed the James S Brady Press Briefing Room on February 11, 2000 in honor of James Brady, the White House press secretary who was shot and seriously injured following an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
“I am excited to announce the following changes will be made to this historic James S Brady briefing room where Mr Brady’s Legacy will endure 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,” she said.
Leavitt also said that they would open up the briefing room to new news outlets and content creators, in a bid to make the administration more approachable.
“We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news related content 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. My team will review the applications and give credentials to new media applicants who meet our criteria and pass United States secret service requirements to enter the White House complex,” she said.
Talking about the fears prevalent in December from the drone sightings prevalent in New Jersey, Leavitt said that the Oval Office said that those were indeed recreational and Federal Aviation Administration drones, which even Biden administration had previously claimed.
“I do have news directly from the President of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office from President Trump directly- an update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyist recreational, in private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy- a statement from the President of the United States,” she clarified.
On December 18, 2024, Pentagon Press Secretary Major General, Pat Ryder, in a press briefing, refuted any security threats emanating from the series of drone sightings in New Jersey and said there was no threat to national security or public safety.
“We’ll continue to take appropriate action if and when it’s deemed that any of these drones near US military installations pose a threat. But in the meantime, again, I think it’s been very clear that we’ve not identified that any of these reported drone sightings were assessed as anomalous or that it presented a national security or public safety risk over civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast,” he said. (ANI)
