Good afternoon. Good to see all of you. I want to begin today’s briefing by addressing the horrific shooting that took place yesterday at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where a deranged shooter opened fire during morning Mass, killing an innocent 8-year-old and 10-year-olds. Fourteen other children and three adults were also injured during this horrible tragedy.
This was the first morning Mass of the school year for these beautiful, innocent children, and this sacred religious service was desecrated by an evil monster. We are all eternally grateful to the heroic law enforcement officers and first responders whose courage and swift response aided all of those impacted by this horrible tragedy.
As Director Kash Patel confirmed yesterday, the FBI is currently investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. President Trump signed a proclamation yesterday, following his call with the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, acknowledging the victims and their families and directing flags to be flown at half-mast. President Trump and the First Lady encouraged the entire nation to join all of us in praying for the victims and their families as they face unimaginable grief and loss.
The White House and the FBI will continue to provide further updates as they become available.
Brandon Tatum: Caroline, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. And on behalf of everybody that follows me—the millions of people that follow me—I want to say thank you for making the sacrifice and dealing with some of the most disingenuous people on planet Earth at times. Uh, I have two questions.
The first question is associated with the shooting that occurred the other day. And I want to ask: we know that it’s not a gun thing. Any rational person knows it’s not a gun thing. We know it’s a mental health issue. So, I want to know from you: what is President Trump and the White House going to do to address mental health issues around the country associated with these shootings?
And the second thing is Chicago. You know, anybody with—and I say with—a connected brain stem knows that Chicago’s crime is out of control. And young Black men are getting killed, laying dead in the middle of the streets every single day in Chicago. No president has addressed any of these issues. So, what is the White House going to do, in their capacity, to deal with the conflict and violence in Chicago?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Sure. Well, to your first question about this shooting in Minnesota—right now, the administration is focused on helping the people of Minnesota. It’s been less than a day, of course, since this tragedy happened. We have federal law enforcement on the ground assisting local law enforcement. This investigation is ongoing. There’s still a lot of facts to understand about these circumstances, and so we’re going to continue to do that.
As for Chicago and cracking down on crime, it is a priority of this administration to ensure that American cities are safe again. And I’m so glad that you brought up the crime in Chicago because we’ve been seeing the governor of Illinois parading out there, saying that there’s nothing wrong with Chicago, that it’s a great place to live, that there’s no crime there—that he doesn’t need President Trump’s help. Well, I think the residents of Chicago beg to differ. And the statistics beg to differ.
And I’ll just share a few of those statistics with all of you. For 13 consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city. This is J.B. Pritzker’s legacy, by the way. For seven consecutive years, Chicago has had the highest murder rate among U.S. cities with more than 1 million people.
In 2024—just last year—Chicago’s murder rate per capita was three times higher than Los Angeles and nearly five times higher than New York City. That’s more than double the murder rate in Islamabad and nearly 15 times more than Delhi.
Out of Chicago’s 147,899 reported crimes this year—that’s how many crimes have been reported in Chicago since January 1st—there have only been arrests in 16% of them. These numbers are unacceptable.
There have been more illegal guns recovered in Chicago than in New York City and Los Angeles combined. The number of reported motor vehicle thefts last year was more than double the number in 2021. And Chicago has also, just like D.C., come under scrutiny over discrepancies in its homicide data reporting. So, as bad as these numbers are, perhaps they are even worse.
This is Governor Pritzker’s legacy. He should put politics aside. He should pick up the phone and call this president, who would be more than happy to do right by law-abiding American residents in the city of Chicago. And we hope that he will.
Gabe: Thanks for being here, Brandon.
First, on the firing of the CDC director: who will replace her? And then also, overnight, the White House said that she did not align with the president’s agenda. Dr. Menard’s attorneys say that she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts. What specifically did she do?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Look, what I will say about this individual is that her lawyer’s statement made it abundantly clear themselves—that she was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again. The secretary asked her to resign. She said she would, and then she said she wouldn’t. So, the president fired her, which he has every right to do.
It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly re-elected on November 5th. This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission. A new replacement will be announced by either the president or Secretary Kennedy very soon.
The president and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust, transparency, and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public-facing, more accountable, and strengthening our public health system. They are focused on restoring the CDC to its core mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect, and respond to future threats. That’s the mission of the CDC, and we’re going to make sure that folks in leadership there are aligned with it.
Gabe (follow-up): And briefly on another topic: last week, a judge—on an environmental concerns lawsuit—said that the administration had 60 days to wind down operations. State officials did. Now, the administration has not been shy in fighting back against what it calls “activist judges.” But why is it backing down this time?
Press Secretary Leavitt: We’re not backing down. We’ve always said that we are going to continue to fight in the court of law for what’s right, because we know that what this administration is doing with respect to all policy, but also immigration policy, is above the books and we’re abiding by our nation’s immigration laws.
We think it’s despicable that an activist judge has inserted themselves in this migrant detention facility to the point where DHS is now having to relocate these illegal immigrants to other detention facilities around the country. That is an unnecessary burden on the Department of Homeland Security and these agents, who should be removing these criminals from our community.
That’s what the American people elected this president to do. So, we’ve always maintained, Gabe, we’re going to comply with court orders—but we’re also going to fight back on them on the merits of the law. DHS is in compliance, though we disagree with this decision, and we’ll continue to fight it in court.
Next Reporter: Just following up on the CDC firing—are you anticipating other changes there at CDC in addition to that firing? And is the administration going through, in a very organized fashion, a review of high-level appointees to see who is or isn’t aligned with the mission? Should we expect more changes?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Not to my knowledge. I understand there were a few other individuals who resigned after the firing of Ms. Menard. One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as “pregnant people.” That’s not someone we want in this administration anyway.
So, if people are not aligned with the president’s vision and the secretary’s vision to make our country healthy again, then we will gladly show them the door.
Andrew: Thank you, Caroline. The military deployment that President Trump has sent to the Caribbean Sea, close to the shores of Venezuela, is massive. It’s much more than is needed to simply counter narcotics operations. Is President Trump considering launching military strikes on military installations or facilities on Venezuelan soil?
Press Secretary Leavitt: I won’t get ahead of the president with respect to any military action or questions about that—ever. But what I will tell you is that many Caribbean nations, and many nations in the region, have applauded the administration’s counter-drug operations and efforts.
The president is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice. And as I’ve said from this podium before: the Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel. Maduro is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this drug cartel. He has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into our country.
It is the utmost responsibility of this president and this administration to prevent the illicit flow of drugs into our country and to protect citizens from those deadly poisons.
Reagan: Thanks, Caroline. I have two questions for you. Democrats—including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey—attacked prayer and pushed gun control in the aftermath of yesterday’s shooting. What’s the White House’s response to their comments?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Yes, I saw the comments of my predecessor, Ms. Psaki, and frankly, I think they’re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer—who believe that prayer works, and who believe that in a time of mourning like this, when beautiful young children were killed while praying in a church, it’s utterly disrespectful to deride the power of prayer.
It’s disrespectful to the millions of Americans of faith, and I would encourage Ms. Psaki to pray for these families herself, because they need it right now more than ever.
Reagan (follow-up): Last question for you—there have been media outlets who have glazed over the fact that the shooter was confused in their gender identity. Does the administration believe that this element needs to be investigated in the shooting?
Press Secretary Leavitt: All of the elements are being investigated in the shooting—absolutely. That’s part of the reason the FBI Director came out and immediately confirmed that facet of the investigation.
John: Thanks a lot, Caroline. Two questions on two separate issues. First, the drone and missile strikes that took place overnight in Ukraine. General Keith Kellogg, the president’s special envoy, has described these attacks as “egregious.” Do you agree with that description? And do you view President Putin as an impediment to getting peace between these two countries?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Well, it’s not about whether I agree—it’s about what the president thinks. And I know what the president thinks, because I talked to him about this. He was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised. These are two countries that have been at war for a very long time.
Russia launched this attack on Kyiv. Likewise, Ukraine recently dealt a blow to Russia’s oil refineries. In fact, they have taken out 20% of Russia’s oil refinery capacity over the course of their attacks throughout the month of August.
The president is continuing to watch this intently. And this killing, unfortunately, will continue as long as the war continues, which is why the president wants it to end. He has worked harder than anyone to end this war—a war that would have never started if he had been president at the time.
But perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves. The president wants it to end, but the leaders of these two countries need to want it to end as well. I think the president will make some additional statements on this later.
John (follow-up): My second question has to do with the president’s intention to remove Lisa Cook as a member of the Federal Reserve Board. He is acting upon allegations made by Trump administration official Bill Pie. These are just allegations—she hasn’t been convicted of any crime. Is the administration opposed to allowing Ms. Cook to have due process to challenge what has been alleged against her?
Press Secretary Leavitt: I believe she is challenging it. I believe she just filed a lawsuit today, and Mr. Pie has deferred those allegations over to the Department of Justice to investigate them.
What I will say is that you had these mortgage receipts very clearly shown to the president, and he has the cause that he needs to fire this individual. He laid it out in the letter that he provided to her and to the public as well. And so we’ll continue to fight this battle.
Carrie: Hi, Caroline. So the president just announced that he wants to have a convention right before the midterms next year. The DNC has countered that they too want to have a convention right before the midterms. What’s the White House’s response? And can you give us a little bit of a hint as to how the president envisions the convention?
Press Secretary Leavitt: Look, the president put out a statement on this earlier today. I’ll let him speak further on the plans that he envisions. But I think he’s very proud of the accomplishments and achievements of his administration—as he should be.
We have the most secure border in U.S. history, a crackdown on crime here in our nation’s capital, a reversal of the attack on our energy industry from the previous administration. As I just pointed out to you, gas prices today—this Labor Day—are the lowest they’ve been since Labor Day in 2020.
Our economy is bringing in trillions of dollars in revenue from all over the world again. So, there is so much for Republicans, for the president, and for Americans across the country to be proud of. I think the president wants to see that celebrated. But for any further details, as they come, we’ll provide them to you.
Iris: Thank you, Caroline. Two questions on the shooting. What’s the administration’s message to concerned parents across the country who might now be worried about their kids’ safety after this incident?
Press Secretary Leavitt: We completely and totally understand the concerns of parents across the country. This tragedy is heartbreaking. As a parent myself, there are no words to describe the heartbreak these families must be enduring.
That’s why the president and the First Lady have encouraged everyone to continue to pray for these families and victims. And it’s why this administration is focused on removing public safety threats from our communities.
In fact, I can share with all of you that last night in Washington, D.C., when arrests were being made, there was an arrest of a juvenile in Ward 7 for threats to kidnap and injure, receiving stolen property, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
A search warrant was executed, seven firearms were recovered, and the juvenile was arrested after an investigation was initiated based on social media posts allegedly threatening violence toward a school. This juvenile was a risk not just to himself, but to the community here in Washington. He was removed from the community last night because of the law enforcement efforts of this administration.
I would also point to the statement from our wonderful First Lady that she released yesterday. She wrote: “The tragic mass killing in Minnesota illuminates the need for preemptive intervention in identifying school shooters. Early warning signs are often evident, with many individuals exhibiting concerning behaviors and making violent threats online prior to their actions.”
We encourage all Americans—as the old saying goes—“If you see something, say something.” If you see warning signs or threats, report them to law enforcement. This administration will treat those threats as emergencies and act accordingly.
Iris (follow-up): Would the administration consider ramping up resources to help parents and schools across the country look into these signs and prevent more tragedies?
Press Secretary Leavitt: It’s a very fair question, Iris. As for any potential future policy decisions or funding questions—it’s just been over 24 hours since this tragedy occurred. Right now, we’re focused on the FBI investigation and covering all the facts. We’ll leave those important policy discussions to another day.
Reporter: With respect to Labor Day, one of the most underrepresented groups right now is police officers. America is short 30,000 police officers—1,300 short in Chicago, 3,000 short in New York, 500 short here in Washington, D.C. What can the president do to help recruitment of police officers? He’s done well with the military and Border Patrol. What can be done to get more police officers on the streets of America?
Press Secretary Leavitt: The president has certainly been very successful in recruiting federal law enforcement. If you look at the ICE recruitment campaign led by him and our Secretary of Homeland Security, we’ve seen more than, I believe, 130,000 applicants to join ICE—which is just amazing.
There are more applicants now than there are jobs to fill, and we’re very grateful for that. Clearly, Americans want to serve their communities—they just need a leader who encourages them to do so.
So maybe Governor Pritzker should spend less time demonizing the police, more time trying to recruit police, and more time calling the president of the United States to get crime in his city under control.
The president wants law enforcement—whether it’s state, local, or federal—to do their jobs, to arrest criminals, to put them behind bars, and to remove public safety threats from American communities. He’ll continue to do that.
Press Secretary Leavitt: Thank you, guys.