Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 20, 2025

February 20, 2025 · The White House · 0:49:19

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed members of the media at the White House on Feb. 20, 2025, carried on the White House channel, marking one month of President Trump’s return to the Oval Office. She said the President had already signed 73 executive orders - more than double the number signed by President Biden and more than quadruple President Obama’s over the same period, as she stated the comparison - covering regulations, the border, domestic energy, DEI in the federal government, government weaponization, and waste, fraud, and abuse, and had signed the Laken Riley Act into law.

Leavitt said the Senate had confirmed 18 cabinet-level nominees, ahead of the Obama administration’s 2009 pace and more than double the Biden administration’s 2021 pace, as she stated them, and that Kash Patel was expected to be confirmed as FBI Director that day. She announced the President would host his first official cabinet meeting on Wednesday, February 26, and noted the coming visits of France’s President Macron on Monday and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.

Why it matters

The one-month briefing is the administration’s own scorecard for its opening month - the executive-order count, the confirmation pace, and the week-ahead schedule it set for itself, all checkable against the record.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the one-month figures as stated at this briefing (73 executive orders signed; 18 cabinet-level confirmations) are recorded here as checkable items as stated by the Press Secretary.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 20, 2025” (YouTube, 2025-02-20) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.