Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 25, 2025

February 25, 2025 · The White House · 0:34:25

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. 25, 2025, carried on the White House channel. She led with Apple’s announcement, following the President’s Oval Office meeting with CEO Tim Cook the week before, of plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in America over the next four years and hire around 20,000 workers - Apple’s largest-ever commitment to American jobs and industry, as she stated it - and said the President had already announced more than $1 trillion in pledged investments into the United States.

On the border, Leavitt said illegal crossings in the President’s first month hit lows not seen in decades, down 94 percent over the past year, while interior arrests were up 134 percent, and that the previous Saturday saw only 220 illegal border crossings, a 15-year low, as she stated the figures. She noted the closing San Diego migrant shelter and New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s announcement that the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter would shut down. She also defended Dan Bongino’s appointment as FBI Deputy Director against “far-right podcaster” chyrons, noting his service as a law-enforcement and Secret Service agent.

Why it matters

The briefing carries the term’s first mega-investment announcement (Apple) and the first-month border statistics in their podium form - the figures the scoreboard checks against the underlying company and DHS reports.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Apple figures ($500 billion over four years; around 20,000 hires) and the first-month border figures (crossings down 94 percent; 220 crossings on Saturday, a 15-year low), each as stated at this briefing.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 25, 2025” (YouTube, 2025-02-25) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.