Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Oct. 23, 2025

October 23, 2025 · The White House · 0:34:09

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 October 23, 2025, as the White House broadcast records.

She opened with the Asia trip itinerary: the President departs the White House at 11 p.m. for Malaysia, arriving Sunday morning local time; a bilateral meeting with Malaysia’s prime minister and the ASEAN leaders’ working dinner that evening; Monday morning a bilateral with Japan’s new prime minister; Wednesday morning arrival in Busan — a bilateral with South Korea’s president, keynote remarks at the APEC CEO luncheon, and the U.S. APEC leaders’ working dinner; Thursday morning a bilateral with President Xi of China, then departure for Washington that night; and on arrival, the President and First Lady would host “Halloween at the White House” with law enforcement, military, and foster families.

She then framed day 23 of the government shutdown in the White House’s terms: “Senate Democrats have voted 12 separate times now to keep the government closed,” she said, citing the impacts — “more than 500,000 civilian federal employees will miss a full paycheck tomorrow,” almost $4 billion in small-business loan capital withheld, FAA ground stops at Houston’s airports, “13,000 air traffic controllers” working without pay (some “forced to turn to driving for Uber”), and SNAP funding beginning to lapse, with “not enough funds to provide SNAP benefits for more than 40 million Americans on November 1st” if the shutdown continued. She presented verified examples of people without legal status who had received Medicaid benefits under the prior administration, as the briefing’s documentation for its central claim.

Why it matters

The briefing is the administration’s most complete public itinerary for the Asia trip — Malaysia, Japan, Korea, the Xi meeting, and the return — and its most detailed shutdown-impact ledger of the week.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Oct. 23, 2025” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered in the briefing.