Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Jan. 15, 2026

January 15, 2026 · The White House · 0:33:02

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

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed reporters at the White House on January 15, 2026, opening with the week’s economic data as the administration stated it: Tuesday’s CPI report showed core CPI increasing at a 2.4 percent annualized rate since President Trump took office, against the 3.3 percent annual rate she said was inherited; the national average gas price had fallen to its lowest level in five years, below $3 a gallon in 43 states according to GasBuddy, with drivers projected to spend $11 billion less at the pump this year; and December existing-home sales had risen to their fastest pace in three years, with the President having directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds and the average 30-year mortgage rate down more than a full percentage point, as she stated the figures.

She then unveiled the health proposal the President had announced that morning — “the Great Healthcare Plan” — in four pillars as she listed them: codifying most-favored-nation drug pricing into law and expanding over-the-counter availability; ending extra subsidy payments to insurance companies and sending the money directly to eligible Americans, funding a cost-sharing reduction program, and ending pharmacy-benefit-manager kickbacks; requiring Medicare- and Medicaid-accepting providers and insurers to post pricing publicly; and requiring insurers to publish rate and coverage comparisons in plain English. She called on Congress to pass the plan into law.

Why it matters

The briefing is the administration’s affordability case at the one-year mark in a single sitting — the inflation, energy, and housing figures it chose to lead with, and the first full podium presentation of the Great Healthcare Plan whose direct-to-the-people design the President was still describing to reporters the following day.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Great Healthcare Plan’s four pillars, as presented here, are a dated legislative ask; the CPI, gas-price, and mortgage figures are tracked claims as stated by the Press Secretary. Noted for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Jan. 15, 2026,” The White House, January 15, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated at the briefing.