Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Mar. 25, 2026

March 25, 2026 · The White House · 0:30:27

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

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt opened the March 25, 2026, briefing with scheduling: the President’s Union Station political dinner that evening, the second cabinet meeting of the year the next morning, the Greek Independence Day celebration that afternoon, and a National Agriculture Day event with nearly 1,000 farmers on Friday. She then announced the summit: “President Trump’s long awaited meeting with President Xi in China will now take place in Beijing on May 14th and 15th,” with a reciprocal Washington visit by President Xi to be announced later in the year.

The bulk of the briefing was Operation Epic Fury at just over three weeks. The tally as Leavitt stated it: “More than 9,000 enemy targets have been struck to date”; Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks “down by roughly 90 percent”; “more than 140 of their naval vessels, including almost 50 mine layers” destroyed — “the largest elimination of a navy over a three week period since World War II”; and 5,000-pound bombs dropped on an underground coastal facility storing anti-ship cruise missiles and mobile launchers. The mission, estimated at four to six weeks, was at day 25 “ahead of schedule,” and, following the President’s threat the previous Saturday, Iran “wanted to talk”; the President had “temporarily instruct[ed] the Department of War to postpone planned strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure only” while conversations proceeded.

Why it matters

The briefing fixes two dated markers in the record: the Beijing summit’s May 14–15 dates — the meeting this chronicle later records in May — and the White House’s own three-week scorecard for Epic Fury, stated on the record by its Press Secretary. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

The Epic Fury tally as stated by the Press Secretary (9,000+ targets struck, attacks down ~90%, 140+ naval vessels destroyed) and the announced May 14–15 Beijing summit dates are recorded here as candidate items for the weekly scoreboard.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media,” The White House, March 25, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the Press Secretary at the briefing.