That came when Leavitt was asked, “President Trump, of course, ran — one of the key policy items was that he was going to lower prices, lower the cost of everything from groceries, as he often said. But in many of the cases, it would seem that some of these moves could raise prices for real Americans on everything from low-income heating — that program; childcare programs. Will nothing that the president is doing here, in terms of the freeze in these programs, raise prices on ordinary Americans?”
She fired back, “What particular actions are you referring to that would —” Interrupting her, the reporter said, “I’m referring to LHEAP right now. That’s the low-income heating program, for example. We can talk about — there’s no clarity, so I could refer to a lot of them. We don’t know what they are specifically. Can you tell us that LHEAP — that LIHEAP is not one of those affected?”
Leavitt then, funnily, laughed in his face and smirked. Adding to the mockery, she asked, “So, you’re asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can’t even identify?” The reporter snapped back, after a brief back and forth, “Well, just to be — just to be clear, since you guys haven’t identified, let’s do it together, just for Americans at home. Medicaid, is that affected?”
Responding, she said, “I gave you a list of examples — Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits —” The reporter again interrupted her, saying, “Medicaid too, correct?” Leavitt, continuing despite the interruption, said, “food stamps — that will not be impacted by this federal pause. I can get you the full list after this briefing from the Office of Management and Budget.”
She then said, “But I do want to address the cost cutting, because that’s certainly very important, and — and cutting the cost of living in this country. President Trump has taken historic action over the past week to do that. He actually signed a memorandum to deliver emergency price relief for American families, which took a number of actions. I can walk you through those.”
She further added, “He also repealed many onerous Biden administration regulations. We know, over the past four years, American households has been essentially taxed $55,000 in regulations from the previous administration. President Trump, with the swipe of his pen, rescinded those, which will ultimately put more money back in the pockets of the American people. So, deregulation is a big deal.”
She also noted, concluding her discussion of the matter, “And then, when it comes to energy, I mean, the president signed an executive order to declare a national energy emergency here at home, which is going to make America energy dominant. We know that energy is one of the number-one drivers of inflation, and so that’s why the president wants to increase our energy supply: to bring down costs for Americans. The Trump energy boom is incoming, and Americans can expect that.” Watch her laugh in his face and slap down his points here:
"*" indicates required fields
Leavitt also spoke about the price matter during her introduction to the press briefing, saying, “On the economic front, President Trump took immediate action to lower costs for families who are suffering from four long years of the Biden administration’s destructive and inflationary policies.”
She continued, noting that the Trump Administration is working overtime to fix issues Biden created, saying, “President Trump ordered the heads of all executive departments and agencies to help deliver emergency price relief to the American people, untangle our economy from Biden’s regulatory constraints, and end the reckless war on American energy.”