[captions copyright national cablsatellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption ntent and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: coming up, and news conference with house republican leaders ahead of their meeting with president donald trump. afterwards we hear from the president speaking to house republics at their annual policy retreat. later vice president j.d. vance touring damascus, virginia and the damage done by hurricane helene. house republican leaders held a news conference ahead of their meeting with president trump at his florida resort near miami. house speaker johnson talked about president trump possibly talking -- >> president trump i don't even think had finished the front nine before he successfully forced the colombian president to take back their illegal immigrants.

the days of america being walked all over are long gone thanks to president trump, which brings us back to the sunshine state, the home of the 47th president donald j. trump. here there is a prosperous academy, beautiful sunshine, and endless freedom. why are we here in florida? because florida was critical in delivering a decisive victory for president trump and house republicans. and tonight we will celebrate that historic victory alongside of our president. we are in a very heavily hispanic area with a very diverse culture. broad and diverse coalitions that support the gop america first division. these coalitions support our agenda because we listen and we are giving them what they want

for them and their families. we put them and their families first, not illegals. we promise that if they gave us the majority we would lower costs and make their communities safer. and i am confident that president trump and house republicans will continue to listen and deliver on those promises. putting americans first. and i am so excited to work with the president, chairman hudson, and many others to grow our majority. i will now turn it over to our fearless chairman. you don't have to stand on the box. >> good. thank you so much. i want to thank chairwoman mclean for hosting this event. thank you speaker johnson. it is great to be here with all of you. the weather here is wonderful. over the next few days we will be laying out our vision and our

plans for 2026. and i can tell you the nrc, house republicans, we are going to be on offense. we are off to a strong start, delivering for the american people. passing important bills like the legislation to support women's sports in the laken riley act. we will hold democrats accountable for their out of touch votes. this last election, more americans voted for a republican for the house of representatives. in fact, we won the largest share of the popular vote that we have won since 1928, over 100 years. republicans won the popular vote at every level and president donald trump won all of the swing states. yet thanks to democrat gerrymandering in states like illinois and new mexico, and a midcycle redraw in new york, we still hold a slim majority. despite the media narrative and

a historic election cycle, house republicans retain our majority. we flipped five seats with strong candidates who were a great fit for their districts, as well as the three seats we netted in north carolina. gabe evans in colorado, hispanic, former police officer, former army helicopter pilot, ran on a law and order platform in a district that is racked with fentanyl deaths and crime. tom barrett, also an army helicopter pilot and a successful state legislator, won a seat in michigan. and then our two candidates in pennsylvania. but we are ready to do it again and it is a simple strategy. we are going to go on offense. there are 13 democrats who won seats that donald trump carried and only three republicans holding seats at kamala harris carried. so the battlefield was laid out

for us to our advantage. so we are going to deliver for the american people. and then we are going to hold the democrats accountable if they do not vote for the agenda of the american will want to see passed and i am looking forward to growing this majority in 2026. at this point, i will recognize our host. >> thank you, chairman, mr. speaker. first and foremost, i know you guys are really upset that we are here and not in d.c. right? this community is a very diverse community, a community that understands socialism, the evils of socialism. it is a community that understands that this is the greatest country in the history of humanity, but we have got to keep it that way. and what we have seen in florida is a transformation of hispanics, non-hispanics, everybody in this state

realizing now what most of america realize, that the politics of the left have been destructive, the politics of the democrats do not work, that they bring disaster, they bring poverty, they bring insecurity, and they do not bring prosperity. and so florida, i think, and south florida, is a great example of that. let me just take you back a few years. i don't want to age myself, but 1994, florida was known as number one in violent crime in the country. yes, florida. the state legislature raised taxes every single year. and it was rated as not a great place to own a business or start a new business. what happened? for the first time in 122 consecutive years of democratic control in the state legislature, just the florida senate flipped and florida has never looked back again. the people of florida saved themselves. and now, we are known as the

free state of florida, the prosperous, secure, wonderful place to do business, to raise a family. a place where the world wants to come to not only vacation but to live, and the world and the country wants to emulate. that is because of republican leadership. and the hispanic community in this state has been learning that time and time again. ronald reagan used to say that hispanics are republicans and they just don't know it. guess what? in florida, they know it, and they are voting that way. they are acting that. way which is why this is no longer a swing state. to all of you, welcome. welcome. i am under the weather, because i, like you, was out in the miserable weather in d.c. last week. it is great to be home. i welcome each and every one of you. mr. speaker, to you and the leadership team and to my colleagues, i hope you know what a profound honor it is to have obviously the president of the united states here. in essence, this is his second

hometown. but also have you in this group of leaders here to solve america's issues together and get the america agenda turned first into reality. so thank you for being here. it is a privilege to welcome you to the great city of doral. >> thank you for hosting us and thanks to all of you. we are so grateful to be here. it is great to be out of dcm to be in the free state of florida. i am a little under the weather as well. i think we all are. it was a long inaugural week. right after that we had louisiana's annual mardi gras celebration right on the heels, so four more days of that. my poor wife was dragged to nine balls in a week and we're still recovering but we are glad to be here and really, really grateful that the new golden age of america has begun. it is an exciting time for the country. you have all felt it, those of you who came from washington,

you know the atmosphere has changed in washington and we are feeling that around the country. i came down to florida and was meeting with friends of the party and donors and folks in south florida and they feel it here, just as we do all around the country. something has changed because there is a new sheriff in town and we are excited because we have unified government. we have president trump back in the white house. the work began the day after inauguration. i was summoned there early in the morning on tuesday and i met vice president jd vance and john thune in the senate, my counterpart, and we went to work immediately. went to the oval office and sat with the president for hours, brought in our leadership teams who worked so hard to achieve this moment that we have now, unifying government to fix the country. and all of that work has begun in earnest. we did leave it all on the field. this leadership team and all the house republicans worked so hard to ensure we kept our majority in the house. we believed we would get the majority in the senate and we did. we believed we would return

president trump back to the white house and it happened. but we all traveled endlessly and worked endlessly. i personally did over 350 campaign events in 250 cities and 40 states and not enough miles to circle the globe 5.5 times. i keep saying that because i cannot believe it myself but that is what was necessary and we got the job done. so now, we have to deliver on this agenda. everything has changed. you have seen that the president has accomplished more in his first week in office than joe biden did in four years, and everyone is talking about it. the democratic party is in disarray. they have no obvious leader, they have no obvious vision or agenda. their platform has to be rewritten whole cloth and they don't know how they will wander in this wilderness for the next couple of years. it is not just going to be a couple of years, it will be four years at least and then more, because we are going to win and grow the house majority in 2026. historically, when the president takes the oval office, his party loses a number of seats in the house in the first midterm. that won't happen this time

around because there has been a seachange and we will deliver on this agenda and that begins now . so we are here for three days at president trump's beautiful club here. i hope you all enjoy the time. we will be working the whole time and we will not get to enjoy much of it, but that is by design. we will be in the long sessions with the house republicans, working through the agenda. you all heard me talk about the proverbial playbook we developed over the last year leading up to this moment that we knew would happen. now, we are working out the final sequence. so big decisions will be made in the next few days and we will align with the senate and our colleagues there and we will move forward on that agenda. the reconciliation process, the appropriations we have to wrap up, and the other issues that are upon us. all the republicans are rolling their sleeves up. there is a lot of work being done, there has been a lot of work done behind the scenes to lead us to this point, and we are excited to deliver for the american people, and we will. a lot is happening. most recently, i'm sure there

will be a question or two about colombia, the events of the last 24, 36 hours. i think that was a signal. when the president engaged with the president of colombia about the situation there, colombia did an about-face and decided they would cooperate and take back their citizens who came here illegally. violent criminals from other nations will be the first to be deported and countries must participate, and as soon as colombia pushed back against the white house, i went immediately to social media. i was here in florida, meeting with donors and party officials and stepped out of that meeting and said, the congress will back up the white house, and we will move as necessary on any country -- this was a message to colombia and anyone else, you have to participate. you have to take back your illegals who came here that come from your country. and if not, then we will act and we will engage with sanctions or any other measures that are

appropriate to back up the president's agenda. that is what the american people demand and deserve. we are going to secure that border. we have. we will make america safe and secure again and congress will have no daylight between us and the white house on that issue. every nation around the world needs to hear us loud and clearly. this is not a game. we are going to take care of the american people. and that america first agenda begins there. i will take a few questions. go ahead. >> [inaudible] >> yes, we have got to work out the details. i have not spoken to the president about that issue since he said that. he will be here tonight of course for dinner with us and that is one of the topics of discussion. listen, there are a lot of issues going on in california and we have been lamenting the

lack of voter security there for some time, election security. we were deeply concerned about it in this last election cycle and we saw three of our seats slip away from us in the weeks it took to continue in california when seemingly every other nation in america could get it done. it is inexcusable. gavin newsom provides i think such a lack of leadership there in so many ways and it was highlighted by the disaster with the fires. it is so heartbreaking that california citizens are suffering because of a lack of state and local leadership on those issues. they did not manage the water well, and everyone knew for decades that the eventuality that we have seen over the last couple of weeks since the fire disasters began was foreseeable. they assumed the risk because of their crazy far left policies. so we talk about conditioning the aid that will go there to policy changes. i think that is a common sense notion that is supported by the vast majority of the american people who do not want to subsidize crazy california

leftist policies that are dangerous for people. what the terms are and the details of that, we will be working out, but entwined in all of that is the concern about election security in california. voter id is a matter that comports with common sense. most american people see the value in it. it will be something we are trying to advance. >> [inaudible] >> looked, i'm not going to get ahead of the president with regards to negotiations with venezuela or el salvador or any other country. i will just say that we will be dealing with this in the same

manner that we did with colombia. and that is every nation around the world that -- venezuela is a good example. i mean, president trump noted that they opened their prisons and sent very dangerous persons to the u.s. that is not acceptable. we should never have allowed it here. the biden administration opened the border wide and subjected the american people to all of these terrible -- it is a humanitarian catastrophe and a violent problem, a violent crisis for the american people and it must be addressed. so president trump, you have seen that he will have a heavy hand and we will support him on that regardless of who stands up against him. go ahead. yes. >> [inaudible] >> i have some expertise fema

from the louisiana. we are a disaster prone state and we have a lot of experience with that. in my experience, it is very often the case that local workers, people who are working through fema do a pretty good job, but often, it is the leadership at the top that can affect the outcome of how a disaster is handled. there has been a lot of frustration of course over the last four years with how fema has been handled and i think the president's right to assess that. i think we are entering a new era of government and that is when the president says he wants to make the government more efficient and effective and we say we want to limit the size and scope of government, it means everything is on the table for reevaluation. this is a new moment for us to reevaluate everything the federal government does, and fema is in the crosshairs, pardon the expression, because they are the microscope, because these disasters are front and center for the country to review. and so i think that the task force the president set up by the executive order is an

appropriate step. i think it is probably long overdue. it will be a 180 day evaluation with very smart people in the room who have a lot of expertise and experience in dealing with fema and i very much look forward to the outcome of that issue. i will tell you, from my perspective, the state of louisiana, again, having a lot of experience with this, we have the governor's office of homeland security and emergency preparedness and they do an extraordinary job on a state level. they are very responsive to the people and our people are very resilient and they look to the state officials to handle that. fema has been a partner, but they probably could be a better partner. so we are going to withhold the final judgment on what the analysis is from that group. but i think the timing for that prident's initiative, obviously 100%, and we will assist from the house in any way that we can to contribute to that effort. with regards to the inspector general, the president will, my understanding is he will be replacing those positions with new persons and sometimes, you need a fresh look. look, we want to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in every

way possible. the president is committed to that and we are as well. inspector generals, when they are working on all cylinders and to their top level of effectiveness, they can be a huge part of that. i think the president appreciates that, but sometimes, you have to have, you know, begin a new page and start with a fresh start and maybe some new eyes and voices will be appropriate at this time. scott. >> [inaudible] >> i hope not. i don't think so.

you heard tom say very clearly in the last 24 hours, the worst are first, and what he means by that is dangerous, violent criminals, and we know who they are, you have already seen them being rounded up and deported. that is the top and first priority of the federal government. the rest of it will be developed. i'm glad we have a new secretary of homeland security. think kristi noem will do an extraordinary job in that position and all the people that are being lined up have a very sober mind about this, they are very clear eyed about what is, eyed about what is required and what they voted for in the election. they gave president donald trump a mandate to fix this problem and no matter where i went around the country, the border ranked in the top one or two issues everywhere, blue states, red states, everywhere in between. they are counting on us and the administration and the congress for that matter to back it up to get control of the situation and that is what is going to happen and i think everybody can take a deep breath and let this play out. we are going to restore law and order at any cost.

i think we'll that to the people. -- i think we owe that to the people. it is a very simple thing. >> [inaudible] >> when we get back, the budget committee will be, the first week of february is the plan, marking the budget to set the resolution to begin and unlock and reopen the reconciliation process. that will be where the lion's share of these campaign promises that we made are fulfilled and that is what all the hard work here in the rooms, all of us negotiating and coming to consensus with one another on the terms of that, why that is so important. we will get all the republicans together on the consensus and we will put forward that bill that will check those boxes and make sure we are doing right for the american people. the president has already begun. i just made a list of this morning. everything he started the first seven days, he already started removing dangerous illegal aliens and standing up to terrorist, bringing back the economy, unleashing american energy, putting an end to the dei and gender ideology madness. that is in seven days.

we are just getting started and you are going to see so much of this codified in our legislative agenda and we will get the appropriations going, we will get the reconciliation going. it is going to be a very busy first 100 days so you are all going to have to work as hard as we did. i am glad you are here. last one. >> [inaudible] >> i am not going to predict the outcome. first of all, which tariffs will be enacted and how it will affect prices, we will have to see. i think you are seeing a measured approach by the president. tariffs clearly is going to be part of the policy agenda from the white house. all of that, he said to us, will be in the executive branch and not the legislative branch, so they will have unilateral authority over it, but i think he will be wise in how he does that. i don't think you will see across the board tariffs in

whole countries or whole industries. i don't believe that will happen. i think he's going to deal with the unfairness we see out on the world stage. china for example is a terrible trading partner. they abuse the system, they steal our intellectual property. they are now trying to get a leg up on us on ai, as you have seen. it is a serious threat to us and our economy and security in every way so the president takes that seriously and i think that he will deal with that in an appropriate manner. look, we are free-trade advocates but as the president often reminds all of us, it has to be free and fair trade and we simply do not have that with some of the allies and adversaries around the world so president trump will be the great equalizer on that. thank you all for being here. we will be talking with you in the next couple of days. >> [inaudible] >> you want to address that? ok.

listen, he did an about-face very quickly and that was appropriate, and if he wants to send his own presidential plane to pick up his folks, we welcome that. it saves american taxpayers money. we think that is a great thing and i think other foreign leaders should send their presidential planes and pick up their folks who don't belong here. we are happy to send them back so i think it is a good trip. thank you. >> it is good to see you all. announcer: wednesday, president trump's health aan services nominee rfkr testifies at a confirmation hearing. he was the 2024epennt presidential candidate who withdrew to endorse donald trump .

you can watch the hearing at 10:00 a.m. eastern on-span. thursday mr. kennedy returns to capitol hill to take questions from the senate health committee li10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. you can watch both hearings on c-span now or online at c-span.org. announcer: president trump talked about his immigration and border security policies during remarks at the house gop issues conference. he also discusses his plan to issue tariffs & four new executive orders which include the creation of an iron dome defense system and banning transgender military. he spoke at his golf club outside miami. ♪