Fiery moment NBC's Peter Alexander clashes with new WH press secretary Karoline Leavitt

By NATASHA ANDERSON 09:49 29 Jan 2025, updated 16:30 29 Jan 2025

NBC News' chief White House correspondent shared a fiery exchange with Donald Trump's new press secretary after posing questions about the President's sweeping immigration crackdown and federal spending freezes.

Peter Alexander confronted Karoline Leavitt during a White House press briefing Tuesday about Trump's mass deportation effort, which has seen Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest thousands of undocumented migrants.

Alexander, citing how Trump said they would 'start with the criminals', asked if violent offenders would be deported before other immigrants, before alleging that 'nearly half' of the 1,179 migrants arrested on Sunday found to 'have no prior criminal record'.

Leavitt vaguely suggested that all undocumented migrants would be targeted equally, saying that Trump is 'focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals'.

She claimed that any foreign national who enters the US illegally is 'by definition a criminal' and 'subject to deportation' and further noted that the President can want to 'deport illegal criminals, illegal immigrants' and simultaneously want violent criminals who came to America illegally removed from the country.

The NBC News reporter then turned his line of questioning to Trump's stunning move to bring diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government to a screeching halt by pausing trillions of dollars of funding.

Alexander asked for clarification on which financial assistance programs would be impacted by the freeze, but Leavitt fired back, saying the decision was clear and the 'only uncertainty in this room is amongst the media.'

She emphasized that the move would not affect 'individual assistance' and reiterated that 'cutting the cost of living in this country' is 'very important' to Trump.

Alexander challenged Trump's mass deportation efforts, asking the Administration which undocumented migrants were being targeted by ICE.

Citing the President's campaign promises, Alexander claimed that Trump said: 'They're going back home where they belong. And we start with the criminals. There are many, many criminals.'

The reporter then suggested that authorities were actively trying to remove all undocumented migrants from the country.

'NBC News has learned that ICE arrested 1,179 undocumented immigrants on Sunday and nearly half of them 566 of the migrants appear to have no prior criminal record,' Alexander said. 'And besides, entering the country illegally, is the president still focused exclusively, which is a civil crime, not a it's not criminal.'

But Leavitt snapped back: 'It's a federal crime.'

Alexander doubled down on his line of questioning, asking Leavitt if being a 'violent offender' is 'no longer the predicate' for deportation.

'The president has said countless times on the campaign trail...that he is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals,' the press secretary replied.

'If you are an individual, a foreign national, who illegally enters the United States of America, you are, by definition, a criminal. And so therefore you are subject to deportation.'

Alexander, interrupting Leavitt, asked her to clarify if 'violent criminals do not receive precedence' when it comes to deportation.

But the White House alleged that 'two things can be true at the same time'.

'We want to deport illegal criminals, illegal immigrants from this country. But the president has said that of course, the illegal criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country and who have terrorized law abiding American citizens, absolutely. Those should be the priority of ICE,' Leavitt explained.

'But that doesn't mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our nation's borders are off the table.'

Alexander quickly changed the subject to address another one of Trump's executive orders that has sparked 'confusion' amongst Americans - the federal funding freeze.

In an announcement that sent shockwaves through Washington, the White House budget office issued a sweeping order to halt taxpayer money being doled out for initiatives in education and health care, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other areas.

The money is to be put on hold while the Trump administration reviews the programs to ensure they are aligned with the Republican president's priorities. 

'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,' Alexander said to Leavitt.

'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?'

Leavitt asked Alexander to specify which particular programs he was concerned about, to which the reporter said, 'I could refer to a lot of them. We don't know what they are specifically.'

'So you're asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can't even identify?' she stated, before reiterating that the pause does not affect 'individual assistance'.

'Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits, food stamps, that will not be impacted by this federal pause,' she said - before turning the conversation towards Trump's cost cutting efforts.

'But I do want to address the cost cutting, because that's certainly very important 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.'

She further noted that Trump 'repealed many onerous Biden administration regulations' and declared a 'national energy emergency' which she says will make America 'energy dominant'.

'We know that energy is one of the number one drivers of inflation,' Leavitt claimed. '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.'

Trump has signed a blizzard of executive orders and taken other actions since he was sworn in on January 20 that are having a swift impact on Americans and the rest of the world.

The executive orders, which the White House said have totaled more than 300, aim to meet the Republican's campaign promises on illegal immigration, the size of the federal workforce, energy and the environment, gender and diversity policies, abortion and the military.

Trump has declared a national emergency on the US-Mexico border and issued a broad ban on asylum for migrants 'engaged in the invasion across the southern border.'

His sweeping immigration raids across the country have seen violent criminals rounded up and sent packing on government flights at break-neck speed. 

The White House, hailing the federal agents who are 'working tirelessly to protect our communities', highlighted what it described as 'some of the worst' migrants to be rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the weekend.

A Honduran national found with cocaine, fentanyl, and a firearm was arrested following a sting in Washington state, while a Jordanian national with suspected ties to the Islamic State was detained in Buffalo, New York.

ICE arrested a Mexican national with an active INTERPOL Red Notice who was wanted for murder in Los Angeles, as well as a gangster from El Salvador who was wanted for aggravated homicide.

At least two convicted child rapists were taken into custody over the weekend. Federal agents also detained dozens of members of the violent Venezuelan crime gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Trump instructed the Defense Department to make it a priority to seal the border and to support border wall construction, detention space and migrant transportation. He empowered the defense secretary to send troops to the border, and the White House announced that 1,500 additional troops would deploy there. 

The President ordered the suspension of refugee admissions into the US. All refugee travel to the US was canceled, including that of nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to resettle in America.

He reinstated the 'Remain in Mexico' policy, which requires non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico pending the resolution of their US cases.

He instructed the attorney general to seek capital punishment against immigrants without legal status who commit crimes such as murder that are potentially punishable by death.

He issued an order to end birthright citizenship to children born in the US if neither their mother or father is an American citizen or legal permanent resident. 

People born on American soil are granted citizenship under the US Constitution. Democratic state attorneys general and advocates launched lawsuits over the issue and a judge appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan blocked the order, calling it 'blatantly unconstitutional.'

Trump also kicked off a process to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and to utilize a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act against foreign gang members.