Mr. Miller, we have this all set for you, if you have some time. Everyone's perfectly semi-circled for you.
I appreciate that but I'm going to say this like I did last time, which is that Karoline already did a briefing.
Of course, of course.
She's the White House press secretary, not I.
One question.
I'm going to answer like --
Of course.
-- three or four questions and then I'm going to go.
Stephen. Stephen, do you have any numbers yet on the number of people who have accepted the buyout? Do you have any even vague number of how many people are accepting it? Any numbers at all?
I don't have an exact number for you and I wouldn't want to give you an inaccurate estimate. It's a good question and you should get a number soon, I hope. But I will tell you that I -- the initial briefings that I've received suggest that a large number of federal workers have accepted the buyout offer.
And I think the point here to really underscore is that federal workers who are not happy in their jobs who don't want to show up at work, who do not want to be in the office who are not passionate about what they're doing are obviously not the Kind of federal worker you want responsible for having enormous authority over the lives of the American people.
And so, this is happening in conjunction with a wholesale reform of the hiring process in the federal government to find people who are really dedicated to service at the absolute highest level.
[Crosstalk]
Stephen, follow on that question -- Can you talk about -- Can you confirm that the administration has ordered some federal workers across some agencies to drop pronouns in your emails as part of the executive order [Inaudible]
Yes, I believe that the directive you're referring to is consistent with the president's Day 1 executive order on recognizing that there are only male and female sexes in the country and that, well in the world, for all of humanity. But his authority is just on this country. And that your sex is your biological sex, that is one and the same.
[Crosstalk]
Can you confirm that the president is meeting with the President of Nvidia today?
I don't have any update on that. Sorry.
Stephen, can you explain the circumstances surrounding the departure of a top ranking Treasury Department official today, longtime career civil servant?
No, nothing to add on that subject. Yes?
[Crosstalk]
-- on how you're viewing the rollout of tomorrow's tariffs and how conversations with Mexico and Canada in particular are progressing at this point, given some of the comments we've heard from their leaders today in preparation for their own plans.
Well, I mean, as far as the rollout, I mean, could you clarify what you mean by rollout?
Are you considering Section 232 tariffs as part of this?
Oh, I don't want to get into the details. It's not for me to brief on what the details of how this can be done are. But there have obviously been long standing trade imbalances with these trading partners that have been long running and systemic and that affect our national security by eroding our defense industrial base and eroding our manufacturing base.
And also, there are even graver concerns with national security and public safety, particular -- in particular, although not limited to, fentanyl, which, of course, is a weapon of mass destruction in this country and is killing more Americans than have died in our wars overseas throughout our nation's history.
And we know that there is a sophisticated network of criminal cartels operating on our border that traffic fentanyl into the United States. We also know that the precursors to make that fentanyl is coming from overseas. And so, you have a wide array of entities and organizations that have infiltrated our country and are killing our citizens in mass and we know as well that cartels have functional control like a government over large swaths of Mexican territory, which gravely imperils our own national security and public safety.
[Crosstalk]
-- FBI
[Crosstalk]
-- investigating President Trump?
Well, with respect to the FBI, and I would just say to the law enforcement and intelligence community in general, it's clear that there has been vast weaponization of the law enforcement apparatus against President Trump, against President Trump's family, his staff, conservatives in general, Republicans in general, and the American people, this was litigated for four years, right?
From 2021 through the election. The question of the weaponization of the justice system, of course it started back in 2017. But in other words, the whole period of the Biden presidency, this was probably the most disgusting litigated issue, and the American people rendered an overwhelming verdict on the question of whether or not we need to clean ranks in our law enforcement and intelligence communities and ensure that the partisan weaponization of our justice system ends.
[Crosstalk]
Are there any talks underway right now to try and avoid those tariffs? Any negotiations underway with Canada and Mexico?
Nothing to add on that subject. Let me take two more questions.
[Crosstalk]
Can I ask you on the economic impact of the tariffs? There are reports that career officials are being locked out of payment systems at various government agencies. Can you explain what's going on?
Well, I would say just as a general matter that if somebody is trying to send money to, for example, a foreign country that is not authorized, that would be obviously a grave violation, not only of the agency rules, not only of an executive order, but potentially even the law. And if an individual has been relieved of duty, hypothetically, or has been placed on leave and is still trying to send taxpayer dollars overseas, that obviously would be an extremely serious infraction.
But a standard protocol, of course, if someone has been placed on leave to lose access to your devices. We're talking about people who have the ability with the press of a button to send billions of dollars to foreign countries. All right, one more question.
[Crosstalk]
Can we get the economic impact --
[Crosstalk]
Oh, thank you. Yesterday, the president said that the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is very serious. Can you elaborate a little more what --
I can't add anything to his statement at this time, but we should follow up with you on that. The last question.
[Crosstalk]
Would you say that part of the administration's goal is, of course, to crack down on illegal immigration but to curb legal immigration as well?
The President has been clear with respect to legal immigration that his view is he wants pro-American immigration, immigration that supports the economy, that assimilates to our national values in which there's no welfare use, there's no drain on taxpayers, and it promotes social cohesion, patriotism and assimilation in the country.
In other words, we as a nation like any nation, have the right to select newcomers based on who will provide the most value to the country and the citizens who are already living here. That's the president's policy. And, of course, with the illegal immigration, the answer is none, zero, no illegal immigrants allowed into the country at all.
Thank you, everybody.
[Crosstalk]
Last question on --