--- title: Donald Trump Spoke in the White House Briefing Room description: President Donald Trump made his first appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday after Democrats formally took over the House. canonical: https://time.com/5493605/donald-trump-white-house-briefing-room/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-03T22:09:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:19:00.213Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room og:description: Shortly after Democrats formally took over the House of Representatives. og:url: https://time.com/5493605/donald-trump-white-house-briefing-room/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt245640e2c1e94367/698942a47cdbac2277d5ecd6/trump-white-house-press-briefing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5259 og:image:height: 2958 og:image:alt: trump-white-house-press-briefing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room twitter:description: Shortly after Democrats formally took over the House of Representatives. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt245640e2c1e94367/698942a47cdbac2277d5ecd6/trump-white-house-press-briefing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f7b53c45-4028-48e0-b3d4-97cbf1ddea21&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bbkPHk9u.m3u8) (0:53)  _Published 2019-01-03. Donald Trump Made His First Appearance in the White House Briefing Room_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 3, 2019 10:09 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 3, 2019 10:09 PM UTC President Donald Trump made his first appearance in the [White House briefing room](http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/west-wing/press-briefing-room.htm) Thursday afternoon shortly after Democrats formally took over the House of Representatives, reiterating his demand for a border wall as the government nears the two-week mark of a partial shutdown over the issue. “Without a wall, you cannot have border security,” Trump said, flanked by border patrol agents and members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Several of Trump’s guests took the podium and made similar arguments. “Walls actually work,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said. “We appreciate President Trump and all of his efforts in getting us those physical barriers.” The appearance came as Trump and congressional Democrats remain in a stalemate over the partial government shutdown, with Trump demanding $5 billion in funding for border security and Democrats refusing to grant that much for his signature campaign promise. Art Del Cueto, vice president at the National Border Patrol Council, said he thinks border agents support the shutdown over this issue. “We are all affected by this shutdown,” he said. “We have skin in the game. However, it comes down to border security, and we are extremely grateful to President Trump and we fully support what he is doing to take care of our nation’s borders.” Trump began the briefing by congratulating Nancy Pelosi, who had just been [elected Speaker of the House](http://time.com/5493191/pelosi-house-speaker-speech-transcript/?xid=tcoshare) as Democrats took control of the chamber Thursday, and calling for bipartisanship in the new era of divided government. “Hopefully we’re going to work together and get lots of things done, like infrastructure,” Trump said. “I think it’s actually going to work out. I think it’s going to be a little bit different than a lot of people are thinking.” Journalists were given five minutes notice to get to the briefing room for the unscheduled event, and the president stayed on the podium for just under 10 minutes, leaving without taking any questions. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders did not answer questions either. ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Hello everybody. This is a beautiful place. I haven't seen it. Beautiful place. Happy New Year, Happy New Year to everybody. You're welcome here any time, sir. Well thank you very much. I appreciate that, thank you. I just want to start off by congratulating Nancy Pelosi on being elected speaker of the house. It's a A very, very great achievement. And hopefully we're gonna work together and we're gonna get lots of things done like infrastructure and so much more. I know they wanna do that very badly, so do I. So hopefully we're gonna have a lot of things that we can get done together. And I think it's actually gonna work out. I think it'll be a little bit different than a lot of people are thinking. So I congratulate Nancy, tremendous, tremendous achievement. Without a wall you cannot have border security. Without a very strong form of a barrier, call it what you will, but without a wall you cannot have border security. 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