Caroline Leavitt

And then, of course, no men in women's sports.

So, yes, the president is speaking with our allies in Europe and also many of our partners in the Gulf and Arab world to encourage them to step up, to do more, to open the Strait of Hormuz.

And our NATO allies especially need to step up.

Look, President Trump has been very, very frank with our friends in NATO for a very long time.

to increase their defense spending up to five percent and now he's calling on them to do the right thing because again the United States of America is leading the way not just to support and protect our American assets and bases in the Middle East but also to defend Europe in the Middle East and the rest of the world from the

And then, of course, as you mentioned, the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which this president takes very seriously and is doing responsibly, unlike the last administration who abused the SPR for political reasons to try to artificially lower gas prices

ahead of an election.

That was despicable.

This president takes it very seriously.

We will refill the SPR as soon as this operation is over.

And we've been working 24 seven here at the White House to make sure the American people understand how much of a tremendous success this operation has been over the past two weeks.

And it is abhorrent.

Some of the stories that are coming from the mainstream media and these reporters run these anonymous sources as gospel truth.

without checking with the people who are actually in the room.

And I'm speaking about a CNN story alleging that the administration was ill-prepared for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

That is unequivocally false, let me be clear.

The Pentagon has been accounting for this in their planning of this operation since the very beginning, and the administration is taking tangible steps to address it.

CNN issued a correction

On that story, after I called them and spent nearly an hour on the phone rebutting it, ABC News using unverified, non-credible tips from anonymous tipsters to scare people in California that Iran was allegedly plotting to attack the coast of California with drones, again, based on unverified intelligence.

They left that word unverified out of their story purposely, and we forced them to issue a correction.