Fireside Chat: Madam Chair, My Kids Just Threw Up | CPAC Women Warrior Summit

Okay, how are we doing? We want to keep engaging you all in these conversations, and I'm so honored to have Megan Bauer, who's assistant to the president, has worked in the White House first term and now second term, and is the cabinet secretary, meaning she pretty much has to babysit every single cabinet member. Literally, right? Literally, right? That's what you have to do? Every single one of them. But they're phenomenal. They have the best. Man, that title hit a little too close to home. Which one? The madam chair? My kids just threw up. I mean, any moms in the audience? Who's been thrown up on this week? All the time. So you've got two kids, two boys, a little different path than you, a boy mom. I know the boy mom, which is crazy, but how are you finding this, you know, compared from the first term, which I feel that, you know, it was during the time it was like Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka, Sarah, I was there. We had like 11 kids between all of us. It was crazy. Like, I felt like we never got a break. Is this a different type of White House second term around with Susie Wiles in charge? I think yes and no. I think it's still crazy, but having the first female White House chief of staff, she's the first woman to do it, but also the first mother. So she gets it. She understands it. How many of you guys have been to the White House and walked, you know, in the EEOB, that black and white marble? Those floors are always so special to me. And the reason is the first time I stepped foot on them, I was 25 years old, single, no kids. And that was January 20th of 2017. When I came back to the White House on January 20th, 2025, I had a husband and two kids. And honestly, it was because of President Trump. I met my husband on the campaign. So I always think I was more stressed. This is crazy. How am I going to do it? But you just do it. And we have our own little cohort of kids now. We have the Millers about to have number four. Caroline had number two. We have our first lady's chief of staff is about to have number two. There are, oh, and the Hegsaths and the Duffies. And we have a lot of kids. There's a lot of kids. But part of this is the fact that with President Trump, I mean, his goal is really how do we hone in on policies that work for families? And so as you're, you know, working with the cabinet, how are you seeing that this is a cabinet that's being forward facing out there selling the president's message when it comes to the wins? What big, beautiful bill the, you know, working on what the president's been able to do? Like, what's your sense as you're coordinating with the cabinet? It's always it's a focus. And it's something actually, I think it aligns with their morals and values is we have a cabinet that believes in the nuclear family, that believes in supporting moms, working moms. We've done a lot. We just, after Mother's Day, launched moms.gov. There was not a government website that actually could help expecting or new moms. In the Biden administration, they would have just sent you to Planned Parenthood. And actually, we would have just gotten rid of Mother's Day. So moms.gov is a bunch of incredible resources. It also connects to a bunch of incredible things the Trump administration has done, including Trump accounts, saving for your children's future, that helps take pressure off of you as a mom. Also, Trump Rx, there's prescription drug costs being lowered there. And they really did focus on fertility drugs, but also children's drugs. There was an incredible drug that we just got for free, that gives treatment to kids for deafness. We also see it in the policies. I mean, the incredible thing we just read out the bat, and I know you guys will have May Mailman here later, and she really spearheaded this, removing men and women's sports. Everything is around the morals and values that our party aligns with, and that all starts with the family. And do you think as you're working with President Trump, as you're working with Susie Wiles, what is the focus? You're talking about all these moms that are in the White House. What are the challenges that you're facing as a mom dealing with having such a large responsibility? I think it's balance. And that's really with everything. The only thing that's certain about this Trump administration or any presidency is that we only have four years to get everything done. So you take intentionality and not only into your time of what you do and what you're going to accomplish, but then you do it at home. Every morning when I wake up, I pray. I'm like, Lord, please expand the hours of my day. So if it's only five minutes I get with my kids, to them that felt like two hours, and to me it felt like an hour. Really important for that. And I think President Trump has been that in getting things done that the Americans can feel almost immediately. In our first year, we did 210 executive orders. That's incredible. We couldn't do that in 45. And you had the FBI, and you had the Russia hoax, and you had all the negativities that Trump was facing. This is a very, I think, play on offense type of administration the second time around. It 100% is, and we know what we want to deliver because we saw Biden try to destroy our country for the last four years. So now we're coming into it saying, no, we want to build up America, and we want to build it up in a way that lasts, too, for future generations. And build it up for families, being one of the big things. Now, your mom was one of these hardworking women. We were having this conversation. My oldest, when I worked at the White House, literally had to take the bus from her all-girl Catholic high school to go to the White House and wait for me because my meetings would go late. And she told me the other day, she said, Mom, I wish I would have listened more into your meetings so I could have learned a lot more being in there. But it really is a huge sacrifice. How are you balancing it all out between being the mom, being present, and also your mom's lessons to you in what you're doing today? I'm so grabbed by it. So my mom is my best friend. I feel like everyone feels that way, though, about their mom. And it's the most special relationship. I think the coolest thing is to watch your mom become a grandmother and the relationship she has. I only have girls, so I come from a girl family, like the shop household. And I actually went to the same high school that your girls went to, a great Catholic school just right in DC. And I don't know any different. I didn't have a stay-at-home mom, which I had a mom that worked every single day. And yes, it was hard at times. Yes, Mercy, you asked, did I ever get left? I go, yeah, I've had to call my mom. I've had to take the bus. We were saying, did you ever mom forget you at school? And she's like, yes, of course. Yes. Did they not show up to a thing here and there? Yes, of course. But I always knew they were doing it for something good. My mom served as the deputy secretary under Secretary Ben Carson at HUD. And we always think about housing. And I go, well, housing is where the home and the family starts. You can't teach your kids the word of God or the Pledge of Allegiance if you don't have a roof over your head. So how do I balance it now? Well, my mom and dad help a lot. But I also have an incredible husband. My husband helps support and understand. He's such a modern dad in that sense that it's an equal load. Not that we don't ever like tell you I did this or that. And I know that I'm better for it because my father was actively involved in my life. And I know that my boys would be better because of it. But you also have other people to lean on. You have incredible women from Trump 45 that you I look at you. I'm like, how did we do? How did you do it? Because I'm trying to figure it out every day. And you really when you go to work and you for being a mom, you can do it better. And how about the faith component? Grew up Catholic. That also being a big component in your family. That is probably the most important thing. That hour on Sunday while I'm at church with my family. Well, if any of you guys have ever gone to church with kids, it's not. But I mean, that's the beautiful part. If you don't hear kids screaming and crying in church, then it doesn't feel like church to me. And my faith is probably the most important thing. I actually had the great honor of traveling two weeks ago with Secretary Rubio to meet Pope Francis, Pope Leo. Oh, my gosh. Should I just say it's called Leo. We went to actually where Pope Francis is buried, his grave site with Mrs. Rubio. We met Pope Leo and everyone make up already. Are we in a better place? We are. We really are. Because I think what we all understand is this nation thrives when religion thrives and that we need to continue to do that. We work in a White House that the day Charlie Kirk was murdered, Susie had senior staff and other staff in her office at the end of the day just to kind of gather us all. And she finished the meeting and as Heidi Overton speaking, she's a wonderful woman I work with at the White House. And she said, Susie, can I please pray? And we all gathered together to pray and we have incredible White House faith office that the president puts such an emphasis on faith that they have an office in the West Wing. And I think Jenny Corn is joining us. Yes, she is, right? Yes, yes. She's phenomenal. You guys are lucky. They would joke around my little office in the West Wing was called the West Wing Chapel because I had so many young staffers, especially young women coming to my office almost crying because it was like so stressful all the time. I'm like, we're just going to pray. Just sit here and we're going to pray. I do want to open it up to the audience because it's really important. We really want to make this interactive. These women are the ones out there in their communities making a difference. And so I want to make sure we can get some audience questions in on what Megan does in her role as she's literally leading the cabinet to making sure they're going to the right places. We're rolling out the right policies, right? And that's absolutely that's a big role that you're working on. Policy coordination is key. We need to make sure I mean, there are massive agencies. One fifth of the US GDP runs through HHS. So we need to make sure that they're all in line with the president's priorities. And that comes down to really all working together. And a lot of it comes through communication. I want to ask you who your favorite cabinet secretary is, but I don't think that's fair. No, that's like choosing your favorite. What's your who's your favorite daughter? Come on. Everybody knows this Ava. And the girls all know it too. It's Ava just finished all of her finals in high school today. She's the favorite child because she's so good loving and just like one of the most unselfish daughters and they all and the girls all agree. I mean, Susie, obviously my favorite one. Come on. There you go. All right, let's open it up to the audience. All right, don't be shy. Come on. We have a few of our guys here too, which is great. One of the things I wanted to ask is how has President Trump been able to retain so many of his cabinet secretaries? You've only had a few that have actually had to leave for various reasons. That's such a good question. Yeah, that's actually we really haven't had much turnover. And I think that's because the president had four years to think about when he became president again, what he was going to do. And he found men and women that were really aligned with him. And he keeps an open line of communication with them. He's regularly meeting with his cabinet and having open and honest conversations with them. And I think it also just comes down to the culture that's been created around them. The cabinet, when they get together, it's like a big family gathering. It's really special. So I think it's a combination of we just picked the right people, but also they all like it and they all feel like he picked them because they were there for the right reasons. They were charged to help fix our country and they don't want to leave until that job's done. And I think they're great communicators and I think they have great chemistry. That's what it seems like. There's no infighting, I think, that we've seen in previous administrations. Next question. Oh, Barbara's got one. Hi, neither of you might like but I'm going to present it anyway. Ronald Reagan always said that if you're with me 80% of the time you're my friend and we're in the same party and all of that. It may be the way certain things are portrayed by the media, but one tends to get the impression that President Trump's standards are a little narrower. You've got to be with him 98% or 99%. Am I right? That's a good question too. No, the president actually warmly welcomes people. He wants people around him that are going to give him different opinions. I mean, would you ever think when we have people in the cabinet that ran against him, whether that be in 16th or this last time, you have to have open and honest debate and conversation. That's when the best ideas come from. I also want to add, I think the president wants fighters. So I think one of the things we don't have here in Congress is that you have some of these members who have spent more time trying to stop the president than help the president. And I think the president knows he has a short window to get stuff done and he's not going to deal with these people who are just going to be obstacles. And obviously I think he's just like the kingmaker. He knows who is going to deliver, who's going to fight for him in Congress. And that's why I think, for example, he picked a Ken Paxton over a John Cornyn because we just see their records and it's like, okay, who's the guy who's going to fight to make sure we get the America first policies done? So I think that's a part of it as well. I think what we're seeing, what we couldn't get in 45 is we have people like Mark Cuban coming, asking to come to the White House to work with the president of the United States because Mark Cuban has his cost plus drugs. We have Trump Rx. When we put that together, we're saving millions of dollars for the American people for better prescription drug prices. We never had that in 45 and that's just the art of the deal. That's the way the president gets people to come is that, yes, he endorsed Kamala Harris. He obviously had some screws loose then, but they're coming to the table. We're saying Mark Cuban, not Trump, right? Yeah, obviously, yes. What was Mark Cuban thinking? I don't know. All right, and they called him out on it. Don't worry. I know. Last question. Oh, we got one over there. I love how the men are asking the questions. This is hysterical. This is great. Any other president ever televised his cabinet meetings and how did the idea of doing this come about? Wow, that's such a great question. That's probably one of my favorite parts about the job is our cabinet meetings. We have one next Wednesday and it's going to be a really exciting one. The president is so open. I think Joe Biden had seven cabinet meetings total in his four years and two of which his wife chaired. She's not a member of the cabinet. He needed help. Yeah. He said, look, these are the top people in my U.S. government. Let's show the American people what we're doing for them. What you get on TV is what you get. Those will go on for hours and the cabinet's there and they're working and they're ready. I think it's great to have this transparency. You really know and understand what you voted for. Okay, last question here. I've been asking, you're one of the women warriors. I really feel this is something we were wanting to start here at CPAC because we want women to have a community to know their voices are critical, especially as we're going to the midterm elections. What's your advice? What's the message that you want to hear that they can go back and say, listen, this is what the president's doing and this is why we need to make sure we have Republicans in Congress and basically at all levels of government? Well, first of all, I'm only a woman warrior because you did it first and we're able to do that because of you. So, thank you for carving a path for me and other women and hopefully young women in the audience is now, I mean, I always have to say this in my things, fall in love, get married and have kids. That's the best thing you're going to do. The career, it will all fall in line, I promise. You have to get out there and know that President Trump is fighting for you every single day. The man does not sleep. He works constantly and he's trying to make sure that not only the next, well, most importantly, I think the next generation, he's getting rid of these woke universities trying to indoctrinate our children and then put us into debt. He is fighting to make sure that America continues to thrive for another 250 years. Amen. I agree with that as we're celebrating America's birthday. Megan Bauer, rising star in the White House, amazing and thank you for your service. Thank you for all you're doing here at CPAC.