All posts tagged "karoline leavitt"

Karoline Leavitt scorched by onlookers over 'mystery' Reflecting Pool claim

The White House is getting a harsh response from numerous observers to its latest claim about the Reflecting Pool.

When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared on X that the press had lost its mind over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, she likely expected applause rather than a fact-check. Sharing a post that ridiculed the coverage, she wrote, "So true, and so sad. The liberal media is truly deranged." The line fit neatly into a broader MAGA effort to recast the pool's very public failure as a symptom of "Trump Derangement Syndrome." It did not land that way.

The most pointed rebuttal came a day earlier from author and columnist John A. Daly, whose post was amplified by former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Daly argued that conservatives had manufactured the entire spectacle before turning around to whine about it, writing that "as with the Epstein Files, MAGA made a huge media-story out of the Reflecting Pool, only to turn around and complain about how much media attention it's received after blowing up in their faces."

That observation cuts to the heart of why Leavitt's complaint rang hollow. The pool became a national story because the president personally made it one. Trump ordered the renovation that ballooned past $14 million, had the basin painted "American flag blue" for the country's 250th anniversary, and promoted it relentlessly. When the water bloomed green and the fresh surface began peeling away in sheets, he escalated rather than retreated, blaming "radical left lunatics," accusing an ABC News reporter of fueling the story, and claiming that "multiple individuals" faced "years in jail" for vandalism.

Political scientist Ian Bremmer conceded the coverage was excessive but pinned the blame squarely on the president, noting that the saturation existed "in part because president trump spent too much time on it when he should have been talking about more important issues."

Conservative Trump critics Tom Nichols piled on by circulating a chart that mocked the president's exaggerated claims about the reflecting pool's size."

"Yes it’s a mystery," Nichols wrote in response with the chart. Conservative lawyer George Conway added, "You're kind of right: Instead of talking about how your boss turned the reflecting pool into the world's largest Petri dish, we should talking how he signed an instrument of surrender to Iran at Versailles. Of course, the only reason why we're talking about the reflecting pool is because he was bragging about how he was fixing it."

Kinzinger also chimed in, "You guys made this a story. Brag about how awesome it is and a week later pretend you never cared anyway."

Leavitt wanted the public to believe the media had conjured this controversy out of nothing. But people pointed out that her own administration spent two weeks building it, brick by brick, and the people she blamed simply reported what the White House kept handing them.

You guys made this a story. Brag about how awesome it is and a week later pretend you never cared anyway https://t.co/64jnihbWFo pic.twitter.com/rnqjgPLU6n
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@AdamKinzinger) June 20, 2026

Todd Blanche may have torpedoed his own AG nomination with Epstein stunt: analysis

A damning New York Times report released on Wednesday raised new concerns about Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and his involvement with the Epstein files.

Blanche has come under fire over his role in "attempting to kill off the Epstein firestorm," just days after President Donald Trump formally nominated his former personal lawyer for permanent attorney general, The Daily Beast reported. Now, doubts were raised over whether he could be the top leader of the Justice Department ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing — and whether he could maintain his independence.

"Opponents argue he is not fit for the job, pointing to his handling of the Epstein files, which identified numerous victims but kept the names of potential co-conspirators hidden, as well as other controversies, such as Trump’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' slush fund and the backroom deal giving the president immunity from continuing IRS audits," The Beast reported.

The bombshell reporting from Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan is part of an upcoming book and includes multiple revelations about what happened within the Trump administration and includes Blanche's involvement as the then-deputy attorney general under former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

"Blanche and other Trump aides—including Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Communications Director Steven Cheung and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt—held a panicked meeting in the Situation Room in July last year, desperate to quell the MAGA civil war that had erupted over the administration’s failure to release the Epstein files," according to The Beast.

In the meeting, Blanche reportedly offered two potential options.

"The first was to petition Federal District Courts in Florida and New York to unseal grand jury testimonies related to Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous sex trafficking crimes, as these were unlikely to contain any new information, and therefore, releasing them was unlikely to damage Trump," The Beast reported.

Blanche likely knew that getting a federal judge to unseal grand jury material would be a tough move, The Beast reported.

"The second option was to have a Justice Department official interview Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and release the transcript," according to The Beast.

Blanche apparently volunteered to sit down with Maxwell. He has described her attorney, David Oscar Markus, as "a friend."

Trump hit with ill-timed staffing problems as MAGA moms follow his advice

President Donald Trump has a staffing problem as more MAGA moms are doing what he had requested them to do — have more babies, according to a Wednesday report from The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack.

The timing is difficult for the Trump administration, with key midterm races just six months away.

"Donald Trump’s plea to MAGA moms to bear more children is causing a crisis at the White House and Pentagon at a crucial time," The Swamp reported.

"Trump called himself the 'fertilization president' and urged a procreation push to uphold a long tradition of autocrats who seek to build a society in their own image. But the policy is backfiring, with key administration staffers taking maternity leave in the lead-up to the Republican Party’s make-or-break midterm elections," according to The Swamp.

Karoline Leavitt has stepped away for her maternity leave as she prepares to have a second child any day. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson has also started her maternity leave. These absences have prompted Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and other Trump cabinet members — to fill in for important press briefings, with Rubio taking fiery questions from a room full of shouting reporters on Tuesday, quipping, "This is chaos, guys."

Mockery buries Karoline Leavitt as she gushes over 'fearless' Trump at shooting

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was roundly mocked on Monday after admiring President Donald Trump for bravery during the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting.

Leavitt spoke to reporters during a press briefing, blaming Democrats and members of the media for what led to suspect Cole Allen allegedly shooting a Secret Service agent.

"The president's calm in the face of chaos while yet another individual was trying to take his life was really remarkable to witness, and it's something I will never forget. President Trump is fearless. He is willing to put his own life on the line," Leavitt said.

Social media users questioned her claims.

"Frankly, it looked more like he had no idea anything was going on until the Secret Service yanked him out of his chair," author Sherry Knowlton wrote on X.

"Trump stumbled and struggled getting up,' progressive political commentator Vince Wilson wrote on X.

"Fearless, eh? What does his military record look like?" College instructor and author Anthony M. Hopper wrote on X.

"Really he wasn't so calm when he was asked [about Epstein]," Tracey Gallagher, attorney and former Judge Pro Tem, wrote on X.

"She knows this sort of propaganda is not helping the discourse, right?" English teacher and former announcer Professor George Werner wrote on X.

Leavitt: "The president's calm in the face of chaos while yet another individual was trying to take his life was really remarkable to witness, and it's something I will never forget. President Trump is fearless. He is willing to put his own life on the line." pic.twitter.com/UjwWaAGa9f
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 27, 2026

Former White House insider predicts Trump's next Iran move: 'Less bad outcome'

President Donald Trump has signaled he is likely to retreat from the ongoing Iran war, a former White House insider said on Tuesday.

Bill Kristol, conservative analyst and editor-at-large for The Bulwark, shared what he thinks Trump and his administration will do next as the war now reaches the fifth week.

"Where he’s heading is toward the exits," Kristol wrote.

Kristol also suggested that Trump could be backing off on his demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, citing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's vague comment with reporters on Monday that the administration was "working toward" establishing operations again in the crucial waterway.

He also referenced a Wall Street Journal report early Tuesday that indicated the end could be near.

"President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. . . . He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade," The Journal reported. "If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said."

It's unclear what Trump will do next, but the signs have pointed to withdrawing, Kristol wrote.

"And if that wasn’t enough of a tell, Trump seemed to all but confirm the reporting this morning when he posted that other countries were going to have to figure out how to get oil through the strait themselves. '[T]he U.S.A won’t be there to help you anymore,' he added," Kristol explained.

"All in all, it seems more likely than not that Trump plans on walking away rather than escalating," Kristol added. "I think this would be a less bad outcome of this reckless and feckless 'excursion' than introducing ground troops. But it will still be a bad outcome for the United States and the world. And I’m afraid it won’t be the last bad outcome we’ll experience from having an unbelievably irresponsible individual as our president."

Karoline Leavitt melts down over double chin turkey photo

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was the latest person in the Trump administration to demand photographers remove a photo she deemed unflattering, according to reports on Tuesday.

Leavitt was apparently unhappy with an image of herself, a turkey and her son around Thanksgiving and disliked it so much that she reached out to the agency that captured it, The New Republic reported. Since then, the image has been removed from Agence France-Presse's collection and also scrubbed from Getty's archive.

"The photo, taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds at a very low angle, is pointed up at Leavitt, who is smiling in a manner that gives her a double chin, while she is holding her son. A turkey they were looking down at, 'Waddle,' is also featured in frame very prominently," according to The New Republic.

This isn't the only time the White House has found a photo problematic. Leavitt's request comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also apparently had an issue with recent photos of himself.

The Pentagon apparently shut out photographers from attending press briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in Iran after Hegseth's staff decided recent photos of him were "unflattering," The Washington Post reported. The images from the March 2 briefing came after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during a joint U.S.-Israeli military strike on Feb. 28. It was the first time Hegseth had appeared in the briefing room and spoken to press since June 26.

AFP has denied that there was a formal request to remove the image of Leavitt, who made it clear she did not like it.

“While we were made aware that White House staff found the photo unflattering, we want to be clear that there was no formal request to remove it, nor was there any external pressure involved,” AFP’s director of brand and communications Grégoire Lemarchand told The Daily Beast.

The White House bullied Getty into deleting this photo of karoline leavitt..... pic.twitter.com/bpq9FkNB3x
— Covie (@covie_93) March 31, 2026

'Disgrace!' White House lashes out at defecting Trump official's 'laughable' claim

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was irritated on Wednesday after a reporter mentioned Joe Kent — the top Trump intelligence official who resigned after claiming President Donald Trump changed his story on the Iran war.

Leavitt was responding to a reporter's question during a White House press briefing and had a sharp reaction to the comments from Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and close MAGA ally who stepped down last week from his role. Kent has said that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation" and that the president acted under "pressure from Israel."

"Joe Kent said that the president's red line shifted from 'Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon' to 'Iran cannot pursue nuclear enrichment.' What is the administration's response to that criticism?" the reporter asked.

Leavitt had a strong response to Kent's comments.

"I think the president and I have both strongly responded to the criticism by Mr. Kent, who unfortunately resigned in disgrace and accused the president of basically being controlled by foreign countries and foreign manipulation, which is a ridiculous and laughable assertion," Leavitt said. "So his accusations have zero credibility as far as this White House is concerned."

The reporter pressed further, "the question of the red line shifting from no nuclear weapon to no nuclear enrichment, is there any substance to that argument?"

Leavitt pushed back on the question.

"I think the president has been quite clear on what he wants to see from the Iranian regime, which is why he chose to launch Operation Epic Fury in the first place," Leavitt said.

Q: Joe Kent said the president's red line shifted from 'Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon' to 'Iran cannot pursue nuclear enrichment.' What is the president's response?

LEAVITT: Mr Kent resigned in disgrace. He has 0 credibility

Q: But the question of the red line shifting?… pic.twitter.com/3mdhr5pKJB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2026

Karoline Leavitt's complete U-Turn on 'imminent' Iran threat baffles critics

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reversed her tune on Tuesday after previously saying there was "no imminent threat" from Iran — then five days later saying the complete opposite.

Leavitt wrote a lengthy response on X to Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the first administration official to speak out against the war and exit his role. Kent was a longtime MAGA ally of President Donald Trump, who appointed him to the job, and early Tuesday shared his decision on X. He described why he would not support the ongoing conflict, saying, "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.""There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that 'Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,'" Leavitt wrote in rebuttal. "This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over."MeidasTouch podcaster Adam Mockler pointed out Leavitt's words and how they had changed from days ago in an X post on Tuesday."You literally just said there was no threat," Mockler wrote, highlighting Leavitt's own words from March 12.

Last week, Leavitt was critical of an ABC News report in a separate post on X, blaming the outlet for "providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people."

"TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did," she wrote.

White House melts down with vulgar response after being called out on stunning reversal

The Trump administration was raging on Tuesday, dropping a bizarre comeback after it was called out over previous claims involving the Iran war.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reversed her comments from last week, when she was critical of an ABC News report and blamed the outlet in a post on X for "providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people."

"TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did," Leavitt wrote.

But the White House was furious after people started noting the apparent change in tune from the Trump administration and clapped back with a surprising response on X.

"No such threat to our homeland of Iran launching a drone offensive on our West Coast, dumba----. The nuclear threat of the psychotic, murderous Iranian regime is very real, however. Thank God we finally have a President who's doing something about it," the White House Rapid Response account on X wrote.

Leavitt earlier Tuesday had responded on X with a lengthy post pointing to a public statement from U.S. intelligence official Joe Kent. Kent had resigned publicly via X and, in his letter to President Donald Trump, cited his reasons for leaving his position that Trump appointed him to, insisting that Iran had not posed an imminent threat.

"There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that 'Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,'" Leavitt wrote in rebuttal to Kent's resignation letter. "This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over."

Trump admin may be forced to reveal military-election plot with new lawsuit

The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday sued the Trump administration to force it to give up its election plans, according to The New York Times.

The Trump administration has not denied whether armed federal agents or military personnel would be stationed at polling places or election offices in the United States, The Times reported. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., outlines how multiple Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security in October have not yet received any responses.

“To ensure that the American people obtain timely knowledge of potential threats to free and fair elections and to enable the D.N.C. to take appropriate action to ensure voting rights are protected, the D.N.C. now seeks this Court’s aid to enforce” Freedom of Information Act requirements stated in the requests, according to the lawsuit.

The move comes after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt commented during a press briefing with reporters last month that the Trump administration had not excluded stationing federal law enforcement at polling locations.

“I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November — that’s frankly a very silly hypothetical question,” Leavitt said. “But what I can tell you is I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations.”

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that “there are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations” during a heated hearing with lawmakers last week. She did not deny or confirm whether the Trump administration has decided to "rule out" the decision.

Another Trump official, Heather Honey, the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, reportedly said that there would be no federal agents involved in polling locations.

“There will be no ICE presence at polling locations for this election,” Honey said, according to a Times source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"The Democrats’ lawsuit suggests they are not convinced — and won’t be until they receive more concrete confirmation that no plans or discussions are underway," The Times reported.