Well, at least she avoided Sean Spicer’s fate.
The youngest White House press secretary to date, 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt, took to the podium for the first time on Tuesday with a similar obsequiousness to President Donald Trump, but unlike Spicer, thanks to last Monday’s indoor inauguration, was not forced to lie about the crowd size.
Leavitt quickly made clear that the James S. Brady briefing room will not be a place for contrition, backtracking, or apologies, beginning with an opening statement lauding Trump’s first week as historic. It was like her words were coming in through an earpiece connected to the Oval Office.
“Since taking the oath of office, President Trump has taken more than 300 executive actions, secured nearly $1 trillion in U.S. investments, deported illegal alien rapists, gang members, and suspected terrorists from our homeland, and restored common sense to the federal government,” said Leavitt.
She added that the new administration has ended what she called the “four-year-long invasion of illegal aliens” under the Biden administration.
Leavitt addressed “foreign nationals who are thinking about trying to enter the United States illegally,” directly.
“Under this President, you will be detained, and you will be deported,” she said.
The first Gen Z press secretary was also eager to prove that she’s not going to be afraid of taking potshots at former President Joe Biden. Something that has become a habit of Trump even though he is back in the White House.
“I would like to point out to each and every one of you that in 2024 when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure, egg prices increased 65 percent in this country,” she said.
She also claimed that “this President did more in the first 100 hours than the previous president did in the first 100 days” and that the Biden administration spent money “like a drunken sailor.”
The new White House spokesperson didn’t miss her chance to take aim at one of Trump’s favorite enemies, the media, by noting that trust in the mass media has reached a “record low,” according to Gallup.
With the administration’s “revolutionary media approach,” Leavitt urged podcasters, TikTokers, independent journalists, and other members of the “new media” to apply for White House passes.
A seat usually reserved for press staff will now be kept open for a member of the “new media” and Leavitt promised to give them the first question at each briefing.
A significant part of the first briefing focused on a freeze of federal loans and grants following a Monday memo from the Office of Management and Budget ordering federal agencies to freeze any federal assistance to give the Trump administration some time to review the funding and decide whether it adheres to the White House’s new policies - especially the curtailing of DEI.
“So what does this pause mean? It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the green new scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” she said, adopting large parts of Trump’s nomenclature.
She also appeared to adopt Trump’s lack of awareness of the consequences of many of his executive orders.
“Are you guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cut-off because of the policy?” David Sanger of The New York Times asked.
The response was as quick as it was devoid of information: “I’ll check back on that and get back to you.”
Leavitt praised Trump’s visit to disaster areas in North Carolina and California, essentially comparing his presence to the hand of God.
“I would point out that just days after President Trump visited the devastation from these fires, the water was turned on. That is because of the pressure campaign he put on state and local officials there, who clearly lack all common sense,” she said of California’s overwhelmingly Democratic top officials.
Similarly, she trumpeted the president’s temper tantrum after Colombia refused to allow military repatriation flights carrying deportees to land in the country. Trump immediately threatened Colombia with tariffs and visa sanctions on Sunday.
“As you saw, the Colombian government quickly folded and agreed to all of President Trump’s demands. Flights are underway once again,” said Leavitt.
The new White House spokesperson held her first briefing more than a week into the new administration, making clear that she will allow Trump to do most of the talking.
However, she avoided repeating former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham’s achievement of becoming the first spokesperson to never hold an actual briefing. But when asked how often she would appear in the briefing room, she demurred, avoiding answering the question but not without once again praising the commander-in-chief.
“The president, as you know, is incredibly accessible,” she said. “First day here, he wanted all of you in the Oval Office. You got a 60-minute press conference with the leader of the free world while he was simultaneously signing executive orders. I may add, that’s pretty impressive.”
Not being one to miss dinging Biden, she added: “I don’t think the previous officeholder would be able to pull such a thing off.”
“So look, the President is the best spokesperson that this White House has, and I can assure you that you will be hearing from both him and me, as much as possible,” said Leavitt.
