Karoline Leavitt instantly made history when she took the job of White House Press Secretary. After all, she’s the youngest person to ever hold this prestigious position! However, based on how she’s conducted herself so far, she is well on her way to becoming the most infamous secretary in Washington history.
She’s the press secretary for Donald Trump, a man who became a popular politician largely because he ignores the rules of decorum and always speaks his mind. His style seems to have rubbed off on Leavitt, as she never hesitates to say what’s on her mind, especially to those who anger her. This has led to more than a few incidents where we questioned how she got the job in the first place.
What incidents are we talking about? Keep reading to discover Karoline Leavitt’s most wildly unprofessional moments as press secretary!
Suddenly ending a press briefing
When you get right down to it, the most important job of a White House press secretary is answering questions. Anyone can deliver news, but not just anyone can provide answers to the toughest questions from a room full of reporters. On one memorable occasion, however, Karoline Leavitt proved that the press secretary has another option: namely, running from questions that are just too hard to answer!
Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made headlines for sharing war plans via the third-party app Signal. It would have been scandalous enough that he was using such an unsecured and unapproved app, but National Security Adviser Michael Waltz somehow managed to invite Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat. Goldberg subsequently wrote about the experience, letting the entire world know just how sloppy the American government was with military plans.
When reporters questioned her about this event, Karoline Leavitt doubled down and blamed Goldberg for everything. And when she kept getting questions about the scandal (already dubbed “Signalgate”), she abruptly ended the press conference altogether rather than address the reporters’ persistent questions.
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Calling reporters children
As the above story illustrates, Karoline Leavitt has often had an adversarial relationship with the journalists who attend her press briefings. Still, even when she doesn’t really respect them, the press secretary still treats them like adults. However, that went out the window earlier this year when she ended up calling a bunch of reporters children to their faces.
In February 2025, reporters visiting the White House got the chance to speak with both National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. The journalists were excited to ask questions and began speaking faster and faster, often talking over one another. According to The National Desk, Leavitt responded by saying, “Guys, let’s act like adults here. They are generously offering their time to answer your questions, you don’t need to scream at them like a bunch of schoolchildren.”
This was rude in and of itself, and as the Independent reports, she later called reporters inquiring about who ran DOGE (and why they were seemingly lied to about it) as “hounds in the media.” From calling them children to calling them animals, it seems like Leavitt just can’t stop dehumanizing her fellow reporters.
Throwing a tantrum over pronouns
Karoline Leavitt’s combative attitude often mirrors Donald Trump, the man who gave her this prestigious position. One stark example of this involves her weird fixation on pronouns. When a reporter from The New York Times emailed her, the press secretary responded by writing back, “As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios.” She spoke more about this policy to The Washington Post, saying, “Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story.”
Obviously, her thoughts mirror the anxiety that Trump and many conservatives seem to have about pronoun use and how some may identify as a different gender than their biological sex. However, simply refusing to speak with someone for having pronouns in their email is deeply unprofessional, especially because someone with a relatively gender neutral name (like Kris or Joey) might simply include pronouns in their signature so that those they contact aren’t confused about who they are speaking to.
At any rate, this was a moment that left all but the most fervent Trump/Leavitt supporters asking a simple question: why are we supposed to care about this at all?
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An ongoing beef with AP News
While Karoline Leavitt seems to hate many of the reporters she has to regularly deal with, she apparently has major beef with those working for the AP News. For example, the press secretary took to X (formerly Twitter) after AP journalist Tara Copp posted about DOGE firing Federal Aviation Administration workers. She claimed that afterward, DOGE’s Facebook account harassed her; afterward, Leavitt claimed DOGE doesn’t have a Facebook account and never fired FAA employees, two statements that seem to be factually incorrect.
Later, as Diario AS reports, Josh Boak asked the press secretary a simple question about the effects of Donald Trump’s tariffs. “Have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have. They don’t get charged on foreign companies, they get charged on the importers.” Leavitt replied, “I think it’s insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press.”
It’s an emotional response that didn’t really address his question at all. Unfortunately, this seems to be what Karoline Leavitt continues to bring to the table: plenty of anger and not nearly enough facts.