Karoline Leavitt announced this week she was stepping down from her role as White House Press Secretary. From her combative relationship with the press to viral moments which have made her infamous, here is a lookback at her most divisive moments behind the podium.
The Trump administration unexpectedly lost its megaphone this week, with the news of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt resigning from her post to spend more time with her family.
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Some have joked that her departure came days after Donald Trump left her and several members of his cabinet on a decoy plane that was supposedly targeted by a terrorist threat, while he was smuggled onto a secret flight out of Turkey.
The official line is that Leavitt will leave for personal reasons, saying on social media that since the birth of her second child, she’d realized she "cannot be the best mom" while devoting the “constant time, energy, and attention,” her job requires.
Regardless, what is certain is that she has outlasted many of her predecessors like Sean Spicer and Kayleigh McEnany. Throughout her 18-month tenure, the 28-year-old - and youngest person to ever hold the job - has proven to be a valuable asset for Donald Trump, who described her as "one of my most trusted aides".
She's also been incredibly divisive. For some, she's a staunch and unwavering Trump loyalist; others describe her as a dishonest and verbally abusive MAGA zealot.
The news of her quitting has been met with both disappointment from Trump's base, who know he will have a hard time replacing someone so fiercely dedicated to defending him throughout his many controversies, and cheers from those who routinely refer to her as "KKKaroline Leavitt".
Her time behind the White House podium has not been without controversy.
Whether it's attacking journalists and wishing to control press access to the White House, affirming proven falsehoods or hyperbolically praising Trump's achievements when opening her briefings, here is a lookback at five of Leavitt's most contentious moments.
Condoms in Gaza
Even some of Karoline Leavitt's harshest critics have admitted that her vociferous defence of Trump has been impressive by the administration's standards. Some have also pointed out online that her deviations from facts and the truth have made then-Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" look innocent by comparison.
At her first-ever White House briefing, Leavitt announced that the Trump administration had foiled a plan to use taxpayer dollars to "fund condoms in Gaza.”
She stated that DOGE and the US Office of Management and Budget had “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”
Trump repeated the claim, but added that the condoms were for Hamas.
Leavitt’s comments made headlines around the world - specifically because there was no evidence offered for this outlandish federal plan to spend millions on condoms in Gaza. Experts on US aid to Gaza and global health aid were baffled by the claim, with Steve Fake, a spokesperson for aid nonprofit Anera, telling CNN at the time that there was “definitely no purchase of condoms”.
“We have asked around, and no one is sure what this is referring to.”
The Associated Press beef
In March 2025, AP reporter Josh Boak challenged Leavitt over Trump’s tariff policy, arguing that tariffs function as taxes on importers.
“He’s actually not implementing tax hikes,” said Leavitt. “Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the President is a staunch advocate of tax cuts.”
Boak pushed back by saying: “I’m sorry, 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 by calling the question “insulting” and added: “I now regret giving a question to The Associated Press.”
For context, the exchange occurred during a broader dispute between the Trump administration and AP over the press agency's terminology.
Indeed, the Trump administration blocked them from accessing press events due to AP continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its actual title, as opposed to Trump's desire to rename it the "Gulf of America".
“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America," said Leavitt, who defended AP's restrictions by saying she was holding news outlets accountable for reporting "lies".
The sanctions on AP were later lifted, but the incidents proved how keen Leavitt was on taking control over the press pool system, wishing to arbitrate who got access and who didn't. She later added MAGA personalities to the permanent press corps – podcasters and allies who didn't fall under her description of media outlets: "The press does only want to make the president look bad. That's it. That’s a fact."
Critics described these attempts as the "introduction of propagandists" and a way of undermining the core functions of the "Fourth Estate".
Leavitt defended herself and the administration by saying it was part of an effort to broaden access beyond traditional news organizations.
The viral "Your mom" jab
Leavitt has constantly sparred with journalists she deemed to be "left-wing extremists" or "Trump haters", but one exchange went down like a lead balloon – leading many to label the president's inner circle as “moronic”, “childish” and “juvenile”.
Leavitt went viral last October when she shared an image of a text exchange with the HuffPost’s White House correspondent, S.V Dáte, on X.
At the time, Trump was planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary.
"Is the president aware of the significance of Budapest?” asked Dáte in his message to Leavitt, adding: “In 1994, Russia promised, in Budapest, not to invade Ukraine if it gave up the nuclear weapons it inherited when the Soviet Union dissolved. Does he not see why Ukraine might object to that site?”
Dáte finished the message with the question “Who suggested Budapest?”, followed by a polite “Thanks.”
Leavitt replied: “Your mom did.”
She followed that up by labelling Dáte as a “far-left hack who nobody takes seriously" and added: “Stop texting me your disingenuous, biased, and bulls*** questions."
In one trending reply, Leavitt showed to what extent she was keen to dismiss the press' function of holding presidents to account, and how little she cared about being measured in her responses to journalists she saw as being "anti-Trump".
The response also saw countless commentators online highlighting the hypocrisy of accusing a journalist of lacking seriousness and professionalism for a newsworthy question and answering with a reply more commonly found in playgrounds.
The Epstein files: A "hoax"
Last November, Leavitt described the Epstein files as a “hoax that is being perpetuated by opportunistic Democrats”.
She went on to say that Trump knew Epstein because they both lived in Palm Beach and that Trump kicked him out of his Mar-a-Lago club because “Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile and he was a creep.”
Earlier this year, in February, reporters pressed Leavitt about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein, as Lutnick had acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 - despite previously saying he had ended the relationship years earlier.
Leavitt immediately responded by defending the Commerce Secretary as "a very important member of President Trump’s team" before criticising reporters for their questions.
“I will just point out that there are a lot of wins in the news this week that people in this room have not asked about because you continue to ask questions about the same subject so let me point them out for you,” Leavitt said.
She then began to recite recent stock market results and abruptly ended the press briefing with: “The President is very busy today and you will see him all tomorrow at the event in the East Room touting his Administration’s energy policy.”
She walked off stage to the bafflement of the press pool.
The ICE question by a "left-wing hack"
In January 2026, The Hill columnist Niall Stanage questioned Leavitt about ICE, following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent.
Stanage listed statistics that 32 people died while in ICE custody in 2025 before referencing Good’s death.
Leavitt asked him: “Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?”
Stanage replied: “Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.”
Leavitt's response was seen my many as deflection 101 and unacceptable.
“Okay, so you’re a biased reporter with a leftwing opinion,” she said. “Because you’re a leftwing hack. You’re not a reporter, you’re posing in this room as a journalist. And it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people of the media who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist - you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”
“You’re pretending like you’re a journalist, but you’re a leftwing activist,” she continued. “The question that you just raised and your answer proves you’re biased. You should be reporting on the facts.”
Leavitt will depart from the position as White House Press Secretary at the end of August. As of writing, there is no indication on who her replacement will be.
