Looking Back on Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Greatest Hits

Karoline Leavitt officially wrapped up her tenure as White House Press Secretary on Thursday, leaving behind a trailblazing legacy in the position that only 36 individuals have held since President Herbert Hoover created the post in 1929.

In addition to being the youngest press secretary ever at just 27 years old when she took the job, Leavitt also made history as the first person to be pregnant and have a child while serving in the role. She and her husband welcomed a daughter, Viviana, in May. The pair also have a son together.

Leavitt announced earlier this month that she would be departing the White House to spend more time with her young family. However, President Trump said in a Truth Social post that Leavitt would still be “one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”

Regardless of her future endeavors, Leavitt will always be remembered as the press secretary who, more than anyone before her, was willing to call out media dishonesty and expose misleading narratives. While never shying away from tough questions, she used the White House podium as a vehicle to circumvent the legacy press and speak directly to the American people on behalf of the President.

Leavitt also notably eroded the stranglehold that corporate media journalists have long held over information channels, establishing a “new media” seat at the front of the White House Press Briefing Room to give a voice to alternative outlets – including AMAC Newsline.

But what Leavitt will undoubtedly be remembered for most are her stinging rebukes of liberal media reporters, many of which quickly went viral on social media. Here are a few of her greatest hits worth looking back on.

“You shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”

While Leavitt was willing to take questions from any reporter and any outlet, she flat-out refused to let anyone turn her briefing room into a platform to advance their personal political agenda.

This past January, when a journalist attempted to trap Leavitt with a “gotcha” question about ICE efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens, Leavitt let him have it.

“You’re a left-wing hack – you’re not a reporter,” she said. “You’re posing in this room as a journalist... You and the people in the media who have such biases but fake like you're a journalist – you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat.”

“It’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now.”

In March 2025, Leavitt blasted a low-ranking French politician who made headlines for demanding that the United States return the Statue of Liberty. Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt if Trump would indeed give Lady Liberty back to France.

“Absolutely not,” Leavitt responded with a smile. “And, my advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So, they should be very grateful to our great country.”

“All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore they are criminals.”

One of Leavitt’s most refreshing qualities was her ability to clearly and forcefully articulate the truth while dispensing with all notions of political correctness. This was on display during her very first press briefing in January 2025, when a reporter asked her how many criminals arrested by the Trump administration “had criminal records.”

“All of them, because they broke our nation’s laws, and therefore they are criminals as far as this administration goes,” Leavitt retorted. “I know the last administration didn’t see it that way so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are.”

This exchange was a moment of catharsis for conservatives and every American who cares about protecting the country’s borders after four years of the Biden administration denying this basic fact.

“You would think we deported a candidate for father of the year.”

Immediately following the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in 2025, the media began a campaign to portray the suspected gang member as a hard-working, law-abiding citizen and devoted father. But during a press briefing in June of that year, Leavitt brought the receipts to dispel that narrative.

“Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year,” Leavitt said. As she went on to explain, “Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’– Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable.”

“What a stupid question.”

In response to anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, Democrats and the media suggested that President Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard after local law enforcement was overwhelmed was an attack on free speech and the right to peaceably assemble. One reporter even went so far as to ask Leavitt if Trump supports peaceful protest.

“Of course the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question,” Leavitt responded. Enough said.

“When Joe Biden was in the Oval Office – or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure…”

During a press briefing in January 2025, when one reporter attempted to pin the rising cost of eggs on Trump, Leavitt did not hesitate to fire back and call out the hypocrisy of the media for failing to be critical of cost increases under the Biden administration.

“I’m really glad you brought this up because there is a lot of reporting out there that is putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs,” she said. “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 we also have seen the cost of everything, not just eggs – bacon, groceries, gasoline – increase because of the inflationary policies of the last administration.”

“I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap, and I know the American people don't either.”

After Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Democrats and the media tried to claim that USAID only funded useful humanitarian programs.

But Leavitt dismantled that narrative in less than one minute, bringing literal receipts proving that USAID was acting as little more than a left-wing slush fund.

“These are some of the insane priorities that organization has been spending money on,” she said. “$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces; $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland; $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia; $32,000 for a transgender comic book. I don't know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don't want my dollars going toward this crap, and I know the American people don't either, and that's exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do, get the fraud, waste, and abuse out of our federal government.”

The media was refusing to report on what USAID was actually funding, so Leavitt did their job for them.

“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions.”

In response to the AP’s insistence on continuing to call the Gulf of America the Gulf of Mexico after Trump renamed it, the White House barred the outlet from the select group of reporters with permanent access to the Oval Office and Air Force One, prompting outrage from other media outlets. When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Leavitt about the decision during a White House press briefing, she didn’t hold back.

“It is a privilege to cover this White House,” she said. “Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions.”

“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I am not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is,” Leavitt continued. “Apple has recognized that, Google has recognized that, pretty much every other outlet in this room has recognized that.”

“Decline is a choice. You don’t have to live in constant fear of being robbed, raped, or murdered.”

President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to crime hotspots nationwide, including the capital city, proved what conservatives have argued for decades – that chaos and decay are a policy choice, and not an inevitable fact of life. Leavitt made that point bluntly in a briefing last August.

“This is our message to Americans in Democrat-run cities nationwide: decline is a choice,” she said. “You don’t have to live in constant fear of being robbed, raped, or murdered. Your leaders are lying to you – and they have been failing you for decades.”

Over the course of just 18 months, Karoline Leavitt set a new standard for the White House Press Secretary and mirrored the indomitable spirit of the President who entrusted her to be his spokeswoman. While her departure is undoubtedly a significant loss for the administration, odds are this won’t be the last time Americans see her in front of a camera – or fiercely defending the America First agenda.