Karoline Leavitt's Biggest Blunders We Couldn't Ignore

Karoline Leavitt either isn't as competent as the Trump administration makes her out to be or she's in dire need of some sleep. President Donald Trump's press secretary, the youngest to ever serve the White House at only 27 years old, has been the subject of some hilarious headlines thanks to some blunders she made behind the podium, which, let's be honest, can get hotter than the seat behind the Resolute desk.

In what was likely an attempt to elevate herself as Trump's new press secretary, Leavitt sharply criticized her predecessor Karine Jeanne-Pierre. Jeanne-Pierre has made some history of her own in the White House, but Leavitt told reporters that Jeanne-Pierre had lied to them about former President Joe Biden's cognitive health and promised complete transparency during Trump's tenure. Whether she has kept this promise is debatable. Leavitt is one of Trump's biggest fans, which doesn't exactly make her impartial. "He's the best. He is generous, a great listener and storyteller, and seriously one of the funniest people I've ever met. I am honored to work for him," she once told her Instagram followers (via The Independent), adding that the president was just like her father who "came from nothing and worked his way up." In 2015, Trump told Today, "It's not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of $1 million" (via the Independent). If getting a $1 million loan from your father to kick off your career is "coming from nothing," us regular folks are really doing something wrong. 

Some have praised Leavitt's performance behind the podium, while others believe her to be just another one of Trump's yes men. Regardless, she's provided the public with ample opportunity to criticize her competence as press secretary.

Ever since her first press briefing in January 2025, pundits have had a lot of fun calling out Karoline Leavitt's makeup blunders. But during an address in early February, she managed to make an even bigger blunder when she created a brand-new word while answering journalists' burning questions. While addressing the high cost of groceries and why prices haven't gone down as President Donald Trump had promised, Leavitt referred to the "prices at the store and the grocery pump."

The moment had some netizens in stitches, with former RNC chairman Michael Steele taking to X, formerly Twitter, to write, "I want my prices at the 'grocery pump' to go down NOW! I can't afford the eggs I need to put into my tank." When the journalist asked Leavitt what the timeline for the drop in prices will be and whether "Americans [will] have the patience to wait for it," Leavitt didn't have a clear answer. "I don't have a timeline," she responded (via X). "But the president is doing everything that he possibly can to reduce cost of living for Americans at home." Not exactly the sort of answer that instills confidence in the folks watching at home.

The flub during the briefing spawned various headlines, with critics such as former reporter Tom Haudricort of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel questioning whether Leavitt might be "in over her head" (via Newsweek). One pundit, bless them, took to Bluesky to create an account for the newly-coined "grocery pump." The account bio reads, "Karoline Leavitt invented me. I pump out groceries at high prices." When your briefing blunder gets its own social media account, you know you really botched it.

President Donald Trump's felony convictions might have had unintended consequences on his businesses, but it sure didn't hinder him from making the White House his home once more. So, when Karoline Leavitt misspoke during a press briefing and accidentally indicated that Trump has no respect for the law, it resonated with a lot of people.

A journalist asked Leavitt whether Trump has any plans to direct the Justice Department to launch a probe into members who formed part of the January 6 Select Committee. Leavitt didn't really answer the question, instead replying, "We want to restore the Department of Justice to an institution that focuses on fighting law and order." Anyone who's kept an eye on Trump knows that this statement was at least partially true. "'Fighting law and order' — I think that pretty accurately describes what the DOJ under Donald Trump is doing. Thanks, Karoline," one pundit wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Well that's the first honest thing she's said so far," someone else weighed in on X.

Trump has been making good on Leavitt's misspoken statement, launching attacks against lawyers and law firms that are pursuing cases he'd rather see go away. Trump has already signed executive orders that targeted five big American law firms who were looking to file charges against him.

Usually, reporters will fact-check the White House press secretary after their briefing is done, but Karoline Leavitt's reputation took another hit when she was corrected by a reporter in real time. Leavitt was raging against District Judge James Boasberg, who threw a wrench into President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans when he blocked the president from continuing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. Leavitt dubbed Boasberg a Democratic activist, saying that former President Barack Obama had appointed him, but she was quickly corrected by a reporter who pointed out Boasberg was originally appointed by a Republican administration. "He was originally appointed by George W. Bush and elevated by Obama. Feel I should clear that up," the reporter interjected (via X).

Before the interruption, Leavitt argued that Boasberg was biased, citing his wife's generous contributions to Democratic campaigns. "He has consistently shown his disdain for this president and his policies, and it's unacceptable," Leavitt added. This, too, wasn't entirely true. Boasberg hasn't always been against Trump, in fact, he's the reason the Trump campaign managed to execute its smear campaign against Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election. Boasberg was the one who ordered that documents relating to Clinton's private email server be released. In response to the glaring blunder, former Republican Representative David Jolly told MSNBC that he's feeling rather pessimistic about where the country's headed. "I think critical thinking has largely died in the United States of America and Karoline Leavitt is probably a perfect example of that," he said.

Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been plagued by controversy, and when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, was accidentally added to a group chat where Hegseth and his team discussed military action in Yemen, all hell broke loose. Goldberg obviously got the scoop of the year, and the scandal has become known as Signalgate, in reference to the Signal app, which Hegseth and his team used to communicate.

The unpleasant job of explaining the whole mess to the public fell to Karoline Leavitt, who managed to make matters even worse when she dodged questions about the scandal. She abruptly ended her briefing, using Vice President JD Vance's upcoming address as an excuse. "Sorry it's a bit shorter today, guys," Leavitt said, as she practically ran from the podium (via The White House). Before making an abrupt exit, Leavitt blamed the entire mess on the Democrats: "If this story proves anything, it proves that Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well." She also slammed Goldberg for being an "anti-Trump hater." Leavitt reiterated that the blunder wasn't that bad because there were "no war plans discussed." Goldberg then took it upon himself to release some of the text messages that included some very detailed descriptions of planned drone strikes.

The following day, however, Leavitt did a complete 180. "We have never denied that this was a mistake, and the national security advisor took responsibility for that," Leavitt told reporters (via NBC News). It was rather remarkable how Leavitt went from placing the blame solely on Goldberg and Democrats to admitting members of Trump's cabinet had made a mistake.

Karoline Leavitt and CNN's Kaitlan Collins keep butting heads, but Collins once managed to get one over on Leavitt. The CNN journalist kept pestering the press secretary with questions about President Donald Trump's claim that the preemptive pardons former President Joe Biden issued for members of the January 6 Committee were null and void because they were signed with an autopen. Leavitt didn't have any evidence to back up Trump's assertion that the members pardoned themselves, a theory he peddled on Truth Social.

No clear evidence exists that Biden used an autopen to sign the pardons, nor is there any proof that he wasn't aware of the pardons being issued. When Collins asked Leavitt whether Trump had consulted with White House attorneys to determine if he could legally undo the pardons Biden issued, Leavitt deflected the question, instead going on about Biden being cognitively impaired. She proceeded to claim that Trump was simply questioning the authenticity of the pardons, even though his Truth Social post consisted of no speculation, only baseless accusations.

Collins responded, "But President Biden is on the record talking about issuing preemptive pardons to these people" (via NBC Montana). In what was arguably one of Leavitt's pettiest interactions with Collins, the press secretary insinuated that Biden might not have been aware of all the pardons that were issued. Collins asked if Leavitt had any evidence to back up her theories, to which she responded, "You're a reporter, you should find out." Er, technically if you're the White House press secretary, you're the one who should have the facts to back up your claims, but we'll digress.

In Trumpland, instant change is often promised, but the truth is that real change takes time. President Donald Trump promised American citizens that they'd no longer have to pay any taxes on tips should he become president. People have eagerly been waiting for this change to take effect, but then Karoline Leavitt caused some confusion when she accidentally told the White House press pool that Trump was going to reverse his "no taxes on tips" policy. "[The president] is committed to passing a big reconciliation package later this year, ending no taxes on tips," Leavitt told reporters (via X, formerly Twitter).

While some recognized that Leavitt misspoke and made good fun of the gaffe, others thought she meant it. "Many people have problems with double negatives, but Karoline Leavitt seems to struggle with single negatives," one pundit quipped via X. Other commenters mentioned how the president has yet to actually pass the legislation to make tips tax-free. "So, it won't happen? MAGA fell for it again," someone else chimed in (via X).

While Leavitt had indeed made a blunder, the truth was that there had been no word on the passing of the legislation that would allow for tax-free tips, and citizens' tax returns in 2025 still required them to pay their dues on tips earned. Experts have warned that while the policy sounds appealing, it could actually cause more harm than good. "No taxes on tips may have been a good political move to propose during the campaign, but it is certainly bad tax policy," Kyle Pomerleau, who works at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, told USA Today.

Karoline Leavitt was eager to tell Fox News just how deluded she found the Democrats who protested against the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in February 2025. Unfortunately, the only tidbit about her commentary most people remembered was the part where she made a glaring grammatical error.

"Clearly the Democrats learned nothing from their devastating defeat on November 5th because this is exactly what the American people voted for," Leavitt started (via X, formerly Twitter), citing all the people who had lost their jobs due to DOGE deeming their work unimportant. "President Trump campaigned alongside Elon Musk, and President Trump promised voters on the campaign that he was going to make our government more efficiency." Whoopsie. Leavitt clearly meant to say "more efficient," but she appeared blissfully unaware that she'd misspoken, as she continued her interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity — though, Hannity has weathered some embarrassing on-air blunders of his own.

Netizens quickly hopped on X to point out Leavitt's blunder. "Make English Great Again," one sarcastic comment read. Another user wrote, "Her lies have her tongue tied. Leavitt is a disaster." Some even joked that, given her bad grammar during the interview, Leavitt must have attended Trump's now-defunct university.

One would think that, given the number of times she's been called out for her blunders, Karoline Leavitt would be extra careful to get her facts (and grammar) straight, but in early March 2025, she made yet another embarrassing mistake on Fox News. Leavitt was hyping up President Donald Trump's address to Congress, praising First Lady Melania Trump's stellar guest list; only, she indicated that the first lady had invited someone who is no longer alive. "There will be everyday American heroes in attendance ... you have Corey Comperatore, who lost his life protecting his family in Butler, Pennsylvania ... President Trump will be telling their stories tonight," she told the outlet (via The Daily Express).

Comperatore died protecting his family from flying bullets during the attempted assassination on Trump in July 2024 during a Pennsylvania rally. His wife, Helen Comperatore, told the BBC in October 2024 that she was still traumatized by the events of that day. "I'm angry because there were a lot of mistakes made that day, and it didn't have to happen," she said. Leavitt accidentally suggesting that the late Comperatore would be present at Trump's address to Congress couldn't exactly have been helpful to his grieving widow.

As soon as Leavitt's slip-up hit the airwaves, netizens took to X, formerly Twitter, to once again poke fun at the press secretary. "She is saying so many things each day, she must be right at least once soon!" one pundit wrote. An enraged citizen took to the platform to condemn the blunder, citing it as proof of the Trump administration's ineptitude.

As DOGE turned the country on its head, reporters were starting to get antsy with Karoline Leavitt about who was really running the Department of Government Efficiency after weeks of evasion from the Trump administration. Most suspected it was tech billionaire and President Donald Trump's right-hand man Elon Musk, but the White House vehemently denied these claims amid questions about how much authority and power Musk really had. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer even applauded the blurred lines within which DOGE and Musk have been authorized to operate. "I think the lack of parameters is part of what will make them effective," he told the BBC.

As Leavitt fielded questions from the press about who the administrator of DOGE is, it seemed she didn't know either. "I've been asked and answered this question. Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE ... There are career officials at DOGE, there are political appointees at DOGE. I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium. I'm happy to follow up and provide that to you," she said (via PBS NewsHour). It was the last bit that seemed to indicate Leavitt had no idea who was in charge.

Not long after Leavitt failed to name the DOGE administrator, the Trump administration seemed to realize what a bad look it was and swiftly announced that the former advisor for the U.S. Digital Service, Amy Gleason, was acting as the organization's administrator. It's unclear if Gleason was aware of her role, given that she was in Mexico when the announcement was made. The following day, Leavitt called reporters "hounds" when they asked why Gleason's role was news to DOGE employees.

After President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on various countries, the stock market went into free fall. Despite panicked headlines and reports, Karoline Leavitt took to X, formerly Twitter, to write, "GREAT NEWS! The economy is starting to roar ... The president's push to onshore jobs here in the United States is working. The Golden Age of America is on its way!"

Leavitt's statement stood in stark contrast with what was happening in real time, with economists warning the country could find itself on the brink of a recession should Trump's tariffs stay in place. "We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation," Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told CNN in April 2025. "While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent."

Perplexed pundits also called Leavitt out for what they believed to be a blatant lie. "Unemployment is up to 4.2%, the stock markets are in chaos and Trump is golfing with the Saudis," one user wrote on X. Actress Rachel True also weighed in, not mincing any words in response to Leavitt's post: "Are you high? Or just a compulsive liar?" When Trump eventually pivoted and paused tariffs (except those imposed on China), Leavitt made the politician's flip-flopping out as a grand plan. "Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal, you clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here," she said (via X). One perplexed pundit responded on X, "Or maybe he realized what he was doing is stupid."