Why Karoline Leavitt is so annoying
Few voices in the MAGA-sphere make me want to flip the channel more than Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Only the grating voice of Donald Trump himself can make me dive faster for the remote as I promise myself that I'll read the transcript later, because it's my job as a journalist to know today's official White House lies. I love being on Greg Sargent's New Republic podcast, but I often have to steel myself because I know what clip he'll play for me: Leavitt scolding reporters like she's the uber-Karen, dressing down a waitress for putting three ice cubes in her tea instead of the requested two.
Judging by social media, my irrepressible loathing of Leavitt's smug visage and pompous voice makes me typical of my demographic: progressive, college-educated women between the ages of 25 and 65. Among this set on Instagram and TikTok, making fun of Leavitt is a popular sport. I would like to report that her critics take the high road of focusing on her job as spokesperson for a wannabe dictator, but mostly it's just about how weird and annoying she is. She's mocked for having one mode: perpetual tight-lipped outrage, as if she wants to call management on literally every person she meets.
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Women enjoy insulting Leavitt, who is only 27, for marrying a wealthy man who is more than twice her age and with whom, she admits, she has almost nothing in common. When she posted a picture with her husband and baby, she got flooded with sarcastic comments like "Look at the baby with his grandpa" and "gold digger." She's also frequently called stupid or clueless.
And women really, really love making fun of her clothes.
Not that anyone should feel sorry for Leavitt. The more women lash out at her like this online, the harder she leans into her bizarre act. It's as if she's been designed in a lab to irritate feminists. She's young, talented and, before "Mar-a-Lago face" started to creep up on her, she was beautiful. Leavitt could have done whatever she wanted, but instead she pretends to be a figure who only exists in right-wing male fantasies. There's no doubt she is smart, but she plays dumb to parrot the gaslighting talking points of the day. If she released her own brand of perfume, it would be called "Complicity."
All this is almost certainly by design. As journalist Moira Donegan noted on the "Daily Blast," MAGA is a "political movement that has the ethos of internet trolls" dominated by "the desire to provoke and upset the imagined audience of liberals." Leavitt's official job is to speak for the president. Her actual job, however, is to keep the mostly male MAGA base invigorated by demonstrating the White House's powers at annoying the women they resent. Trump may be jacking up inflation and joining Israel in a doomed war with Iran, but hey, at least she makes the feminists mad. If MAGA men squint hard enough, they can even pretend that all the online mockery of Leavitt is "just jealousy."
Leavitt understands that her main assignment is trolling, and not just because she talks to professional journalists like they're nothing but a bunch of hacks. One reason I can confidently assert that she's not as dumb as she acts is she's undeniably swift when barfing up bad faith retorts, usually to innocent questions she's just pretending are "attacks."
When asked if Trump would sign a proclamation celebrating Pride, for instance, she sneered, "There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June, but I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed." Of course, no one believes this, unless "American" is defined solely as people who voted for Trump — but the obviousness of the lie is the point. She's showing off her gaslighting skills, and her fans adore it.
When asked last week about the newest federal holiday, Juneteenth, Leavitt gloried in the opportunity to dismiss the celebration of the end of slavery. "I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We are working 24/7 right now," she said with a mocking laugh, refusing to acknowledge that Trump had the time to sign a proclamation about the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. It certainly was a more elegant form of racist dog-whistling than what Trump coughed up as his fake reason for hating the holiday. "Too many non-working holidays in America," the alleged champion of the working class bleated on Truth Social.
Leavitt's not just a more clever troll than her boss, but she has more courage. Before Saturday's airstrikes on Iran, Trump was caught between warring factions of MAGA on the question of joining Israel's war. After days of conflicting statements and prevaricating, he sent Leavitt out to offer a message that was sure to make everyone mad: He will decide in "two weeks."
beyond parody -- Trump, through Karoline Leavitt, announces he'll make his decision about whether to strike Iran "within the next two weeks"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
It was a Leavitt classic: she spouted utter nonsense with total conviction. As many people immediately pointed out, "two weeks" is the standard Trump tactic to avoid offering opinions or making decisions that he worries could anger people he wants to impress. Asked about abortion or health care or any topic that might lose him support, he claims he'll answer in "two weeks," hoping — usually correctly — that the journalist won't circle back around and ask again.
In the grand tradition of professional anti-feminists dating back to Phyllis Schlafly, Leavitt has found that the key to success is attacking the progressivism that allows her to have a career at all. Worse, she treats progressives as a well of outrage she can draw from, whenever the MAGA masses need evidence that Trump is triggering the liberals.
I don't want to dissuade anyone from making fun of Leavitt. First, it's fun, which needs no justification. More importantly, the mockery is working, especially as a long-term strategy. Yes, Trump voters get the sugar high of knowing they've angered some feminists. But in reading the comments sections of various social media posts where people were fighting about Leavitt, it became clear that conservative women find her embarrassing. Their defenses of her were weak and mealy-mouthed, mostly lame assertions that she's a good Christian — which is hard to square with all the lying. These debates, especially if witnessed by younger women who haven't fully made up their minds about their political identities, help to instill a sense that being a handmaiden of patriarchy is cringeworthy. No one wants to be like Karoline Leavitt, old before her time, and spending all her time around cranky, Fox News-addled senior citizens. She may make a certain kind of man happy, but to women, the ultimate message is clear: Being MAGA robs you of your youth, beauty and talent, and replaces them with a lifetime of service to the worst men.
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