White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House
Karoline Leavitt has been living up to a new nickname she was given following her first White House press briefing as she’s accused of making a disgraceful attempt to spin the Trump administration’s Signal group chat scandal.
The White House press secretary – who recently showed off what a day in her life looks like – was first dubbed the “spinmeister” by CNN back in January as she was accused of spinning information about a pause on federal grants and loans when she said payments for Social Security, Medicare and food stamps would not be affected but didn’t say what would happen to nonprofit programs like Meals on Wheels.
“It’s a classic spinmeister tactic saying I answered that when you haven’t answered it and apparently can’t answer it right away,” CNN’s fact-checker Daniel Dale said.
But the 27-year-old’s latest spin attempt has backfired as she now appears to have made a spectacular U-turn after critics accused her of lying. After The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal messaging app group in which top government officials discussed plans for strikes in Yemen, Leavitt attempted to change the narrative.
During a fiery White House briefing on Wednesday the press secretary told reporters: “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.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt arrives to hold the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)© AFP via Getty Images
She called Goldberg’s piece a “sensationalized story from the failing Atlantic magazine” while attempting to smear the reporter and doubling down on claims that no classified information was leaked.
Leavitt snapped at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins when asked about the ongoing scandal before abruptly cutting the volatile press conference short.
However, Wednesday’s comments mark a stark contrast from what Leavitt said about the Signal chat the following day. While speaking to reporters briefly after appearing on Fox and Friends on Thursday, Leavitt said: “Well, we have never denied that this was a mistake, and the national security advisor took responsibility for that.”
Washington, DC – March 20 : White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing at the White House on Thursday, March 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)© The Washington Post via Getty Images
She continued: “And we have said we are making changes. We are looking into the matter to ensure it can never happen again.” The drastic shift has only fuelled accusations that she was lying or attempting to spin the incident.
Critics have taken to X to condemn the press secretary’s actions. One used her nickname as they wrote: “Gaslighter or spinmeister, this person lies as much if not more than her boss, and that’s not a compliment.” Another came up with a new nickname: “Karoline Leavitt, the queen of spin, accuses a journalist of spin.”
A third posted: “Karoline Leavitt would spin Hitler as Mother Theresa,” while one person wrote: “Karoline Leavitt’s defense of Trump’s reckless declassification is a disgrace. She’s lying to cover for an administration that put soldiers at risk, her job is to spin, not to protect. Shameful.”
