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Karoline Leavitt appears to expose Trump's 'I didn't do it' claim after Obama post
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments about Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts are raising questions in light of a recent controversy involving a racist video shared by the president.
On Wednesday, Leavitt was asked about a post on Trump’s Truth Social account criticizing Britain’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while keeping a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.
The 28-year-old responded that the post should be considered official policy: "It’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth. When you see it on Truth Social, you know it’s directly from President Trump."
Leavitt called that the “beauty” of the 79-year-old's presidency and a sign of his “transparency.”
However, her statement has confused many, especially after Trump’s response to an offensive video he posted earlier this month, which depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The footage sparked outrage, with both Democrats and Republicans condemning the racist imagery.
Trump eventually deleted the video, but he did not apologize and instead distanced himself from responsibility.
He told reporters aboard Air Force One on February 6: "I didn’t do it, by the way. This was done by somebody else," per HuffPost.
He alleged that he had only seen part of the video, which he described as being about "fraudulent elections," and passed it along without realizing the racist segment.
"I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it," he added. "Somebody slipped and missed a very small part."
Social Media Reactions
Leavitt’s strong defense of Trump’s social media posts contradicts the president’s attempt to avoid accountability for the racist video.
Critics quickly took to social media to highlight the inconsistency, with journalist Mehdi Hasan writing: "'You know it's directly from President Trump' So the Obamas as apes? Directly from President Trump. She said it."
Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office chimed in: “Unless it’s racist. Then suddenly a staffer grabbed his phone," while Chuck Schumer reacted, “And now @PressSec confirms: Donald Trump posted the racist video of the Obamas.”
Meanwhile, a critic commented: "Pathetic. When it helps him, every post is 'official presidential policy.' When it backfires, suddenly it’s 'some staffer.'"
They added, "Accountability that disappears on demand isn’t leadership. It’s a magic trick with nuclear codes. If no one knows who’s actually speaking, who’s actually in charge?"
Obama Responds to Racist Video
The controversy over the video and Trump’s lack of accountability prompted a strong reaction from Obama, who spoke out about the incident in a recent interview with Brian Tyler Cohen.
While the 64-year-old didn't mention Trump by name, he referred to both the social media posts and the administration’s public behaviors as a "clown show" and expressed concern about what he sees as a decline in standards tied to the presidency.
"It's important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling," he said, per BBC News. "It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction."
"There's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television," he continued.
"And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? That's been lost," he concluded.