There’s the Karoline Leavitt who stands at the White House podium, and there’s the one who apparently exists everywhere else. This week, in a hair salon chair mid-roller-set, she confirmed which one is the act.
It surfaced on her hair and makeup artist Brittany Danielle’s Instagram Stories, in a clip titled “glam session confessional,” where Danielle asked her something nobody had ever posed at an actual briefing: “What is something about you that nobody knows, other than the people that are close to you?” Leavitt laughed, stalled for a second, and landed on: “I don’t think people realize that I am silly. I’m funny, I think.”
Pushed to rate herself on a scale of one to ten, she clapped and gave what amounted to the real answer. “Well, because when I’m out of the podium I’m getting after it. But I’m not like that in real life, so you know, you just have to get to know me to know the real me.”
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That’s a notable thing to admit out loud, considering “getting after it” is practically the entire brand she’s built as press secretary.
That admission didn’t sit well with a lot of people.
“Just another Trump enabler playing her part so he can wreak havoc on what was the greatest nation on Earth,” wrote Clayton S.
Others piled on.
User-26t0iprput wrote: “Immaturity at its finest. She is the epitome of this administration. All hired because of who they know and how they’ll all swallow their pride for power. It’s why we’re in such a mess.”
Stephen Provost kept his response short: “A twit, airhead, bimbo, etc. Got more to add?”
Mel Pfeiffer widened the criticism beyond Leavitt herself, writing: “‘Central casting’ scraped the bottom of the barrel for this president and his entire sycophantic administration.”
Sean from VA also weighed in: “So admittedly fake and full of BS, thinking venomous and lying to the American people is all just fun and games. Pathetic at the highest level.”
William Brown took a different approach, turning Leavitt’s own words into a joke: “I’m actually a big, silly goose…I only lie to the American public for money.”
Those reactions landed because they clashed with the image Leavitt has carefully cultivated.
Trump has called her a “superstar” and praised what he’s described as her “machine gun” delivery. At 28, the youngest press secretary in history, Leavitt has spent the past eighteen months projecting confidence, whether defending Trump’s “quiet, piggy” remark to a Bloomberg reporter or floating plans to revoke credentials from outlets she considers hostile.
From the outside, none of it has ever looked like an act, which is why hearing her describe it that way caught so many people off guard.
Featured image via Instagram screengrab
