Speaking during a Wednesday, February 26 interview on the “Ruthless” podcast, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt joked about the media’s reaction to the Trump Administration “genuinely having so much fun.” Namely, she mocked them for their berserk reaction to the matter and attempt to drive a wedge between Elon and Trump.
Beginning her mockery of the media, she noted what the media is trying to do as it obsesses over the Trump-Elon relationship. He said, “I think that’s something the press are having a hard time with. We are genuinely having so much fun, and this is why you’re seeing them obsess over Elon Musk and President Trump, and they’re trying so hard but failing to drive a wedge in that relationship, because they love those sensational stories of trying to pin people against each other.”
Continuing, she noted that the White House staff is having a great time bringing some big and much-needed change to America, saying, “As staff and the president himself is having the time of his life, I mean, he loves doing these Oval Office press conferences.”
Leavitt then added that Trump is, much in contrast to Biden, a very accessible president who will take the media’s questions. She said, “I mean that is the most accessible president we’ve ever had, and it’s a question on every topic under the sun, and again he did it with his entire cabinet sitting around him, the transparency and the accessibility, and they don’t say it on the air, but they will tell you off the record that they are pleased with that.”
Leavitt also commented on why a number of “new media” influencers, podcasters, and the like have been brought into the White House Briefing Room. She said, “This goes back to the non-traditional media strategy that Donald Trump owned and won on the campaign trail.”
Explaining what she meant by that, Leavitt noted that the Trump Campaign’s success on the 2024 campaign trail was characterized by his “sitting down with podcasts, influencers, comedians and owning that space, because no other politician has ever done that before.”
She added, noting the benefits brought by having so many new and different faces in the briefing room, “And he was able to reach so many people across the country who otherwise would have never heard his honest message and who he really is as a person because the coverage of him has always been through the bias of the legacy media.”
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Concluding, she mocked the idea that the changes made to who is brought into the briefing room have created an environment that is only promoting favorable coverage of President Trump. She said, “The legacy media is still in the briefing room. I take questions from CNN just as much as I take questions from our great conservative friends who don’t have seats in that room, that have to stand on the sides for hours just to have a spot in there.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video