President Donald Trump has made an offbeat comment about White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s appearance while on Air Force One.
The president, 79, was talking to reporters after leaving Israel following the release of hostages as part of the Middle East ceasefire agreement.
Towards the end of a 15-minute gaggle with the press, Trump swung from discussing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to land on Leavitt’s facial features.
“How’s Karoline doing? Is she doing good?” Trump asked the reporters.
He then asked the press, “Should Karoline be replaced?”
When one reporter replied, “That’s up to you, sir,” Trump quickly stated, “It’ll never happen. That face… and those lips, they move like a machine gun, right?”
Leavitt, 28, was also on the presidential plane, posting a photo on her X account calling Trump the “Hardest working POTUS ever.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
It is not the first time Trump has made the bizarre analogy about his press secretary’s lips and ammunition.
In August, in an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty, he said almost the same thing.
“She’s become a star,” Trump said of Leavitt. “It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun… She’s a star and she’s great.”
“She’s a great person, actually,” he added. “But she’s–I don’t think anybody has ever had a better press secretary than Karoline. She’s been amazing.”
Leavitt first worked for Trump in his first administration as an assistant press secretary from 2019 to 2021.
After a failed congressional election bid, she began working for Trump in January 2024 as his national press secretary during his election campaign.
After Trump appointed her to her current position last year, she became the youngest press secretary in White House history.
She married real estate developer Nicholas Riccio, despite a 31-year age gap, in January—days before Trump’s second inauguration.
Earlier this month, Leavitt upgraded to one of the largest offices in the White House after it was vacated by Taylor Budowich, one of Trump’s deputy chiefs of staff.
