Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tore into the media’s handling of Trump’s recent negotiations with Russia, Ukraine, and European leaders during a White House briefing Tuesday, winning praise from Vice President JD Vance.
Rapid Response 47, the official White House Rapid Response account, posted a video clip Tuesday featuring Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, alongside the caption, “.@PressSec SHREDS the Fake News for their lies about negotiations with Russia and Ukraine: ‘From the beginning of this entire process, much of the left-wing media has been actively rooting against the President of the United States and the pursuit of peace.’”
In her remarks, Leavitt said, “One thing that has absolutely not changed is the media’s negative and downright false coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments. From the beginning of this entire process, much of the left-wing media has been actively rooting against the President of the United States in the pursuit of peace.”
She addressed reports that described Trump as “beholden to Russia” for agreeing to host Russian President Vladimir Putin in the United States. “The media said President Trump was making a grave mistake by quote, ‘legitimizing Putin.’ They were aghast that President Trump would treat another world leader like a world leader,” Leavitt stated. She added that some outlets portrayed the meeting as a “major defeat” for Trump because no immediate agreement was reached, even though he had made clear beforehand that the summit was meant to “listen and to understand how to move the ball forward.”
“All weekend, following those historic U.S.–Russia bilateral talks, we listened to clueless pundits on television, trying but failing to claim that the President had failed,” Leavitt remarked. She argued that many in the foreign policy establishment, whose record includes “endless wars, trillions of wasted taxpayer dollars and dead Americans,” were in no position to lecture Trump on peace.
Leavitt highlighted Trump’s record of resolving seven global conflicts in the past seven months, pointing to the Abraham Accords in his first term as well as more than half a dozen additional peace deals this year. She added that the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House this week emphasized the progress made from the Alaska summit, describing the meetings as “highly productive and successful” despite media claims to the contrary.
She concluded by saying that Americans’ trust in the media is at its lowest point in five decades, adding that “many outlets in this room continue to try to actively undermine the president and sabotage the efforts towards peace.”
Vice President JD Vance responded to the press briefing on X, posting, “Karoline Leavitt lighting the American media up for lying about our negotiations with Russia and Ukraine.”
Tuesday’s press briefing followed a series of diplomatic meetings involving the Trump administration. On Friday, Trump held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. The discussions were followed on Monday by a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and European leaders, part of ongoing U.S. efforts to encourage negotiations toward a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine.
