Trump, 79, Keeps Reposting a Clearly Fake Karoline Leavitt Account |
The president has repeatedly elevated posts made by a parody account mocking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, suggesting that he either enjoys the hyperbolic messaging or that he isn’t aware of the difference between Leavitt’s real account and the one making fun of her.
Donald Trump has already shared several screenshots from the account, @WHLeavitt, to his Truth Social page, despite the fact that it’s named “Fan Karoline Leavitt.” The account bio also reads “parody account,” a designation flagged by X.
One of the account’s posts that the president recirculated read: “BREAKING: Fulton County admits 315K 2020 votes lacked required poll worker signatures—a major rule violation.”
“Republicans demand restitution for Rudy Giuliani, hit with charges & $148M fine for contesting GA election,” it continued. “Do you support giving his money back?”
Another post by the parody page claimed that “Afghan ‘refugees’ in Texas want to ban Americans from eating pork and drinking beer because Allah has decided so.”
It then asked its followers whether they supported “deporting all Somalis, all Afghans, all Islamic refugees and all illegals,” providing two voting options: “Big yes” or “no.”
One post that Trump did not reshare, but maybe should have tipped him off about the account’s nature, asked followers to rate Leavitt’s butt.
Trump does spend an obscene amount of time on social media. His habits are practically akin to American teens, who spend hours online to the detriment of their mental health, according to a 2024 report by the American Psychological Association.
But his inability—or perhaps, callous disregard—to fact-check whether the posts were actually made by Leavitt raises several concerns. Firstly, it raises the question as to just how extreme Trump officials’ rhetoric can be before their leader raises an eyebrow or tries to reel them in.
But it also highlights Trump’s thoughtless approach to navigating his primary communication platform with the American public, and sparks doubt as to whether or not Trump is actually aware of what he’s consuming.
The 79-year-old has repeatedly claimed that he is in pristine condition, brushing off public alarm over his deteriorating body. But his health has been a topic of concern since he was on the campaign trail, when reports circulated that he couldn’t remember the contents of cognitive exams he claimed to ace.
The CIA carried out a drone strike bombing on Venezuelan soil last week, making it the first U.S. attack inside the country that we know of.
The strike, reported first on Monday night by CNN, hit a dock on the Venezuelan coast that the U.S. administration claims was being used by Tren de Aragua for narcotrafficking. The Trump administration also claimed that the dock was empty when the strike was carried out, resulting in zero casualties.
While Donald Trump vastly expanded the CIA’s ability to act independently, they still do not have the authority to carry out land strikes in Venezuela—although that means nothing when they’ve already extrajudicially murdered dozens of fishermen in Venezuelan waters and quite literally stolen an oil tanker.
While Trump alluded to hitting a “big facility where ships come from” last week, he refused to confirm or deny whether that attack was the one we now know was carried out by the CIA.
This is yet another alarming escalation of aggression against Venezuela. The Trump administration has gone back and forth in its justifications for their acts of war. They’ve claimed that the Venezuelan government is a malicious narcostate, that they want to make Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “cry uncle,” and that Venezuela was shipping their oil to “foreign terrorist organizations.” Either way, this reeks of classic U.S. intervention in Latin America that will likely further destabilize a country that we’ve been antagonizing for decades.
Americans across the country are facing enormous scam risks because of their president.
In a fundraising email circulated Monday, Donald Trump told his supporters that Democrats would steal their “tariff rebate checks” if they didn’t donate money to him within the hour.
“Troubles are BOILING OVER,” the email reads. “Dems want to send your check to illegals if you don’t respond in the next hour!”
Earlier this month, Trump floated the idea that the federal government would subsidize checks to American citizens to offset the cost of his “Liberation Day” tariff plan, seemingly similar to how he distributed funds during the Covid-19 pandemic. But within hours, scammers were already attempting to cash in on the national confusion. One scam flagged by the Better Business Bureau promised call recipients with unclaimed tariff rebate checks worth upwards of $5,000.
But Trump’s team has not taken heed of just how similar their fundraising language is to that of scam callers, seemingly more than happy to jump in on the hysteria.
“Only a massive and immediate response will do,” the president’s fundraising email continued. “I need YOU to help me hit my end-of-year fundraising goal by midnight tomorrow or EVERYTHING we’ve worked so hard to accomplish could go BYE BYE.”
A similar fundraising email issued by Trump’s team earlier this month urged recipients to “confirm” their names in order to receive the government checks. At the bottom, the message claimed to be “the only tariff rebate email authorized by President Trump.” That ad was paid for by “Never Surrender, Inc.,” a recently rebranded super PAC that mechanized Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and noted that it was not official communication with the U.S. government.
Regardless of the fact that Trump’s email has more in common with well-worn messages from a Nigerian prince than official White House communication, the entire concept of a tariff rebate program is nonsensical. Economists have repeatedly pointed out that tariffs are effectively taxes paid by importers and offset to consumers, rather than a legitimate revenue........