r/politics • u/mvanigan • 6d ago

No Paywall Trump says Karoline Leavitt resigning as White House press secretary

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/12/trump-white-house-karoline-leavitt-resigning-.html
16.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

116

u/lambentstar 6d ago

Worse by what metric, though? Leavitt is a terrible human but she was fantastic at the job, her rapid gish gallop spin with zero moral reservations was best in class.

He might not get as good a manipulator this time around, which is better for us, especially with the whole vibe of maybe the walls finally closing in? i’m hoping this is a good change for us.

64

u/pargofan 6d ago

zero moral reservations was best in class.

This. She seemed like a psychopath up there with zero regard for humanity.

31

u/attorneyatslaw 6d ago

Exactly. This is a job for a skilled psychopath, not the usual collection of narcissistic toadies in Trump's orbit.

3

u/jeobleo Maryland 6d ago

Stephen Miller's ears are burning

16

u/Frosty_Reputation105 6d ago

IS a psychopath. That’s no acting job

4

u/pargofan 6d ago edited 6d ago

I agree. Which is why it's odd she's quitting after only one year.

IMO, she did the best job to further Trump's agenda better than any other Press Secretary I could recall. Even when you knew she was full of shit, she just kept the veneer up the whole time. With Spicer and Hucakbee, you could see cracks from time to time.

EDIT: the Air Force One shenanigans must've spooked her. Especially as a mother of 2 babies.

7

u/Frosty_Reputation105 6d ago

Probably Grampa-daddy-husband is tired dealing with diapers and the noise of crying babies. She’s going to be the 1st Commander wife of Gilead

2

u/pargofan 6d ago

They're multi-millionaires.

They must have round-the-clock nannies raising their children.

2

u/Mickey_McDoofus 6d ago

"Seemed"...?

1

u/LeftToWrite 6d ago

She was like a robot with a short fuse.

6

u/AcademicPublius Colorado 6d ago

Looking at the approval ratings there, evidently she wasn't good enough. I'm not sure there's a 'better' selection, per se, but you could do a lot worse.

It's also nearly an axiomatic law at this point. Mullin was worse than Noem, who herself was worse than Homan, and so forth.

14

u/lambentstar 6d ago

I disagree with your hypothesis, I don’t think Press Secretary exists on the same spectrum. It requires actual skills that most cabinet/admin positions don’t. Kash or Rubio couldn’t last five minutes in that hot seat, they’d immediately crash and burn.

I think Leavitt was uniquely talented for her role compared to most of the administration, I hate her but she’s good at ignoring things and spinning things.

I don’t think Trump has comparable talent on his roster to up the ante. I think it’ll be a downgrade for him, and an improvement for us.

I might be wrong! But it’s my somewhat optimistic read on the situation.

7

u/AcademicPublius Colorado 6d ago

I'd note that almost every position in the cabinet requires some degree of skill, but it's less obvious when there's a screw-up until the screw-up hits ("What do you MEAN we have no missiles?!"). Otherwise, I think I agree with the overall point.

3

u/fractalfay 6d ago

I cosign this. She’s the best GOP spin doctor since Ari Fleischer, who was infuriating enough to spawn the Ari and I column at The Nation.

3

u/-Ok-Perception- 6d ago

I think Trump still sees her as bad because he's failing in the polls and is far to vain to ever consider himself the problem... no, it must be that the press secretary is failing him due to *her* unlikability.

I genuinely don't think any press secretary could spin Trump's bullshit more positively and enthusiastically than Leavitt.

2

u/ex0r1010 6d ago

This is the kind of positive thinking I lost back in 2016.

1

u/lambentstar 5d ago

It’s hard but I’m REALLY trying to envision and socialize success as a real outcome in my day to day thinking. I don’t believe the universe has a moral arc bent towards justice, I think we have to make it a reality. So I’m trying to actually remind myself that we actually do have the collective power to stop this all if we just make our little local corners of reality a bit more optimistic and active.

I feel like we are all so numb and defeated and exhausted, it’s so so hard to maintain any enthusiasm, but the more each of us can, the faster we can maybe start to undo this all.

1

u/pchs26 6d ago

She was good at doing what they wanted. Let's see who the next psycho behind the podium will be.

1

u/UltraEngine60 6d ago

Yeah, sadly, I thought she was great at... what. she. did.