White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday night that she was “not sure” why the media does not believe President Donald Trump when he says he will do something, escalating a broadside against reporters as the White House tried to control the story around the Iran war. Leavitt made the remarks on host Sean Hannity’s show, where she praised Trump’s handling of the crisis and dismissed criticism of his approach.
Hannity told viewers that if people want to know what Trump is thinking, they should listen to Leavitt or read Truth Social. Leavitt took that further, calling it “incredibly frustrating” that the media does not believe Trump and saying Americans seeking the truth should not pick up or The or watch, especially during what she described as an “incredibly successful military operation against Iran.”
Leavitt said legacy media outlets were “rooting for the Iranian regime over the American people and our great United States military,” and she described Trump’s negotiating style as “brilliant negotiating tactics,” adding that his courage was “courage.” She also called the operation against Iran a “success” and said, “President Trump has proven before, he does not bluff — when he makes a promise, he follows through on it.”
The exchange came on Monday during a moment when the administration was pressing its own version of events around the Iran war, and it landed as the White House sought to frame Trump as decisive and trustworthy. On Wednesday, a two-week ceasefire in Iran began in stops and starts, with the Trump administration and Iran at odds over the contours of the deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
That tension matters because Leavitt’s argument rests on a simple claim: Trump says what he means and follows through. But fact checker Daniel Dale has assessed Trump as uttering “numerous falsehoods” and “long-debunked lies” about the Iran war and many other topics, a sharply different view of the president’s credibility. Leavitt said the press still cannot understand, after ten years of covering Trump, that “when President Trump says he’s gonna do something, he’s going to do it.” For now, that is the argument the White House is making, and it is the one it wants to win.