White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt exploded on a reporter over a basic question on President Donald Trump’s deployment of U.S. troops into American cities, despite opposition from state officials.
A reporter at the daily White House briefing earlier this week asked Leavitt about the deployments.
“If the courts allow you to ultimately send in the National Guard into Chicago and Portland, do Democrats not have reason to be concerned that there are long term, long term plans by this administration to keep U.S. military or the National Guard in American cities like what we’re seeing here in Washington?”
Leavitt angrily responded by blaming Democrats, as usual, for what she called “a smear campaign.”
“Why should they be concerned about the federal government offering help to make their cities a safer place? They should be concerned about this. They should be concerned about the fact that people in their cities right now are being gunned down every single night, and the president — all he’s trying to do is fix it, and there has been a complete smear campaign by the Democrats and the media quite frankly,” she scornfully berated the reporter.
She then belittled the press, accusing them of implying that Trump is trying to underhandedly implement martial law in cities across the country.
“You guys are framing this like the President wants to take over the American cities with the military. The president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities,” she insisted, touting the administration’s unsubstantiated claims that the military deployment into Washington, D.C., in August has significantly reduced crime.
Despite Leavitt’s attempt to create a different reality, many on social media were not buying it.
Charles Perreira, who identifies as a “hard working American” on his X profile, gave a sufficient breakdown to the reality that’s true for him.
“The White House Press Secretary Stepford Wife is straight-up bullshiting the country, trying to spin federal troops occupying American cities as some kind of helpful public service,” he began.
“She acts like this is about “making cities safer,” while casually ignoring the fact that deploying the military on domestic soil is a massive overreach and a direct threat to democratic norms,” he continued before adding, “Blaming local leaders and painting them as “ineffective” doesn’t erase the authoritarian reality: this is a president flexing power, and she’s his robotic mouthpiece parroting excuses. This isn’t security, it’s intimidation dressed up as policy, and anyone swallowing this line is letting a dangerous precedent take root in real time.”
Another predicted this one move could get Trump impeached, “Trump is taking a big gamble putting troops into potential conflicts with civilians. One civilian killed by a soldier and he will be impeached. Even the Republican congressman and senators will turn on him.”
One frustrated user padded his comment with some insults, “Man they act like we can’t hear and see everything Trump says and does. He says every day he wants to take over these cities with the US military and then this dumb broad, Karolyn Levitt will come on and say he never said that she doesn’t know what reporters are referring to. This wench is not clever enough to actually gaslight people.”
Another X user added, “Does she really believe what she’s saying? All he’s trying to do is fix it? I can’t understand this, though after 9 years, I should”
Yahoo reader Dragonstorm put it this way, “Nailed it! He’s trying to normalize this situation. The breaking point is near. That’s scary. When the people break, he’ll order martial law. He wants that to happen, it won’t be long.”
Accusations of Trump pushing martial law in U.S. cities has been prevelant since his campaign began in D.C over the summer. Yet, the administration sticks to their talking points, over and over again.
Leavitt insisted that “The murder rate has declined significantly. Our streets are safer. People who live here feel safer, all of you in this room, I know you do. You just won’t admit it, and it’s a proven system that works, and the president wants to make America city safe again. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
Despite most mayors and governors openly rebuking Trump and explicitly denying his push into their cities, Leavitt lied, saying “the mayor wants them,” referring to the Washington deployment.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held up Trump’s efforts to send federalized National Guard troops into Portland, but, according to The Associated Press , a small number of troops are protecting federal property in Chicago and assisting law enforcement in Memphis, Tennessee.
Both Oregon, Illinois and Chicago have sued over the deployments as Trump has aggressively sent the Guard into Democratic-run cities, arguing, despite statistics that don’t back up what he’s contending, that there’s a rampant crime crisis.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker didn’t mince words this week when he accused Trump of using the armed forces as “political props.”
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