President Donald Trump took a dig at White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt while discussing the backlash he has received.
“I got 93 percent bad publicity, some people say 97, but between 93 and 97,” Trump, 79, said in the Oval Office while signing legislation on Tuesday, March 31. “A person that gets 97 percent of bad … maybe Karoline’s doing a poor job, I don’t know.”
Trump, who did not give a source to those figures, looked over at Leavitt, 28, who was standing with members of the press.
“You’re doing a terrible job,” he quipped before jokingly asking, “Shall we keep her? I think we’ll keep her.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has joked about keeping Leavitt on his staff. Last year, Trump asked reporters to evaluate Leavitt.
“How’s Karoline doing? Is she doing good?” Trump said in October 2025. “Should Karoline be replaced?”
Several members of the press vouched for Leavitt, and Trump assured her that would “never happen.”
“That face … and those lips, they move like a machine gun,” he joked.
Leavitt started working for Trump as his national press secretary during his 2024 presidential campaign. After he won the election against Kamala Harris, Leavitt joined Trump when he took office for his second presidential term in January 2025. She made history as the youngest person to hold the position as White House press secretary.
While Trump has joked about firing Leavitt before, he has mostly spoken highly of her and the work she has done on his team.
“She’s a star, and she’s great,” Trump said of Leavitt in an August 2025 interview with Fox News’ Rob Finnerty. “I don’t think anybody has ever had a better press secretary than Karoline. She’s been amazing.”
Trump will lose Leavitt for a brief period of time, as she will be going on maternity leave in the coming weeks. In December 2025, Leavitt announced she is pregnant with her and husband Nicholas Riccio’s second baby. (Leavitt and Riccio, 60, already share son Niko, whom they welcomed in July 2024.)
“The greatest Christmas gift we could ever ask for — a baby girl coming in May 2026,” Leavitt wrote via Instagram at the time. “My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother. My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.”
