Karoline Leavitt Trashes Washington Post Headline for Not Giving Trump Enough Credit for ‘Mysterious’ Fentanyl Drop: ‘Despicable!’

Zachary LeemanJun 3rd, 2025, 1:56 pm
 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt trashed The Washington Post over a headline calling a drop in fentanyl seizures at the southern border “mysterious.”

At a Tuesday White House press conference, Leavitt blasted The Washington Post over a headline reading: “The mysterious drop in fentanyl seizures on the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Leavitt called it “one of the most ridiculous headlines ever, even by their standards” and accused the paper of trying to “manipulate” the public by not crediting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies for the drop.

“How is this mysterious? There is no mystery why there’s a decrease of fentanyl coming into the United States. This administration’s strong border policies are the reason there has been a decrease in fentanyl trafficking,” Leavitt said. “[President Trump’s] strength and relationship with Mexican President Sheinbaum and all of the measures he has taken to deter illegal human and drug trafficking at our United States southern border is the reason for plummeting fentanyl seizures at the US border.”

The Post report does acknowledge that the White House credits Trump with the drop in fentanyl seizures, but they chalked it up as “puzzling” as the numbers began slowing before Trump took office.

“The White House says the drop is ‘thanks to President Trump’s policies empowering law enforcement officials to dismantle drug trafficking networks.’ Yet the decline started before Trump took office in January,” the report by Mary Beth Sheridan reads. David Ovalle and Valentina Muñoz Castillo also contributed to the report.

Seizures of fentanyl at the Mexican border dropped by 30% in the first half of the fiscal year compared to 2024. The Post report notes that alternative means of transportation could have been deployed by drug smugglers.

“With more boots on the ground, you’d think seizures would go up — not down,” the report reads, noting Trump has sent thousands of troops to the border.

As critics pointed out to Leavitt, there was a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures from 2023 to 2024 before Trump took office.

Leavitt argued that Trump’s policies are what is leading to the downturn in fentanyl seizures, and she demanded the Post “update” their headline “accordingly.”

“There is nothing mysterious about that and we’d like to see The Washington Post update their headline accordingly. This is clearly trying to intentionally manipulate the minds of Americans, and I think the American people understand why there’s been a fentanyl drop,” she said.

The press secretary added that the White House sent over a “host” of reasons for the fentanyl seizure drops to the Post.

“We provided a whole host of the reasons that fentanyls seizures at the southern border have dropped and The Washington Post refused to run them, and that’s despicable,” she said.

Watch above via Fox News.

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.