5 Most Absurd Moments of the White House ‘New Media’ Briefing — Where Karoline Leavitt Took Fawning Questions from Pro-Trump Plants

On Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt held a briefing exclusively for members of the “new media” — comprised almost exclusively of pro-Trump online influencers.

“As I promised as my first briefing as press secretary back in January, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities — not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution,” Leavitt said at the outset.

Of course, Leavitt’s definition of “all media outlets” seems to be limited to those which are pro-Trump — as any media even remotely skeptical of the current administration was nowhere to be found in Monday’s briefing.

Still, as Mediaite editor-in-chief Aidan McLaughlin argued in a column Monday morning, new media outlets absolutely belong in the briefing room.

“New media deserved this shot that they’ve gotten,” McLaughlin wrote. “In the wake of Trump’s remarkable victory, these [pro-Trump] figures now speak for an agenda supported by a plurality of the country, and in many cases, their audiences are enormous. And those audiences deserve representation.”

And yet as McLaughlin also pointed out, “when they ask fawning questions, they are no longer representing those audiences, they are representatives of Trump.”

And for the most part, the questions Monday were of the fawning variety. Here are five of the low-lights from a chummy session featuring pro-Trump personalities who seemed to have little interest in challenging the party line.

1. Leavitt gets thanked for English-speaking Uber drivers

MAGA influencer Arynne Wexler was called on first by Leavitt, and set the tone for what was to follow by prefacing her question by giving the press secretary an odd compliment.

“Thanks so much, Karoline — both for having us and for granting me the first question here,” Wexler said. “And I can attest to the deportations in Florida. My Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that.”

Like many questions posed to Leavitt by pro-Trump personalities, Wexler’s actual question served as little more than an invitation for the press secretary to blast the administration’s critics.

“What are the administration’s plans for those who continue to defy the executive orders?” She asked. “Most notably on my mind are the ones related to what some would call trans men, I would call men masquer-, trans women, which are men masquerading as women, in girls’ sports?”

2. Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary, asks a question as a representative of “new media” — calls on old media to get the boot

The stated intent of the White House’s outreach to new media, according to Leavitt, is to add new voices to the White House briefing room. So who better to embody that mission than Sean Spicer — a man who spent seven months serving as the chief mouthpiece for the Trump administration back in 2017.

Spicer now hosts a podcast — which would seem to be the basis on which he qualifies as “new media.” But the former press secretary — evidently not content with new media being included — wanted to know why some in the old media aren’t being excluded.

“You’ve done a phenomenal job opening up the briefing room, bringing in new voices,” Spicer said. “The president’s commitment during the campaign to do long-form podcasts was, I think, extremely helpful to to this new media environment that we live in. But a lot of conservatives will ask me ‘Why does he sit down with people like Terry Moran of ABC or Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic?’ What is the rationale behind that rewarding people who have very vehemently expressed disdain for him personally?”

Leavitt was all smiles, as she replied, “The president is unafraid, and he is inspired by competition.”

3. Influencer asks good question, but accepts Leavitt’s non-answer

It seemed as though Leavitt was in for another layup, when conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley (better known as “DC Draino”) prefaced his query with the perfunctory praise for the press secretary.

“Great job this morning, and as always, you’re really crushing it,” he said.

But to his credit, Draino proceeded to ask a completely legitimate question on the whereabouts of the long-promised DOJ files on Jeffrey Epstein — a topic on which the administration has consistently stonewalled.

“Do you have any updates from the DOJ or the FBI on when those files are expected to be released?” He asked. “And also, when we might start seeing some arrests of the client list?”

A good question — for which Leavitt had no clear answer.

“I can assure you that the attorney general and her team at the Department of Justice are working on this diligently,” Leavitt said. “For a specific timeline, I’d have to check in with them, and we can certainly do that for you, Rogan, in the effort of transparency.”

Leavitt, stunningly, went on to praise Attorney General Pam Bondi — who drew heavy criticism from many MAGA supporters for overhyping and underdelivering on a release of Epstein documents back in February.

“I will tell you the attorney general is a bulldog,” Leavitt said. “She is someone you want on your team. And when she wants to get something done, she gets it done. I’ve seen her do it in various instances already in her time as attorney general. And when she makes a promise, she keeps it.”

Few people are better positioned to challenge that assessment of Bondi than Draino himself — who was one of several handpicked influencers to get advance copies of the February document dump directly from the attorney general. But the documents turned out to contain hardly any new information — despite Bondi saying the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk” and teasing explosive revelations.

And yet Draino asked no follow-up, and accepted the latest vague promises from Leavitt about when the Epstein files will ultimately be released.

4. Leavitt gets asked for marching orders

And then came the stunning question from conservative influencer Kambree Nelson. And rather than speak truth to power, Nelson asked power for marching orders.

“I’m kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting,” Nelson said. “I’m not the headline news girl. I’m the nuts-and-bolts, I’m the policy-type nerd; so what direction do you advise me to go into? Like the White House files that y’all send out every single day? Because that’s what people are used to. When they wanna ask me questions, they wanna know the nuts and bolts of everything.”

It was a truly shocking question. A media personality asking the White House directly for instruction. And Leavitt was only too happy to reply to that all-timer of a softball.

“I wish there were people in the legacy media that were like you,” Leavitt said. “And didn’t focus on the sensationalist headlines but actually cared about the facts.”

5. A round of applause to close the briefing

Incredibly, the influencers actually gave Leavitt a round of applause, as she finished her remarks.

“Thank you for coming to our very first influencer briefing to kick off the first 100 days of the Trump White House,” Leavitt said. “It’s great to see you all here, and thanks for what you do.”

The feeling of admiration was mutual — as the influencers put their hands together for the press secretary.

“Thank you, I’m going to walk off now,” Leavitt said — seeming like she wanted to stay at the podium all day to soak in the adulation.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.