SMACKDOWN: Karoline Leavitt just delivered a masterclass in shattering media narratives—in real time.
By the end, reporters were left stammering, silent, or both.
You won’t believe one reporter’s reaction.
🧵THREAD
~T quick edit: This is the long post I was working on early before I did the PSA. This is a MUST READ THREAD with all the enclosed videos of the live action, far too many to post in here. Please check it out if you can get to it. This is how it's done.
It started with NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez trying to corner Leavitt during a White House press briefing.
He opened by thanking the press team for information on recent ICE arrests—then tried to use that as a springboard to accuse the administration of withholding details about deported foreign terrorists.
“Why not release the same information for those who were deported to El Salvador?” he asked.
Leavitt didn’t blink.
“First of all, the information was released by the Department of Homeland Security,” she said.
Then she drew the line reporters kept trying to blur.
“The individuals on the flights to El Salvador are foreign terrorists and those are counterterrorism operations. They are much different than the arrests and final order of removals you see on a day-to-day basis that law enforcement agents are conducting around the country.”
Gutierrez doubled down, fumbling his words: “That information was not—to that detail—was not released by DHS then?”
Leavitt calmly shut it down.
“I just told you the reason. It was a counterterrorism operation, a deportation of foreign terrorists, not illegal criminals who have been convicted of heinous crimes living in our American communities.”
Then came the knockout line:
“Two different things: foreign terrorists, illegal alien criminal, two different things, two different definitions.”
“You should look them up.”
Game over.
Then came one of the most devastating reactions ever seen in the history of White House briefings.
Another reporter stepped in—hoping to trip Leavitt up with a “gotcha” question about Trump-era deportation policy.
“How concerned is the president that a federal judge could hold a Trump administration official in contempt of court for defying deportation orders?”
Leavitt saw it for what it was and responded without missing a beat.
“We are complying with ALL court orders,” she said, firm and direct.
Then she exposed the setup:
“So I see what you are trying to do there with that question, but we are very confident that every action by this administration is within the confines of the law and we comply with the court’s orders.”
And just in case there was any confusion, she added:
“You have seen that, and the president made that clear yesterday in the Oval Office with President Bukele.”
NUKED.
The reporter had nothing. No rebuttal. No follow-up. Just an awkward silence as the air got sucked out of the room.
He was devastated.
But the real fireworks came when reporters started pressing Leavitt about MS-13 gang member and alleged human trafficker Abrego Garcia—who had just been deported.
“Who is responsible for this man and where he’s going to end up?” one asked.
Leavitt wasn’t having it.
“First of all,” she said, “President Bukele said he is not going to smuggle a foreign terrorist back into the United States of America—as many in this room and the Democrat Party seemingly want him to do.”
Then she laid out the facts in plain English.
“Abrego Garcia was a foreign TERRORIST. He is an MS-13 gang member. He was engaged in human trafficking. He illegally came into our country. So, deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result.”
She made it clear he wasn’t coming back.
“There is never going to be a world in which this individual is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland, because he is a foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member.”
And for anyone still confused, she brought it back to the source.
