Trump’s Bizarre Praise of Karoline Leavitt Raises Eyebrows: ‘It’s Those Lips’

In a moment that left even conservative commentators wincing, President Donald Trump veered sharply off-script Friday night during a Newsmax interview—this time fawning over his 27-year-old press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in a tone critics are calling “wildly inappropriate.”

“It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips—the way they move, like a machine gun,” the 79-year-old president said, cracking a grin as host Rob Finnerty chuckled uncomfortably.

The comment, delivered during a 20-minute sit-down, has ignited swift backlash across social media and sparked fresh debate about the president’s long history of objectifying women—even those who work for him at the highest levels.

“She’s great. A great person, actually,” Trump added, calling Leavitt “the best press secretary anyone’s ever had.”

Leavitt, who began working for Trump’s 2024 campaign as a national press secretary, was swiftly appointed to the White House post after his re-election. At just 27, she became the youngest person ever to hold the role.

A hardliner on messaging, Leavitt has gained notoriety for her attacks on the press, her insistence that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America,” and her recent claim that Trump “deserves the Nobel Peace Prize” for what she called “historic diplomatic achievements.”

But Friday’s comments by the president thrust her into an altogether different kind of spotlight.

Leavitt’s influence in Trump World only grew when she quietly married 59-year-old New Jersey real estate developer Nicholas Riccio—himself a long-time Trump donor—just days before the inauguration in January.

“She’s got his ear, and now she’s got the ring,” a former campaign aide told The Daily Report. “But Trump can’t help himself. He talks about her the way he talks about beauty pageant contestants.”

Reaction online was swift. “This is not how any president should talk about a subordinate,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “It’s demeaning, it’s objectifying, and it sends a disturbing message about who gets power in this White House.”

CNN’s Abby Phillip described the moment as “grotesque, if not grotesquely familiar,” referencing previous incidents in which Trump made uncomfortable comments about women, including his own daughter.

Elsewhere in the Newsmax interview, Trump returned to one of his favorite battlegrounds: culture war advertising.

Asked about the controversy surrounding American Eagle’s jeans campaign with actress Sydney Sweeney, Trump swerved into familiar territory: “I think the Dylan Mulvaney ad was perhaps the most unsuccessful ad in history.”

Mulvaney, a transgender actress and influencer, was the center of a 2023 Bud Light controversy that sparked conservative boycotts and national headlines. Trump’s latest swipe is unlikely to go unnoticed as he seeks to galvanize his base in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms.

The White House has not responded to requests for comment on the president’s remarks about Leavitt. Meanwhile, sources close to the administration suggest that the press secretary is “trying to ignore the noise and focus on the job.”

But with the president’s words echoing across social feeds and cable networks, it may not be that easy.

As former Obama advisor David Axelrod put it bluntly on MSNBC: “This is a textbook example of why Donald Trump cannot—and should not—be left alone with a microphone.”