White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has lashed out at the media over Russia, accusing journalists of “actively rooting” against the President and trying to halt his peace efforts.
In a wild rant to kick off her regular briefing, Donald Trump’s spokeswoman also took aim at foreign policy experts for criticizing his push to secure a deal to end the war in Ukraine. She insisted that his meetings with Vladimir Putin and other European leaders had been a resounding success.
“All weekend, following those historic U.S.-Russia bilateral talks, we listened to clueless pundits on television trying, but failing, to claim that the president had failed,” she said.
“The so-called experts in the foreign policy establishment, whose record is nothing but endless wars, trillions of wasted taxpayer dollars and dead Americans, have the nerve to try and lecture President Trump, who has solved seven global conflicts in seven months, about peace.”
The rebuke came days after Trump’s historic summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, in which the Russian president was given a red carpet greeting, a rare ride in the presidential limousine and applause from his US counterpart.
But after three hours of talks, Trump was unable to secure a ceasefire, which he initially suggested he would seek, or potentially impose “severe” new sanctions on Russia.
But Leavitt told reporters that the meeting was only ever meant to be a “listening session” and a prelude to a second meeting.
This meeting took place on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of France, Britain, Italy, Germany, NATO, and the EU.
The historic summit in Washington was a significant turning point in the bloody war in Ukraine, which began during the Biden administration in February in 2022 and saw little signs of abating until recently.
On Tuesday, Trump congressional allies Andy Ogles and Marlin Stutzman nominated the president for a Nobel Peace Prize over his ongoing efforts to stop the conflict.
Trump says a meeting between Putin and Zelensky is close at hand, but it will also require potential territorial concessions by Ukraine and a willingness by Russia to stop its attacks.
In an ominous sign, Russia launched hundreds of missiles and drone strikes overnight, even as both sides suggested a willingness to talk.
Questions also remain about what role European countries will have in protecting Ukraine through security guarantees that Putin is willing to accept.
“We reaffirm our repeatedly stated position of categorical rejection of any scenarios that envisage the appearance in Ukraine of a military contingent with NATO countries, which is fraught with an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences,” Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
Despite Russia’s snub, Leavitt insisted the media was to blame for less-than-flattering coverage of the president.
“This is why Americans’ trust in the mass media is at a lowest point in more than five decades,” she lamented.
“Diplomacy is a delicate process, and instead of reporting the facts about what is happening here at this White House and what is happening between this President and other leaders around the world, many outlets in this room continue to try to actively undermine the president and sabotage the efforts towards peace.”
