Goodbye Karoline Leavitt, we wish we’d known you less. After 585 days serving as President Donald Trump’s Press Secretary — the second longest tenure of the five he’s had while in office — Leavitt is stepping down from her role to spend more time with her two young children.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Leavitt described her departure as “bittersweet.”
“I’ll miss you guys. I know that’s probably not something anyone would expect me to say, but obviously it’s been great working with all of you,” she told a gaggle of White House correspondents. What “I think people don’t realize about this job — the briefings and what I just did on TV — is 10 percent. Ninety percent of it is taking all of your calls at five in the morning and 11 p.m. at night, and I won’t really miss that. But I will miss working with you guys every day.”
At 29, Leavitt is the youngest press secretary Trump has had over the course of the two terms — and the youngest in the position’s history. She has been in the post since Trump retook the White House, and quickly became one of the most recognizable faces of Trump 2.0’s push towards increasingly authoritarian and inhumane policies, and the primary laundress of the administration’s overreach and misinformation.
Her successor has not been named yet — although plenty of right-wing blowhards are vying for the position. In the meantime, here’s a look back at some of the lowest lows Leavitt delivered to the nation from behind the White House podium.
The Epstein scandal was a “manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party”
Leavitt infamously claimed that the Epstein files, and the scandal surrounding them, were a hoax manufactured by Democrats. At one point Leavitt went so far as to imply that individual documents released by Epstein’s estate were potentially fabrications, defending Trump’s claim that a birthday card depicting a nude female figure drawn by Trump for Epstein was potentially a forgery.
Claiming Renee Good was a “lunatic”
After the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota by ICE Agents, the administration jumped into spin mode. From the White House podium, Leavitt berated a reporter and called her a “left wing hack” after she questioned the administration’s description of Good as a violent instigator who had justifiably been shot. Leavitt later called Good a “lunatic” in a press gaggle with White House reporters.
Accusing the press of only wanting to “make the president look bad”
In March, less than a month into the American war against Iran that was only supposed to last a couple weeks, Leavitt berated CNN host Kaitlan Collins for pressing her on complaints by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about negative coverage of the deaths of six service members.
“It’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt said. “The press does only want to make the president look bad. That’s a that’s a fact,” she added.
“The president is literally constantly shaking hands”
When mysterious black bruises began to appear on the back of President Trump’s hands (along with really shoddy efforts to cover them with makeup) speculation grew that the president’s health might be in visible decline.
The White House offered up another explanation: Trump was constantly participating in crushing hand shakes with important people. “The president is literally constantly shaking hands, the Oval Office is like Grand Central Terminal,” she claimed, adding that the bruises were likely made worse by Trump’s daily aspirin regiment.
Insisting that the “body of water off of the coast of Louisiana is called the ‘Gulf of America’”
Trump loves renaming things. Early on in his second term, the president made a show of attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the ‘Gulf of America,’” she snapped at reporters.
News outlets refused to adopt the change, leading the administration to attempt to ban the Associated Press from the White House Press pool. They were later reinstated via a judicial order.
Claiming millions were being spent on “condoms in Gaza”
Leavitt falsely promoted claims by the administration that — under Elon Musk — DOGE had prevented $50 million from being spent distributing “condoms in Gaza.” It turns out no such funding allocation existed, although the administration did cut a total of about $100 million in humanitarian aid programs to the region.
Blaming DEI and “skin color” for a plane crash
Following a deadly crash between a military helicopter and a passenger jet over the Potomac river that killed 67 people, the administration attempted to claim that the crash had been caused by “DEI” ideology producing underqualified pilots.
When you are flying with your loved ones,” she asked sarcastically, “do you pray that your plane lands safely or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color?”
The first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center, on Sept. 9, 2026 in Dallas, Texas.
People of all colors listen as Donald Trump speaks on the first day of the Republican midterm convention.
Trump supporters at the Republican midterm convention.
Vladimir Putin addressing the audience during the Valdai Discussion Club meeting on Oct. 1
As Trump Dithers, Ukraine War Is Approaching a ‘Fatal Point of No Return’
The war in Ukraine is becoming increasingly dangerous, with the risk of escalation spilling further into Europe. As Russia and European governments trade explicit warnings that the conflict is spreading, the United States is pursuing diplomacy aimed less at stopping the carnage than restoring ties with Moscow.
With the Russian military making little progress on the ground in eastern Ukraine despite nearly five years of war and more than a million casualties, the Kremlin is intensifying aerial attacks. Ukraine, which has been the target of Russian missiles and drones since the war began in February 2022, is now experiencing a sharp uptick in attacks on infrastructure and populated areas that threaten to plunge parts of the country into cold and darkness over the winter.
The aerial blitzkrieg is intended to destroy Ukraine’s morale, infrastructure, and economy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently told the Financial Times, citing intelligence intercepted by his country’s security services.
Zelenskyy told the paper that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in discussions with top Kremlin officials, had removed constraints on the bombardment campaign: “He said there are no rules now.”
U.S. disengagement from the conflict during Trump’s second term, coupled with the American president’s animosity toward Zelenskyy and Ukraine more generally, has only emboldened Putin. After promising he would stop the war “within 24 hours” after reelection, Trump’s tepid support for Ukraine and its European allies has increasingly convinced the Kremlin it has a chance to permanently rupture the NATO alliance.
At the Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday — an annual high-profile international summit in St. Petersburg — Putin said that continued European support for Ukraine was pushing the conflict toward a “fatal point of no return.”
The Kremlin has long described the war as an extension of a confrontation with the collective West. With more than 1.5 million active service members in the Russian military, about 44 percent of Moscow’s budget for 2027 is dedicated to defense and security spending. Around 700,000 Russian soldiers are serving on the front lines in Ukraine, where casualties remain staggeringly high.
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Meanwhile, Moscow is conducting a campaign of so-called “hybrid warfare” — with officials in multiple countries alleging that a series of drone attacks, arsons, and sabotage originated with Russian intelligence services. The Kremlin also continues to carry out targeted killings on European soil — and has even attempted to assassinate political dissidents in the United States, according to the FBI.
Russia’s belligerent activity has set alarm bells ringing across Europe.
Speaking at a NATO event on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the continent must brace for “severe hybrid attacks,” as Russia targets production facilities and logistics hubs by which Ukraine’s allies supply the beleaguered country with arms. Europe must be prepared to “respond quickly and very clearly” to Russian provocations, Merz said.
For its part, Moscow asserts that NATO is provoking conflict, citing recent unannounced military exercises near Kaliningrad — a Russian exclave on the Baltic coast. In a communiqué to NATO this week, Russian officials warned that action against Kaliningrad would initiate a serious response, “including nuclear weapons” in order to defend its territory, and “Russian strikes against decision-making centers in the alliance’s member states.”
“This is a war that Europe is waging against us,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at the Valdai forum. When asked about hybrid attacks outside Ukraine that European leaders have attributed to Russia, he said his country was only targeting support for what it dubs the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv.
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As the sabers rattle louder, American engagement with Moscow and Kyiv comes in fits and starts, with no apparent overarching strategy.
Critics of the White House’s approach point to a recent trip by Trump’s friend and special envoy to the Middle East, real estate attorney Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to Moscow and Kyiv. Their tour yielded headlines, but little progress toward negotiations between the warring parties — let alone toward ending the conflict.
“I hope they had a great discussion about opening a hotel or something,” one European official told Rolling Stone. “Because it was useless otherwise.”
Diplomacy via haphazard tête-à-têtes with the president’s personal envoys is almost certainly viewed as a sign of weakness by Putin, who is well aware that Trump hopes to claim normalized ties between the United States and Russia as a crowning foreign policy achievement.
The White House is considering a range of unprecedented diplomatic deals that would help keep Russia’s economy functioning while doing little to benefit Ukraine.
These proposals reportedly include an easing of economic sanctions if Putin agrees to release some political prisoners, and a potential multibillion-dollar oil deal ostensibly aimed at stabilizing energy markets and reducing gas prices.
With gas prices rising amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and midterm elections around the corner, Trump has made energy central to his Russia policy. Washington has called for an “energy ceasefire” — while Trump has blamed Kyiv for rising diesel prices in the United States.
While high oil prices are the result of a concatenation of crises, Ukraine has been targeting Russian oil refineries, producing fuel shortages and long queues for gasoline — in one of the world’s largest oil producers — over the summer.
Ukraine is also developing its own domestically produced tactical ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials said Friday that one type of missile, the FP-7, had been successfully used in combat for the first time. But whether Kyiv can produce enough of them to create a meaningful deterrent is unclear.
As winter nears, the outlook for Ukraine is bleak. A recent attack on Kyiv consisted of nearly a dozen ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones in a single night. That many munitions slip through highlights the dire situation faced by Ukrainian defenders, who are running out of advanced missile interceptors. They also struggle to shoot down drones that are becoming increasingly numerous, sophisticated, and effective as the war drags on.
In recent months, Russia has adopted widespread use of an advanced drone, the Geran-5 — a jet-powered drone that bears an uncanny resemblance to the V-1 “buzz bombs” used by the Nazis to bombard London toward the end of World War II.
As with the German V-1 campaign against London 80 years ago, the targets are often indiscriminate. Even before the ramping-up of attacks this fall, 2026 was on track to be the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since the early months of the full-scale war in 2022.
The proliferation of Russian attack drones and ballistic missiles means that cities like Kyiv now spend much of each day under air alert. Even aside from the human toll and physical damage that the weapons inflict, officials estimate that the disruptions to daily life are costing the country as much as $45 million per hour in lost economic activity.
Since Friday, a series of drone attacks has targeted two of Kyiv’s major bridges spanning the Dnieper River. The damage has disrupted traffic between the capital’s “Right Bank” — with its historic core and city center — and its “Left Bank,” with its sprawling Soviet-era industrial and residential developments.
Ukraine is already experiencing a severe financial squeeze. Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi says the country is facing a $27 billion “funding gap” before the end of the year.
Ukrainian lawmakers warn the government could even run out of funds to pay soldiers. One serving member of the Ukrainian military, who spoke to Rolling Stone on background, said by the end of the summer, members of his unit had already begun experiencing “delays” in receiving their pay.
The Ministry of Defense disputes that soldier’s salaries could go unpaid, but acknowledges that “technical issues” had caused some delays.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy is under pressure from corruption scandals and resignations involving members of his inner circle. Polls show him potentially losing hypothetical match-ups against rivals, including former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander Valerii Zaluzhny. The country’s “long-admired cohesion” has begun to crack — an outcome that aligns with Russia’s strategic objectives.
But after nearly five years of war, both combatants are showing signs of political and economic strain.
Russia’s regular military conscription process — 120,000 new recruits are expected over the next three months — barely offsets the grievous casualties its military is experiencing at the Ukrainian front, with high estimates exceeding 1,000 casualties per day.
Some analysts believe the Kremlin is considering a massive mobilization in the wake of parliamentary elections. But Putin so far has merely called for an increase in the total number of active-duty military members by a little more than 15,000. Russia’s president remains wary of generating a meaningful anti-war movement inside Russia, while also facing pressure from hard-line nationalists expecting him to deliver victory.
Across Europe, governments are no longer treating a direct confrontation with Russia as a remote possibility. They are preparing for worst-case scenarios, particularly in the Baltic states and other countries that experienced Russian rule under the Soviets. Meanwhile, NATO insists that all members — including the United States — have an “ironclad commitment” to collective defense.
In 1914, at the outset of the First World War, few leaders understood how faulty strategic assumptions, entangling alliances, and lethal technologies were pushing the continent toward cataclysm.
But some did. On the eve of war, U.K. Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey famously wrote that “The lamps are going out all over Europe.”
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Across Ukraine, darkness will again become a feature of daily wartime life amid rolling blackouts as a hard winter looms. And the shadows are lengthening, far beyond its borders.
But in America, the White House dithers as the president has his attention elsewhere. Perhaps Trump’s new ballroom, at least, should be well lit.