Gavin Newsom has revived a MAGA trigger topic in a swipe at Karoline Leavitt’s fashion choice.
The California governor, 58, posted an image from the 28-year-old press secretary’s Thursday briefing, for which she wore a tan blazer, along with her usual cross pendant.
Newsom contrasted the image of Leavitt with a throwback photo of President Barack Obama in his infamous tan suit, captioning the X post, “Who wore it better?”
Obama’s appearance in a tan suit for a 2014 press briefing on the U.S. military response to ISIS triggered a conservative meltdown, becoming one of the most talked-about controversies of his presidency.
Conservative talk shows and Republican lawmakers fumed for days, insisting the color of Obama’s suit rendered him “unpresidential” and was not appropriate for a discussion of military matters.
GOP Rep. Peter King complained on Newsmax at the time that Obama “looked like he was on his way to a party at the Hamptons,” and Fox host Lou Dobbs said, “I think it’s shocking to a lot of people.”
Obama himself has often poked fun at the trivial scandal, opening his final press conference in 2017 with, “Let me start out by saying that I was sorely tempted to wear a tan suit today,” and posting a photo of himself in the suit alongside one of Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
“How it started. How it’s going,” he wrote in an X post that has since been viewed more than 88 million times. “Ten years later, and it’s still a good look!”
Leavitt touched weighty issues herself during Thursday’s press briefing—including escalating violence in Minnesota amid an ICE surge in the state and President Donald Trump’s musings about canceling the midterms—but her appearance passed without outrage.
She claimed Trump was “simply joking” about upending democracy and went ballistic on a veteran reporter for challenging the administration’s claim that ICE was doing everything correctly despite the fatal shooting of Renee Good, 37, in her SUV by an ICE agent.
Earlier this month, the Daily Beast revealed that staff at one of Leavitt’s favorite clothing brands, Tuckernuck, are far from thrilled at being MAGA’s unofficial outfitter. The press secretary is among a growing list of powerful MAGA clients who’ve helped turn the Americana style brand into a Trump-world status symbol.
