White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether Donald Trump and JD Vance have a “social media problem” after two of their posts were deleted since Friday.
Trump’s racist Truth Social video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes and Vance’s recognition—against administration policy—of the Armenian Genocide have spurred questions about who exactly has access to and posting privileges for their social media accounts.
“Does the White House have a social media problem at the moment?” Agence France-Presse correspondent Danny Kemp asked Leavitt, 28, at Tuesday’s press briefing. “Do you have an auto-posting problem that’s leading to these mistakes?”
Leavitt’s reply was brief.
“No,” she said. “As for the Armenian tweet that you’re referring to, I would just refer you back to the White House’s message that was issued on Armenian Remembrance Day, and there’s been no change of policy at this time.”
On that day, the White House did not use the term “genocide,” but in a statement commemorated the “Meds Yeghern,” which is Armenian for “Great Crime.”
Vance’s X account posted and then removed a tweet showing him and second lady Usha Vance at “a wreath laying ceremony at the Armenian Genocide memorial to honor the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide.” That tweet was “posted in error” by a staffer who wasn’t traveling with Vance in Armenia, according to an official with the vice president’s office. The problem, to them, was that it recognized the Armenian genocide, which is against the Trump administration’s policy.
The Armenian National Committee of America called the deletion “a denialist action consistent with President Trump’s shameful retreat from honest American remembrance of a crime recognized by all 50 states, the US Congress, the White House, and more than a dozen of our NATO allies.”
The U.S. formally acknowledged the Armenian Genocide in 2021 under President Joe Biden. The first Trump administration refused to do so in order to not spoil relations with Turkey.
As for Trump’s Truth Social account last Thursday depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, Leavitt eagerly defended it, glossing over its content by describing it merely as an “Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle.” She also complained about “fake outrage.”
However, the post was taken down less than 12 hours later, with the White House apparently settling on the explanation that a staffer—whose identity isn’t known—had posted it. At the same time, Trump said he approved the post beforehand, but that he didn’t see the imagery showing the Obamas as apes because he was so focused on what he described as voter fraud instead.
Since then, Trump, 79, has continued with his late-night Truth Social posting sprees. Among the often sleep-deprived president’s posts on Tuesday was a claim that he had the “highest approval rating” among Hispanic voters. The problem: that was based on a nine-month-old article.
