President Donald Trump joked about firing his White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday because of her total failure to get him any good publicity.
“I got 93 percent bad publicity,” Trump told reporters. “Some people say 97, but between 93 and 97. A person that gets 97 percent—maybe Karoline’s doing a poor job, I don’t know,” he continued, pointing off-camera at Leavitt.
“You’re doing a terrible job,” he joked. “Should we keep her? I think we’ll keep her,” he added, before continuing to condemn the negative attention he receives from the press—“fake press, all fake.”
The president referenced the 97 percent figure in September when he claimed that major television networks were “97 percent against” him.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension and the subsequent threats made by FCC chair Brendan Carr to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license, the president railed against networks who he claimed do nothing but “hit Trump.”
“All they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democratic Party,” he said.
Asked by a reporter if he was going to have Carr look into other late-night hosts who have been critical of him, Trump, 79, said, “I read somewhere that the networks were 97 percent against me. I get 97 percent negative. And yet I won it easily.”
“I won all seven swing states. They give me only bad press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their licenses should be taken away.”
Trump offered no source for his claim that 97 percent of coverage he receives is negative in either instance, only telling reporters in September that he read the statistic “someplace.”
Trump’s jab at Leavitt, 28, comes less than a day after a report revealed that a photo of the press secretary was scrubbed from online photo agencies after they were “made aware” that the White House disapproved of the publication of the image.
The photo, taken by AFP photographer Andrew-Caballero Reynolds during a Thanksgiving-themed press briefing in November, featured Leavitt holding her young son while standing next to ‘Waddle’ the turkey, who was set to be pardoned by the president.
According to the report from Status, Leavitt was so unhappy with the angle of the photo that the White House made her dissatisfaction known. The photo was subsequently removed from AFP’s library.
While AFP confirmed that the image was removed after publication, it denied that the agency did so in response to pressure from the White House.
“During high-volume events like White House briefings, our desk often receives a large influx of photos directly from the photographer’s camera, which are moved quickly by the editor on duty to ensure timely delivery,” AFP’s director of brand and communications Grégoire Lemarchand said.
“Upon a subsequent review of the day’s production, our editor-in-chief determined that this specific image did not meet our editorial standards. The angle was poor and, more importantly, we already had a selection of superior images from the same event available on the wire.”
The Trump administration has maintained an antagonistic relationship with the press, with the president referring to reporters as the “enemy of the people” while his aides email journalists with foul-mouthed tirades and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks to bar reporters from the Pentagon.
The president has also initiated lawsuits against multiple news outlets, settling with Paramount to the tune of $16 million in response to his lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, and attempting to sue the New York Times for $15 billion over what he claimed was defamation.
In total, he is currently pursuing lawsuits against six news organizations and publishers, as well as the Pulitzer Prize board.
