What to Know
When dealing with turbulence on Air Force One, President Donald Trump made a weird comment about “grabbing” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. As reporters spoke to the president, he said he was looking for something to hold onto due to feeling unsteady. He said he wouldn’t grab Leavitt, making critics think that’s exactly what he wanted to do.
Reporters asked Trump about Venezuela.
But as the Daily Beast reported, Trump, 79, turned and looked around instead of answering directly. He was standing in the aisle with Leavitt, 28, standing behind him. Then, he explained himself — and made the weird comment about Leavitt in the process. “I’m looking for something to grab here. Because it’s going to get rough,” Trump said. “I think you did this to me, you put me in a position where there’s absolutely nothing to grab.”
He then added, “So I’m looking for something to grab. And it’s not going to be Karoline.” On Reddit, people found this comment “vile” and “sickening.” Several people argued that Trump only mentioned not grabbing Karoline because it was clearly on his mind. “He’s a disgusting old slob. By him saying that, he’s saying thats EXACTLY what he wants to do,” one person on Reddit wrote.
Someone else said, “He has no sense of humor. Just projecting his own lustful thoughts again.”
It’s not the first time he has made a ‘creepy’ comment about Leavitt.
On several different occasions, Trump has commented on his press secretary’s appearance. At an event on Tuesday, December 9, Trump introduced Leavitt in a way that left people on social media saying, “Somebody come get grandpa he’s getting creepy.”
At the event, he made a big deal about Leavitt’s “lips that don’t stop.” He said, “We even brought our superstar today, Karoline. Isn’t she great? Is Karoline great? You know, when she goes on television, Fox, like, I mean, they dominate, they dominate when she gets up there with that beautiful face.” He continued, “And those lips that don’t stop. Pop-pop-pop like a little machine gun.”
Unfortunately, that was not the only time Trump talked about Leavitt’s lips. When speaking to Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty last year, Trump praised Leavitt for the way her mind works — but only after first commenting on her face. He said, “She’s become a star. It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun.”
Trump also called Leavitt “amazing” and said he doesn’t think “anybody has ever had a better press secretary than Karoline.”
