Later, Leavitt flicked the switch to vaudeville with a select briefing for members of the “new media” held not in the usual West Wing location but across the street at a fake briefing room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Standing before a lookalike podium, Leavitt took “questions” from influencers, podcasters and conservative commentators – including one of her predecessors from Trump’s first term, Sean Spicer, who went on to work for right-wing channel Newsmax and now does his own thing on YouTube.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in the briefing room when Trump’s tariff boards were unveiled earlier in April.Credit: Bloomberg
Spicer asked about the president’s legislative priorities and why he continued to “reward” mainstream media journalists on TV and in print by agreeing to do interviews with them.
For example, Trump recently met The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist inadvertently added to the Signal group chat that discussed sensitive military operations, along with two of his colleagues.
They published their interview with Trump on Monday. Asked whether his second term felt different to the first, Trump told the magazine: “The first time, I had two things to do – run the country and survive. I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
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Leavitt fielded a series of unserious comments disguised as questions from the assembled activists.
The first came from Florida influencer Arynne Wexler, who said she could attest to the administration’s deportations of illegal migrants because “my Uber drivers finally speak English again”.
Another person claimed the mainstream media was “not reporting anything on President Trump”, and then asked for Leavitt’s advice on what “direction” she should go in when covering the White House.
“I wish more people in the legacy media were like you, and didn’t focus on the sensationalist headlines but actually cared about the facts,” Leavitt said.
US Attorney-General Pam Bondi walks past the row of “ARRESTED” yard signs at the White House.Credit: AP
It’s easy to scoff at the cheerleaders masquerading as journalists, but it’s harder to scoff at their significant online audiences.
Wexler, who describes herself as “a nonlib girl in a crazylib world” has 294,000 Instagram followers. When Leavitt says institutions such as the White House should engage with media from 2025, not just 1925, she has a fair point.
But it’s not like she needed a whole separate briefing for sycophantic questions from internet activists. Filling the so-called “new media chair” at Monday’s main press briefing was entertainment lawyer turned conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley, also known as “DC Draino”, who, after a lengthy preamble, asked whether the administration would suspend habeas corpus in order to deport more illegal immigrants.
Habeas corpus is the legal principle that any person has the right to have a court review the legality of their detention by the state.
Leavitt’s answer was not “no”. In fact, she said that while she had not heard any discussions, “I can assure you that the president and the entire administration are certainly open to all legal and constitutional remedies to ensure we can continue with the promise of deporting illegal criminals”.
Trump meets Australian footballer Jordan Mailata, who plays in the offensive line for the Philadelphia Eagles.Credit: Getty Images
Later, Trump welcomed the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles to the White House for a ceremony on the South Lawn. It included Australia’s Jordan Mailata, the 203-centimetre, 166-kilogram offensive tackle who Trump praised as being part of “the most powerful offensive line in the NFL”.
“These are big people,” Trump said after he embraced Mailata on stage and the two had a brief chat away from the microphone.
In 2026, the NFL will kick off its season with a regular-season game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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