White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, is as usually criticized for her skilled position in addition to her marriage to her a lot older husband, Nicholas Riccio.
She married a 60-year-old actual property developer in early 2025, simply months after welcoming their son, Nicholas Niko Riccio. Leavitt returned to work underneath President Donald Trump simply days after he was born.
Now, as Leavitt prepares to welcome their second little one, a daughter, some critics are joking that between juggling motherhood, the briefing room, and more and more sharp-edged messaging, Trump and the White Home is beginning to rub off on her within the worst methods.
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Leavitt was nearing the tip of the press briefing on Wednesday when she introduced President Donald Trump’s plans to construct a $100 million “Triumphal Arch” to go together with his $400 million ballroom addition to the White Home.
The Arch could be added to the Nationwide Mall at one finish of the Arlington Memorial Bridge by the Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
“One ultimate announcement,” Leavitt stated. “President Trump and the Division of Inside will submit plans for the US Triumphal Arch, which might be an architectural masterpiece to have fun our historical past proper right here in Washington, D.C.”
Leavitt then held up an image of the arch, which resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, earlier than she mispronounced the phrase “Arch” and stated “Ark.”
“It is a rendering of the Ark,” she stated. “It’s fairly lovely.”
A clip of Leavitt’s mispronouncing the phrase was shared on social media with the caption, “It’s an ARCH, not an ARK. (And it’s a horrendous waste of cash.),” and others rapidly dragged the press secretary for what some say is turning into a part of the White Home model.
Critics wasted no time piling on. One fan shared a GIF of what seemed to be Noah’s Ark strapped to the again of a semi-trailer, captioned, “Karoline Leavitt says Trump is constructing a triumphal ark.”
Others zoomed in on the second Leavitt held up the picture, with one individual mentioning, “She holds it the wrong way up. How embarrassing.”
One other consumer on X famous that Leavitt held the image was not held in the precise place for others to see at first whereas exhibiting off Trump’s hideous Arch. “She holds it the wrong way up. How embarrassing,” one individual identified.
Karoline Leavitt says Trump is constructing a “triumphal ark.” pic.twitter.com/1xONfOh3Fx
— Karen Piper (@PiperK) April 15, 2026
Questions adopted simply as requested. “What ‘triumph’ does this arch commemorate precisely?” one individual requested. One other wrote, “Somebody inform her the phrase is ARCH and never ARK! I ponder why it’s a reproduction of the extra well-known one in Paris?”
Some fixated on the pronunciation itself. “It’s inflicting me unreasonable rage that Karoline Leavitt pronounces ‘arch’ as ‘ark,’” one critic famous. Others leaned into humor. One consumer shared an image of McDonald’s golden arches with the caption, “Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch.’”
Not everybody stored it playful. “Omg STOP HIM. He’s insane!” one individual wrote. One other added, “One other monument to Trump. Sufficient is sufficient.”
The backlash additionally revived older criticism of Leavitt, together with a jab from “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the place the previous MSNBC host as soon as known as her “belligerent, condescending, and aggressively silly.”
Trump’s “Triumphal Arch” pic.twitter.com/3D0pLZz54p
— KatHart1☮️ (@Kathleen2752) April 15, 2026
Olbermann went on to mock Leavitt for failing to appropriately pronounce Trump’s title again in 2025.
“Her chief achievement is she doesn’t truly converse English,” stated Olbermann. “She known as Hitler ‘Hilter’. She has repeatedly mispronounced Trump’s title…. Final week she insisted Trump, or as she usually calls him, Chump, deserves the Noble Peace Prize.”
Leavitt’s boss is not any stranger to verbal stumbles himself, which is why some critics have been fast to attract a connection. Trump has lengthy confronted mockery for additionally butchering phrases, similar to throughout a speech final November about Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative, the place he repeatedly blended up “adapt” and “undertake” whereas attempting to debate foster care.
“Christians and extra, consider this, greater than twice as prone to foster care, they’ll undertake the final inhabitants,” stated Trump earlier than mistaking “adapt” with ‘undertake’ twice. “They undertake to it so simply. Once they get out, they undertake to it identical to it’s turn into second nature. It’s wonderful.”
Trump confuses the phrase “adapt” with “undertake” 3 occasions in a row pic.twitter.com/pgLaS8o5BV
— FactPost (@factpostnews) November 13, 2025
The second drew ridicule on-line, and for some critics, Leavitt’s newest slip solely fed the operating joke that Trump’s behavior of bulldozing by way of phrase flubs could also be beginning to rub off.
Leavitt is at present pregnant, and he or she and Riccio expect their second little one someday in Could.
