Revealed: Karoline Leavitt’s secret MAGA training video uncovered

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaking to reporters on March 17, 2025

When President Donald Trump returned to the White House, it was obvious that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had a radically different approach from the two women who held that position under former President Joe Biden: first Jen Psaki (now an MSNBC host), then Karine Jean-Pierre. While Psaki and Jean-Pierre were happy to debate conservative reporters or disagree with them, they welcomed their presence — Leavitt, in contrast, regularly attacks and berates journalists.

Leavitt had a reputation for being a MAGA attack dog well before she joined Trump's second administration. And according to the Daily Beast, she "once played a starring role in a training video created by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for the president’s Project 2025 playbook."

"Long before Donald Trump was swooning about her being a White House star with 'lips that move like a machine gun," Daily Beast reporters David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice explain in an August 21 report, "Karoline Leavitt was teaching aspiring politicos how to conduct themselves if they ever landed a job in the (Trump) Administration…. The 30-minute guide, titled 'The Art of Professionalism,' was produced before Trump returned to the Oval Office and features Leavitt providing tips on everything from competence ('you have to be resourceful,' she says); to 'knowledge' ('reading the news of the day'); and 'confidence' ('just be prepared')."

The Beast reporters continue, "Leavitt had not yet graced the podium when she filmed the video with Chris Hayes, who was then the careers coordinator at the right-wing Leadership Institute, and not to be confused with the left-wing MSNBC host of the same name."

At the time, the reporters note, Leavitt had worked in the first Trump Administration as an assistant press secretary to then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany (who became a Fox News pundit).

Gardner, Tomazin, and Ewall-Wice quote Leavitt as saying, "Those were some of the most high-pressure moments of my life, knowing that the White House press corps was out there, going to berate my boss on something that we had not covered throughout the day. But rather than get stressed out, cry or have a negative emotional response, you have to pull yourself up from your bootstraps, you have to be prepared, and you have to execute in that moment."

Read the full Daily Beast article at this link (subscription required).