White House's Karoline Leavitt taunts reporter with 'your mom' text

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Oct 21, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to a HuffPost reporter’s question with a sophomoric insult, then celebrated the exchange on social media.

The private text message conversation seemed to begin when journalist S.V. Dáte asked Leavitt if President Trump was aware that Budapest — the city being considered to host a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leader Vladimir Putin — was where Russia once promised peace with Ukraine if the country retired its nuclear arsenal.

“Who suggested Budapest?” Dáte inquired, according to a screenshot of the texts shared online Monday night.

“Your mom did,” the 28-year-old White House representative replied.

She proceeded to attack Dáte when he asked if she thought the matter was funny.

“It’s funny to me that you actually consider yourself a journal [sic],” she said.

Leavitt also claimed that no one takes Dáte seriously, including his fellow reporters.

“Stop texting me your disingenuous, biased and bulls--t questions,” she added.

When posting a screenshot of the exchange on X, Leavitt called Dáte an “activist” who’s more interested in attacking Trump than dealing in facts.

He replied to the press secretary’s post by asking if getting that off her chest made her feel better, then asked if she would answer the original question about Budapest. It doesn’t appear that she did.

Twenty years after Ukraine agreed to surrendered its atomic arsenal in Hungary, Russia — under Putin’s leadership — pursued aggressive actions against its neighbor that began in 2014 and resulted in an ongoing war that erupted in February 2022.

Dáte has a contentious relationship with Trump. He questioned the president’s integrity during a 2020 White House press conference by asking Trump if he had any regrets about the lies he’s told to the American public. Trump stammered for a moment and moved on to the next question.

According to The Washington Post, the president made 30,573 false or misleading statements during his first term in office.

_____