White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt drew laughter Friday with her response to a question about the popular Trump 2028 hat, which the Trump Organization is selling for $50.
“It’s just a hat,” Leavitt told Axios co-founder Mike Allen during an event at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
“It’s not something he’s thinking of, though I hear the hats are flying off the shelves,” Leavitt said in response to Allen’s question about a potential third term for President Donald Trump.
A photo of Trump’s son Eric, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, went viral Thursday.
Ahead of Saturday’s annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, Leavitt used the interview with Allen to defend the Trump administration’s media strategy and recent changes to press pool access. She rejected claims that the administration has restricted press access, particularly regarding the Associated Press.
“I don’t view them as restrictions,” Leavitt said. “We view them as opening access to more outlets, more voices, more news journalists and outlets. We shouldn’t have a few outlets who have a monopoly over that 13-person press pool that covers the president.”
Leavitt pushed back against a WHCA statement that “the government should not be able to control the independent media that covers it,” arguing that a “small group of journalists” shouldn’t dictate Oval Office access.
“There should be equal access for all outlets and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” she said. “No one has been restricted, we’ve just given more spots to more outlets and more voices.”
The press secretary, who previously ran for Congress in New Hampshire in 2022, described her approach to media relations as both “combative” and “cordial,” saying the administration works with reporters while also calling out what it considers “fake news.”
Leavitt pointed to Trump’s interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, whose previous reporting sparked a media frenzy known as Signalgate.
“The fact that President Trump was willing to talk to a reporter who wrote a story that we absolutely disagreed with—and many stories that we absolutely disagree with, we have condemned because they are false, they are hoaxes,” Leavitt said. “The fact that the president is still willing to welcome that reporter into the Oval Office to have a direct conversation with them is exactly what we should expect in a leader of the free world.”
She contrasted Trump’s approach to media with his predecessor, President Joe Biden, whose White House revoked the press credentials of 442 reporters, including The Daily Signal, and avoided interviews.
“You had a previous president, Joe Biden, who hid from the press, who didn’t do press engagements, hardly did sit-down interviews,” Leavitt said. “President Trump has revolutionized the way a president communicates. Not only does he engage directly with reporters, but he speaks directly to the public.”
Leavitt, who begins her workday at 5 a.m. consuming news across platforms, described Trump as being in “problem-solver mode” approaching his administration’s 100-day mark next week.
“He inherited a lot of problems, no doubt about it,” Leavitt said. “He works 24/7, hardly sleeps to just solve all of these problems no matter how big or small.”
