White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt left people scratching their heads after she made an awkward grammar flub while commenting on protests over President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to gut federal agencies.
Protests have popped up around the country after Musk, his appointees, and associates gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems via his "cost-cutting" Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative.
Trump administration lawyers argued late Sunday that a court order barring Musk’s aides from accessing these systems infringed on the president’s absolute authority over the executive branch, asserting that the judiciary had no right to intervene.
Their response came after 19 state attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, filed a lawsuit Friday night, securing a temporary pause on the policy the following day. The lawsuit contends that allowing appointees and "special government employees" access to these sensitive systems—containing bank details and Social Security numbers—is unlawful.
Members of DOGE, which is not officially recognized as a federal department, have been reviewing the databases, claiming to seek government spending cuts. However, the lawsuit argues that the initiative violates the constitutional separation of powers, which grants Congress authority over federal expenditures.
After Fox News personality Sean Hannity showed footage of Democratic protests and asked Leavitt to comment, she gave the following flubbed response:
"I would love to, Sean. Clearly the Democrats learned nothing from their devastating defeat on November 5 because this is exactly what the American people voted for."
"President Trump campaigned alongside Elon Musk, and President Trump promised voters on the campaign that he was going to make our government more efficiency.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Leavitt got tripped up using the noun "efficiency" rather than the adjective "efficient," which would seem to be a pretty basic grammatical rule if it's your job to, you know, talk to the press and the nation and stuff.
The mockery was swift.
Leavitt's verbal flub came just days after she was mocked for a gaffe she made while trying to explain Trump's plans to lower grocery prices.
When asked by a Fox Business reporter how long it would take for Trump's policies "to cycle through and get some of the actual prices that Americans are paying to come down," Leavitt asked, oddly, whether the reporter was referring to "prices at the store and at the grocery pump."
After giving a roundabout answer, Leavitt admitted that she doesn't "have a time frame" but insisted that Trump "is doing everything he possibly can to reduce the cost of living for Americans at home."
@GovPressOffice/X
