During a celebratory weekend for the media, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed student journalists at the White House. However, her speech took a turn when she faced tough questions regarding the administration’s decision to revoke visas for international students.
Despite President Trump’s absence due to his attendance at Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, Leavitt remained at the White House and engaged with college journalists under the mentorship of members from the White House Correspondents Association.
At 27 years old, Leavitt discussed the complexities of her role and shared her approach to being an ‘internal investigative reporter’ during critical events. She emphasized the importance of thorough preparation, stating, ‘There are no shortcuts when it comes to readiness.’
During a Q&A, some of the scholarship winners hit her with direct questions about simmering controversies of the Trump administration – including arrests of student protesters and deportations of alleged gang members to El Salvador.
One such question came from the front row of the White House briefing room, where professional TV journalists usually try to press her for information.
Luke Radal, who reports for Citrus TV, the campus station for Syracuse University, asked Leavitt about the sudden revocation this week of three students this week. That led to a campus protest Thursday that drew several hundred people.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt met with college student scholarship winners at the White House – then faced some tough questions about deportations of student visa holders and the treatment of the Associated Press
‘What do you say to students on college campuses who are maybe afraid that they or their friends could get swept up in what’s happening here?’ he asked.
Leavitt said American students studying at a university or obeying the laws ‘should not be afraid.’
‘The revocation of visas is a right that the secretary of state holds under the Immigration and Nationality Act. And if a visa student, a foreign national, who came here with the privilege to study at one of our universities, is acting in an adverse way to our foreign policy interests – the secretary of state has the right to revoke that privelege,’ Leavitt responded, in comments Radal posted on his X account.
‘Is protesting illegal behavior?’ he asked her in a follow-up question, something professional reporters can’t always get away with during briefings.
‘No – but illegal harassment of students on college campuses and engaging in criminal behavior absolutely is illegal,’ she parried.
One questioner wanted to know about the Associated Press losing its spot in a ‘pool’ of reporters who get the closest access to the president. The move is the subject of a federal court fight.
Another aspiring journalist asked about a 20-year-old Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador (a federal judge in Maryland ordered the administration to facilitate his removal).
Luke Radal, a Syracuse University student journalist, pressed Karoline Leavitt on deportations of student visa holders
Leavitt spoke to student journalists at the White House Friday, on a day the president headed to Rome
One questioner asked about international students who have had their visas challenged
‘There was no revocation,’ Leavitt countered. ‘We’ve actually expanded the access to the press pool,’ she said. None of the students appeared to throw Leavitt off her game.
The questions came during a week when Leavitt used the same podium to rip into the ‘dispicable’ media for calling a deported alleged gang member a ‘Maryland man.’
Leavitt, 27, who worked in the first Trump administration and has a nine-month-old son, spoke of personal challenges being the ‘biggest adjustment’ to the job.
‘The whole world is watching and you don’t really know what that will mean until you do it,’ she told the students. ‘You have to have a strong work ethic no matter what you do,’ she said, saying the DC news cycle starts around 5 am.
She also gave a clue about her political future, having launched a failed run for Congress in New Hampshire before Trump made her a campaign spokesperson.
‘I have no intention of ever running for public office again,’ she said.
Leavitt might ordinarily have been expected to join Trump on his trip to Rome. She had lined up media hits Friday, and the White House said she has a busy week next week. Communications Director Steven Cheung is on the trip.
Trump and his team aren’t attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner amid tensions between the administration and the media that culminated with the cancellation of remarks by comedian Amber Ruffin.
