White House 'playing make-believe' while facts keep proving them wrong: analysis

Lisandra Vazquez, an Atlanta-based comedian, has gone viral with her frequent parodies of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — who sees the MAGA Republican as a caricature of herself and mocks her relentlessly with her videos on YouTube and TikTok. And Vazquez isn't the only one with that opinion of Leavitt.

In a biting opinion column published on December 12, MS NOW's Steve Benen emphasizes that Leavitt's obsequious praise of President Donald Trump is only growing more cartoonish and divorced from reality.

"Earlier this week," Benen observes, "White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that China had refused to purchase American soybeans during Joe Biden's presidency because Chinese leaders 'had no respect for our president, Biden, or for the country at the time.' Thankfully, she added, Donald Trump has turned things around. As White House lies go, this one was odd — and rather lazy. It didn't take a lot of Googling to learn that Chinese purchases of American soybeans during the Biden era were quite robust."

Benen adds, "Beijing stopped buying the products, however, earlier this year in response to Trump's trade tariffs. It was a timely reminder that, in service of the president's political agenda, Leavitt isn't just willing to spin and exaggerate, she's also willing to turn reality on its head."

Leavitt claims were also "demonstrably ridiculous," according to Benen, when she claimed that "every economic metric" shows the "economy is improving" under Trump — and that "inflation is down" thanks to him.

"When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins dared to remind the White House press secretary that grocery prices have climbed," Benen observes, "Leavitt accused her of deliberately pushing 'untrue narratives,' despite the fact that grocery prices really have climbed….

As Americans turn sharply against Trump's handing of the economy, the president and his team have other options, but they appear determined to keep playing make-believe, hoping the repetition of nonsense will bully reality into submission."

Benen adds, "Trump's approval rating suggests Leavitt and her colleagues might need a Plan B."

Steve Benen's full MS NOW column is available at this link.