White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 20, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
After President Donald Trump's bitter diatribe against Somali-Americans — including progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) — he got a vigorous defense from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Trump described Somali-Americans living in Minnesota as "garbage," calling for them to be deported "back to where they came from." And Leavitt praised his comments as "amazing" and an "epic moment."
Greg Sargent, host of The New Republic's podcast "The Daily Blast," discussed Leavitt's defense of Trump with former U.S. State Department official Vedant Patel in episode posted on December 8.
Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, argued that Leavitt "went full cult in giving White House sanction to Trump's ugly bigotry."
Sargent told Patel, "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to this with obsequious praise, calling it 'epic.' We thought this was a telling moment. The Trump cult has gotten so out of control that his propagandists now go out of their way to deliberately highlight his most racist and disgusting moments and pump those up into moments of heroism and triumph. Meanwhile, almost no Republicans had anything critical to say about any of this. In fact, JD Vance pounded the table in agreement with Trump on Somalis. How far is this madness going to get?"
Sargent got no argument from Patel, who served in the State Department under former President Joe Biden.
Patel told Sargent, "I want to say that I wish I were surprised, but truly, Greg, I mean, this is a playbook out of the president's first administration. I mean, I think you recall that there was a really poignant moment in which President Trump was saying that he didn't want immigrants from a certain fill-in-the-blanks, swear-word types of countries. This is the exact playbook that we've seen before of dividing this country, targeting sort of immigrant communities. It's despicable."
When Sargent told his guest that the "cultishness is off the charts" with Trump's second administration, Patel responded, "I certainly would say so."
Patel continued, "Let's put the policy aside just for a second. Let's put the Somali piece aside for just a moment. I worked in the press office under President Biden. That is not the way you are supposed to be doing media relations. Let's remember that these are spokespeople that should be working. Yes, they work for a president, but really, ultimately, their job is to try to inform the American public, be good arbiters of truth and good engagers with journalists, help answer questions, help inform coverage and stories and TV packages and things of that nature. It is not to be sycophants and just be partisan hacks with a taxpayer dime."
Listen to the full podcast at this link or read the transcript here.
