The White House is facing sharp criticism over its latest message to young voters who cast a ballot for President Donald Trump based on specific campaign promises.
Journalist Gabe Fleischer told White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday that in his reporting, he speaks a lot to young voters, "many of whom voted for President Trump for the first time in 2024, who were hoping to have no more wars and to have lower prices."
"Now, with a war taking place, and with gas prices going up, I'm curious what President Trump's message would be to those voters who kind of swung into his coalition in 2024, but maybe don't feel the administration's going as they'd expected."
Leavitt did not pause before saying to those young voters, "President Trump is doing this for you."
"He's doing this for young people, so that we are no longer threatened by a rogue terrorist regime in the Middle East that seeks to kill the brave men and women who serve in our country in the Middle East, many of them young people themselves, young men and women who serve this country honorably in uniform and have been threatened, killed, and maimed by the rogue Iranian terrorist regime for 47 years," she said.
Leavitt added that, "President Trump finally had the courage to step up and do what's right for our national security, our homeland security."
She called the spiking price of gas a "temporary short-term fluctuation," which, "the president has said, once these combat operations are over, this administration is going to continue to unleash American energy dominance."
Leavitt also referred to Trump's war in Iran as a "short term combat operation," and promised gas prices are "gonna go right back down when this is over."
Some experts predict gas prices will not return to pre-war levels until at least the end of 2027.
Critics slammed the press secretary's statements.
"She’s lying. It’s all they have left at this point. Lies," said former Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh.
"The best thing you can do for young people is not send them to die in a stupid war," commented U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a former Marine who served in the Iraq War.
"Trump is sending young Americans to die in a pointless, unnecessary war for you. He's doing this to help young people. Ridiculous," remarked Navy veteran Jared Ryan Sears, who writes at The Progressive Capitalist.
.@WakeUp2Politics on young voters: "With the war taking place and gas prices going up, I'm curious what President Trump's message would be to those voters who swung into his coalition in 2024?"
@PressSec Karoline Leavitt: "President Trump is doing this for you." pic.twitter.com/nVhIPMFx3T
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 25, 2026
