Karoline Leavitt grills mainstream media’s ‘sensationalism’ in coverage of Trump’s second term
The Trump White House press office is refusing to respond to emailed questions from reporters who display their pronouns in their email signatures, saying they deny “biological reality” and can’t be trusted to write honest stories.
New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum said the press office has rejected emails on “three recent occasions” from reporters who display the gender-identifying label, and attributed quotes to press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressing it as policy.
“As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios,” Leavitt told a Times reporter with pronouns in their signature, who had inquired about a climate research observatory.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has reportedly declined to respond to journalists’ emails if they have pronouns displayed in their email signatures. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The reporter mentioned another instance where Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) senior adviser Katie Miller allegedly refused to answer a pronoun-displaying reporter about DOGE records.
“As a matter of policy, I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts,” Miller told the reporter. In a separate message, she added, “This applies to all reporters who have pronouns in their signature.”
Grynbaum also reached out to Leavitt for comment, inquiring whether this type of response was a press office policy. The press secretary replied via email, “Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story.”
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Press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 14. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Grynbaum received a comment from White House communications director Steven Cheung on the topic as well. Cheung stated, “If The New York Times spent the same amount of time actually reporting the truth as they do being obsessed with pronouns, maybe they would be a half-decent publication.”
The reporter also said that journalists from other outlets have received similar responses if they have their pronouns displayed. He noted that Crooked Media reporter Matt Berg ran an “experiment,” putting pronouns in his email signature just to see if the White House would comment on them and deny his question.
Berg told Grynbaum he got a similar response to the others. In an email to the Times, he commented, “I find it baffling that they care more about pronouns than giving journalists accurate information, but here we are.”
The Trump administration has focused on gender identity issues throughout his second term, signing executive orders banning transgenders from being in the U.S. military, barring trans women from competing in women’s sports and removing gender identity language throughout the federal government.
The reporter provided a statement from a New York Times spokesperson on the press office emails, who said, “Evading tough questions certainly runs counter to transparent engagement with free and independent press reporting. But refusing to answer a straightforward request to explain the administration’s policies because of the formatting of an email signature is both a concerning and baffling choice, especially from the highest press office in the U.S. government.”
When asked for comment, the White House press office shared the same quote Leavitt gave to Grynbaum.
“Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story,” she told Fox News Digital.
