Karoline Leavitt Comically Says Democrats Are ‘Inciting Violence’ Against Elon Musk, DOGE

Leavitt responded by framing these standard, concerned comments as an incitement of violence against Trump and Musk. (Snowflake alert!) “If you heard that type of violent, inciting rhetoric, from our side of the aisle, from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, I think there would be a lot more outrage in this room today,” Leavitt said. Of course, we don’t have to imagine “violent rhetoric” from Republicans, because violent rhetoric is their bread-and-butter. Top House Republicans have spent the last several weeks calling for Trump critics who were born here to be deported, as well as at least one of their own colleagues. They equate abortion with murder, lie that trans women in sports are endangering cis women’s lives, and, oh, right! Their lies about Trump winning the election in 2020 directly resulted in the Jan. 6 insurrection, which killed nine people.

Leavitt continued, “It’s unacceptable the comments that have been made by these Democrat leaders, and frankly, they don’t even know what they’re talking about, because President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to make this government more efficient.” Fact-check: Trump’s popular vote victory is the smallest margin of any president in about a century. And, I cannot stress this enough: No one fucking voted for Musk, a South African-born billionaire, to invade our government and sic his 20-year-old minions on the Treasury to decipher whose grandparents get social security payments and whose don’t. Nonetheless, Leavitt recounted how Trump “campaigned across this country with Elon Musk, vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, and the two of them, with a great team around them, were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers. That’s all that is happening here.”

“For Democrat officials to incite violence and encourage Americans to take to the streets is incredibly alarming, and they should be held accountable for that rhetoric,” Leavitt said. 

The most comical aspect of all of this is that Democrats aren’t really doing anything, beyond tweeting or, in Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) case, holding bizarre press conferences about how “aroused” Americans are by the new administration. I wish Democratic Party leaders were posing the threat to Musk that Leavitt claims they are, but alas!

At other points in the press conference, Leavitt bragged about the administration’s latest executive orders to push trans women and girls out of not just sports but, as Leavitt put it, “rape shelters,” spit-firing vile lies about trans women assaulting cis women in sports locker rooms. But she wrapped the conference by returning to her attacks on Democrats who are concerned with DOGE’s conduct. She addressed “Democrats who are out there pretending to be outraged about the long list of crap that this administration is cutting” directly, and listed a range of pretty transparently made-up programs, like “$2 million for sex changes in Guatemala,” and “$20 million on a new Sesame Street show in Iraq,” offering to provide Democrats with “a comprehensive list” of other wasteful programs.

Leavitt very noticeably had nothing to say about DOGE blocking lifesaving funds and medication (already approved by the Trump administration) for HIV/AIDS workers, which some estimate has caused at least 300 babies born with HIV in a matter of days, or DOGE threatening funding for school lunches and Medicaid. But to expect anything but shameless distortions and callous cruelty from Leavitt and any Trump administration puppet is a fool’s errand at this point.