Karoline Leavitt Got Press Wires to Vanish an Unflattering Photo of Her

It’s become mind-numbingly difficult to keep track of the ways White House Propaganda Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt practices some full-on state-level censorship. I’m still not recovered from the time she claimed Democrats execute babies, that the Epstein files were a “fake narrative” to condemn Trump, or that Renee Good—the woman shot and killed by ICE agents—was a “lunatic.” Most recently, she flamed the New York Times for daring to analyze Trump’s dumb ballroom—saying that any critics, including a literal architect, were people who “never built anything.”

But Leavitt’s penchant for censorship extends beyond her Dear Leader to… herself! Girl boss! In November, at the White House turkey pardon, AFP photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds photographed Leavitt with her son and the pardoned turkey, from below—typically an unflattering angle, which everyone in the world understands. 

This is the photo of Karoline Leavitt by the AFP wire service that the White House complained about and AFP pulled. AFP says its action was unrelated to the complaint. (Yeah, sure.)
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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 3:34 AM

Per a new report from Status, Leavitt threw a fit about the photo with “Waddle” the turkey. The outlet says that after AFP was “made aware” that the White House disapproved, the photo was subsequently removed from the Getty Images library—though not before Swiss outlet Tages-Anzeiger published it in their own reporting. 

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