Social media users railed against Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for saying the House spending bill, aka “the big, beautiful bill,” will not increase the nation's deficit.
Independent journalist Aaron Rupar was the first to flag the questionable remarks, uttered at an event Thursday.
"Leavitt: ‘I also want to take the opportunity to debunk some false claims that have been circulating in the press. The blatantly wrong claim that the one big beautiful bill increases the deficit is based on the CBO and other scorekeepers who use shoddy assumptions.’"
Spencer Hakimian told his more than 100,0000 followers on X, “Has there ever been a less intelligent press secretary in U.S. history?”
Catherine told her 30,000 followers, "Republicans literally have admitted it increases the deficit. Leavitt is a piece of work."
Author and contributing writer for The Atlantic, James Surowiecki, wrote, “Leavitt says the US trade deficit is an ‘extraordinary’ problem, then in the next breath says we've run an annual trade deficit every year since 1975 - meaning it's not, in fact, extraordinary. (Nor is the size of the trade deficit extraordinary - it's much lower as a pct of GDP)"
Editor Ellen Datlow added, "Lying @PressSec BREAKING: Karoline Leavitt just stood at the White House Press podium and said that Trump’s big, beautiful bill will not add to the deficit. Watch this video of Congressman Tom Suozzi exposing that lie.”
On Bluesky, Peaceful Progressive posted a red alert emoji saying, "BREAKING: KKKaroline Leavitt says Trump's Big Beautiful Bill won't increase U.S. national deficit, despite Elon Musk expressing 'disappointment' that it will add TRILLIONS of dollars to the debt. This Administration can't even keep their own propaganda straight!" They added a clown emoji at the end of the post.
Riverboatjack told her followers, "I would love to hear Leavitt describe how on earth this thing doesn't add 5 trillion to the deficit. There's no way to squint the math."