An analyst blasted President Donald Trump's inner circle as the "angriest group of criminal incompetents" and criticized Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's recent "stunt."
As Trump and his administration work to dismantle the free press — from removing media organizations at the Pentagon with "right-wing fluffers" to attacks on reporters and denying press credentials — it's unclear when it will stop, Salon's White House columnist Brian Karem writes Friday.
"This is no secret told out of school. This isn’t speculation. This is American journalism, which is growing more inept and less able to do its job thanks to the government," Karem writes.
As press crumbles, the Trump administration is pushing to watch it fall — much like the demolition of the East Wing, he adds.
"These days it offers a child who wallows in puerile salaciousness while being totally empty of experience, knowledge or professionalism. We get Presidential Pep Secretary Karoline Leavitt," Karem writes.
"She is Donald Trump’s White House mouth piece. Thankfully she doesn’t get much airtime, because it’s often a pre-pubescent, darkly comic, rage-induced tragedy when she does. She, and every other high-ranking member of Trump’s current regime, are destined to go down in history as the most feckless, angriest group of criminal incompetents ever gathered under one roof," Karem writes.
What makes Leavitt most problematic, he argues, is not just her inexperience, but her "complete lack of self-awareness," which he likens to how it felt hearing one of his own children talking about something they don't know about.
Last week, she claimed that the Democrats' base is comprised of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”
"If it sounded like something Trump would say, then you get the point. Leavitt is perfect: Exuberant, eager and engaged, with the mental acumen of an abandoned sock puppet," he writes.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) fired back, referring to her as “sick,” “demented” and a “stone cold liar.”
And this week, she publicly shared a text exchange between herself and HuffPost senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte, launching personal attacks on the reporter after he asked a question.
"Her loyalty is not to the United States. Her loyalty is to Trump and to whatever he says. Even if he contradicts himself or is caught in a lie or is shown to be the buffoon that he is, she will always hum his political tune. She often lies, and either smiles or yells at the press as she does so," Karem writes.
"Leavitt’s staunch devotion to the president apparently justifies treating people rudely and with contempt. She obviously doesn’t understand that the president leads a nation instead of a cadre of cultists, whether it be MAGA or Christian Nationalists."