White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 30, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
A political commentator excoriated Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for lying to the American people to cover for President Donald Trump in a new reaction video.
David Pakman, who hosts the progressive YouTube show, "The David Pakman Show," called out Leavitt's latest "massive dump of lies" about the Strait of Hormuz in a new video on Thursday. The Strait has been effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, which has led to a sharp spike in oil prices. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that the Strait would be reopened as part of a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, a deal that Iran appears to be violating, according to another one of Trump's Truth Social posts.
"You know that face when you know you're lying uncontrollably sometimes with a big cross hanging from your neck?" Pakman said. "That's a face that Karoline Leavitt has become increasingly used to making as she is going out there and dropping massive dumps of lies on the American people, as she cannot defend any of what the administration is doing."
Pakman called out Leavitt's claim that there has been an "uptick" in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, even though just a handful of ships were allowed through. For comparison, about 135 ships sailed through the Strait each day before the war began.
"Is it technically an uptick? Yes, it is. Is it honest communication about the supposedly wide open straight of Hormuz that Donald Trump has achieved? It is not," Pakman said.