Leavitt says Truth Social posts are straight from Trump…a week after his team blamed a staffer for ‘Obama ape’ video
Just weeks after US administration officials accused a staffer of posting an openly racist message on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt assured reporters that everything posted on the president’s social media platform came “from the original source.”
Leavitt made the surprising statement during a press briefing Wednesday, in response to a question about a post Trump had made moments earlier on the same platform, criticizing the proposed British territorial agreement. That post from the president, published that afternoon, was the latest in a series of sudden and largely unexplained about-faces regarding the British government’s decision to cede control of the Chagos Islands, just weeks after Trump reversed his earlier criticisms of the deal, calling it the “best solution” the Labour leader could offer.
Asked whether the president’s latest post on Truth Social represented an official shift in U.S. policy regarding the Chagos Agreement, Ms. Leavitt told reporters that Mr. Trump’s post “should be considered Trump administration policy” because it came “directly from an authoritative source.” She added, “When you see that on Truth Social, you know it’s coming directly from President Trump.”
But Levitt’s defense of the president’s recent social media activity stands in stark contrast to statements made by White House officials just days earlier, after Trump posted a video showing the faces of Barack and Michelle Obama superimposed on monkeys in a forest, swaying and smiling to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The video drew criticism, even from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters in Congress, and amid the controversy, a White House official told The Independent that a staffer—not Trump himself—had “mistakenly posted” it.
Several Republican officials and prominent supporters of the president have publicly called for the firing of the unidentified staffer involved. But so far, no one at the White House has been dismissed in connection with the incident.
While the White House has a large digital communications team managing official administration accounts on social media, including platforms like X, access to Trump’s personal account, Truth Social, is limited to the president himself and a small circle of close aides.
Authorities have not released the name of the staffer who posted the Obama video to his account.
Since his early days on Twitter, Trump has been known for posting most of his own content, expressing his opinions on virtually every topic and engaging in heated debates with users.
During his early campaign years and first term as president, Daniel Scavino, a longtime confidant who has worked with the president in various capacities since his teenage years as a golfer at Trump’s club in Bedminster, New Jersey, managed most of his online activity.
Scavino, who returned to the White House with Trump last year as an aide to the president and deputy chief of staff, is reportedly still one of the few people with access to Trump’s personal social media accounts.
But while Scavino, 50, was given increased responsibilities during Trump’s second term—including running the White House staff office—The Independent has learned that the day-to-day management of the president’s social media accounts often falls to Natalie Harp, a former One America News staffer, Trump’s personal aide, and someone who works close to the Oval Office.
It also appears that Trump often dictates the text of Truth Social posts to Harp when he isn’t posting them himself. However, her involvement in the Obama post remains unclear, and she has not been accused of writing it. Harp did not respond to a previous email from The Independent.
A former White House and Trump campaign staffer from his first term told The Independent that the president’s frenetic late-night posting and sharing was often his doing.
