Trump praises press secretary Karoline Leavitt: ‘That face… those lips… like a machine gun'
'She's become a star. It's that face. It's that brain. It's those lips, the way they move. They move like she's a machine gun,' Trump said, responding to Leavitt's earlier comment that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his international diplomacy efforts since returning to office.
'She's a great person, actually. But she's – I don't think anybody has ever had a better press secretary than Karoline. She's been amazing.'
The 27-year-old Leavitt is the fifth person to serve as Trump's press secretary and the first of his second term.
🚨🇺🇸 TRUMP ON KAROLINE LEAVITT: IT'S THE WAY SHE MOVES THOSE LIPS… SHE'S A STAR
'She's become a star.
It's that face, it's that brain, it's those lips, the way they move… like she's a machine gun.
She's a star, and she's great.
I don't think anybody has ever had a… https://t.co/q4ZmuqlhOd pic.twitter.com/fzfEauj7iB
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 2, 2025
At a White House press briefing on Friday, Leavitt had praised Trump, saying: 'President Trump has brokered, on average, about one peace deal or ceasefire per month during his six months in office. It's well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.'
Trump's remarks came just days after his comments about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. While praising her newly released report that alleges former President Barack Obama orchestrated a plot to rig the 2016 election, Trump once again focused on appearance.
'Oh, where's Tulsi? She's, like, hotter than everybody,' Trump said. 'She has all the documents. She found out that Barack Hussein Obama led a group of people and they cheated in the elections. They cheated without question. It's not even a quote.'
He continued: 'She told me, 'You've seen nothing yet.' We're very proud of you, Tulsi. They cheated so badly… and it shouldn't have been a loss. It was a big victory.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
5 minutes ago
- Mint
Why Mortgage Lenders Are Ignoring Trump's Rollback on Home Appraisal Reviews
At one midsized US mortgage lender, almost a quarter of customers who dispute property appraisals find that the value of their home had been miscalculated. It's an industrywide issue that has historically penalized minority groups, and now President Donald Trump has offered lenders the chance to ignore his predecessor's attempts to make it easier for homeowners to question the valuations assigned by property appraisers. Trump has scrapped some of the guidelines, part of his team's vow to stamp out what it sees as initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion. Many financial professionals agree that home appraisals can be unreliable, and that Black homeowners and other minorities are often put at a significant disadvantage. This can be especially damaging given that home ownership is the top wealth-creation tool in the US — and an appraisal is a key determinant of how much, if anything, someone can borrow. With their decision to end some of the requirements related to home valuations, however, Trump and his cabinet members may have little impact on lenders' practices. That's because there's fresh evidence that the changes the Biden administration put in place are supported by the industry. Some of the country's biggest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp, said they would make no policy changes as a result of the rollback. New American Funding, which also isn't planning to change its approach, was the only financial institution of more than 10 contacted by Bloomberg to disclose information about disputed home valuations. The Tustin, California-based mortgage lender, which provided roughly $14 billion of mortgage loans last year, said an average 2.5% of its customers request new valuations each month. Of those contested, roughly 22% are found to need an adjustment. New American didn't share a breakdown of borrowers' requests by race. 'The changes have made it much easier for the borrower,' said Michelle Rogers, New American's chief valuation officer. 'It's more transparent and the borrower knows they can initiate it.' The appraisal directives were put in place following a deep dive by the Biden administration into prejudices in the business. One of Trump's housing regulators, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, said rolling them back was part of an attempt by the president to put an end to the 'obsession' with DEI. The administration also has vowed to make deep cuts to the federal apparatus that enforced fair housing and fair lending laws, from slashing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff to gutting the Justice Department's Civil Rights division. A HUD official who spoke on background said the department's recent reforms simply reverted its stance to the way things were before Biden-era regulators imposed their standards. Lenders aren't being barred from letting borrowers dispute their appraisals, said the official who declined to be identified. The White House hasn't responded to a request for comment. Black homeowners have long reported having their homes valued more highly after taking down all evidence of their race. Research from the Brookings Institution and the federally controlled housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has shown that home appraisals can be affected by racial bias, which in turn affects the value of homes in entire neighborhoods. Brookings found, for example, that homes in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black are valued between 21% and 23% lower than comparable homes in white neighborhoods, with appraisal bias as one of several contributing factors. Economists at Freddie Mac reported in 2021 that greater percentages of homes in majority Black and Latino census tracts were undervalued compared with those in white census tracts, leading them to conclude that there was a 'valuation gap' between homes in different neighborhoods. The appraisal problem for minority borrowers also is a problem for lenders, since having low appraisals can prevent a homeowner from qualifying for a mortgage refinancing or a new home loan. That means the lender loses out on valuable business. Banks also suffer when appraisers make mistakes in the opposite direction, valuing properties too highly, because it means the bank can't safely rely on the value of a property as collateral for a loan. The reforms that the mortgage industry recently adopted to try to make the appraisal process fairer originated with a Biden administration task force called PAVE , which was formed in 2021. The group consisted of public officials from 13 different agencies, and its goal was to produce a report with recommended changes to a suite of different mortgage industry standards. PAVE recommended more training for home appraisers and higher standards for appraisers seeking to qualify for professional licenses. Those changes were handled by the Appraisal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves as the regulator for home appraisers. A spokeswoman for the foundation declined to comment on the Trump administration's recent changes, but said that new education and licensing standards put in place last year are still in effect. PAVE also called for an industrywide requirement for mortgage lenders to let borrowers request 'a reconsideration of value' if they disagreed with an appraiser's determination. Last year, regulators began requiring mortgage lenders to decide how they would standardize their procedures and to explain them clearly to their customers. In a rare win for the government, the policy received support from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Federal housing regulation includes a web of rules issued by different agencies, including HUD and also Fannie and Freddie. The new home-appraisal guidance went into effect for all of the housing agencies. But so far, the Trump administration has only rolled back the policy for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which help low- to moderate-income families attain home ownership. On July 17, Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, proposed a bill that would make mortgage lenders' ROV policies required by law. It also would expand public access to data on mortgage appraisals by forcing a federal housing regulator to more regularly share details. While fair-housing advocates support the proposal, the bill also has backing from a more unlikely source: the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. The group represents more than 500,000 mortgage brokers across the US. Its president, Jim Nabors, called the proposed bill 'critical' for ensuring fairness for homebuyers and added: 'Our entire board of directors and membership applaud Senator Warnock.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Mint
5 minutes ago
- Mint
UN Lays Out Survival Plan as Trump Threatens to Slash Funding
Secretary General Antonio Guterres is slashing more than $700 million in spending and laying plans to overhaul the United Nations as its largest sponsor, the US, pulls back support. Guterres's plan calls for 20% cuts in expenditures and employment, which would bring its budget, now $3.7 billion, to the lowest since 2018. About 3,000 jobs would be cut. Officially, the reform program is pegged to the UN's 80th anniversary, not the new US administration. But the scale of the reductions reflects the threat to US support, which traditionally accounts for 22% of the organization's budget. President Donald Trump has suspended that funding and pulled out of several UN bodies already, with a broader review expected to lead to further cuts. 'We're not going to be part of organizations that pursue policies that hamper the United States,' Deputy State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told reporters Thursday. The planned cuts at the UN come as the Trump administration has eliminated tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid as part of its drive to focus on what it sees as US interests. Conflicts from the Mideast to Ukraine and Africa have added to the need for global assistance. After years of financial struggles, the UN under Guterres already was planning to make sweeping structural changes. He warned in January it was facing 'a full-blown liquidity crisis.' Overall, spending across the UN system is expected to fall to the lowest level in about a decade - down as much as $20 billion from its high in 2023. 'UN 80 is in large part a reaction from the Secretary General to the kind of challenges posed by the second Trump administration,' said Eugene Chen, senior fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation. Guterres is expected to release details of his overhaul plans in a budget in September. The plan calls for restructuring many of its programs. Guterres controls the UN's regular budget, which is only a fraction of the total expenditures of its affiliates. Facing funding shortages of their own, agencies like UNICEF and UNESCO are also planning major cutbacks. The Trump administration already has stopped funds from going into the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council and left UNESCO. Guterres' plan has also drawn criticism, both from Trump allies and inside the UN. 'There are some things that the UN does that arguably should be increased in terms of resources,' said Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 'And then there are some things that the UN shouldn't be decreasing but eliminating altogether.' He cited the UN's nuclear watchdog and the World Food Program as contributing significantly to US interests and singled out the Food and Agriculture Organization and Human Rights Council as having mandates at odds with American policy. Meanwhile, UN staff in Geneva announced last week they passed a motion of no confidence in Guterres and the plan. 'Staff felt its slash and burn approach lacked focus, had no strategic purpose, and was making the UN more top-heavy and bloated,' Ian Richards, president of the UN Staff Union in Geneva, posted on LinkedIn about the UN 80 report. That vote has largely symbolic importance, according to NYU's Chen. Still, Guterres' efforts to get ahead of the inevitable cuts that reductions in US support will bring could help the UN adapt, he added. 'Maybe that's a silver lining,' Chen said. 'We'll all be primed for reform.' With assistance from Eric Martin. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
35 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
'India NOT reviewing list of US goods exempted from tariffs': MEA debunks fake reports
Amid the tariff row between the United States and India, the Ministry of External Affairs has debunked certain fake reports circulating on social media. Taking to X, the fact check unit of the ministry has dismissed reports that India is reviewing US goods exempted from tariffs as it works towards a response to Trump's 25 percent bombshell on New Delhi. US president Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on "good friend" India last week. The tariffs for India come with a penalty due to its participation in BRICS and trade with Russia,(PTI) In another post, the fact check unit for MEA dismissed a report which claimed that India is reviewing its bilateral agreements with the United States and considering suspending them 'if hostile economic policies continue.' This is a developing story…
