Fact Check: No, a judge did not slap White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
Claim:
Videos accurately reported that a judge slapped White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in court.
Rating:
In April and May 2025, claims that a judge slapped White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spread online.
For example, a YouTube video (archived) that had 75,000 views as of this writing made the claim that the judge supposedly slapped Leavitt and then his "corrupt empire began to crumble":
This was not the only video making those claims. At least three more YouTube videos of varying lengths repeated the same allegations, as did a few TikTok videos.
This claim was false.
Three of the YouTube videos said the judge's was Edward Hargrove of Washington, D.C., while the fourth claimed he name was Richard Franklin of Boston. The language was similar in each of the supposed reports, though the voice and image changed. All voices had a mechanical quality, suggesting they were generated by artificial intelligence. Further, Snopes ran screen captures of the videos into AI detectors SightEngine and WasItAI and confirmed they were AI-made.
Thorough Google and Google News searches revealed no report of such an incident. Searches using keywords "Edward Hargrove" and "Richard Franklin" also revealed no such story.
Further, one of the YouTube videos included a disclaimer, which appeared for a fraction of a second at the beginning, that read as follows (emphasis ours):
(YouTube user Mythos Unveiled)
DISCLAIMER
ALL INFORMATION IN THIS VIDEO IS COMPILED FROM REPUTABLE AND RELIABLE NEWS SOURCES. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES TO HELP VIEWERS GAIN A BROADER UNDERSTANDING AND PERSPECTIVE ON FAMOUS FIGURES. THIS CONTENT IS NOT INTENDED TO OFFEND OR HARM ANYONE.
WE DO NOT CLAIM THAT ALL THE INFORMATION IN THE VIDEO IS ENTIRELY ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. HOWEVER, WE DO NOT DISTORT OR MISREPRESENT THE ORIGINS OF THE INFORMATION WE PRESENT.
THEREFORE, VIEWERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONSULT MULTIPLE SOURCES FOR THE MOST WELL-ROUNDED PERSPECTIVE.
THANK YOU
By mixing true and misleading information as well as using emotionally charged language, such videos about baseless celebrity rumors often generate hundreds or thousands of comments from YouTube users. Some of those messages indicate that people interpret the videos to be real news.
Snopes has verified several such videos, including one that claimed Oprah Winfrey had fled the country following Sean Combs' arrest and another that claimed Jennifer Lopez had left the U.S. for similar reasons.
Dobrin, Nikki. "Rumors Jennifer Lopez Fled the US after 'Massive Threat' from Diddy Are False." Snopes, Snopes.com, 13 Nov. 2024, www.snopes.com/fact-check/jennifer-lopez-fled-us-diddy-threat/. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Rascouët-Paz, Anna. "FBI Revealed Oprah Fled US after 'Diddy Footage' Leak?" Snopes, Snopes.com, 15 Nov. 2024, www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-diddy-youtube-tiktok/. Accessed 9 May 2025.
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Newsweek
44 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Gen Z Doesn't Seem To Care About Protesting Against Trump
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. "Where the f*** is Gen Z?" asked TikTok creator @djangita in a video, which has at the time of reporting been viewed 2.3 million times, filmed at a protest in April. Since the reelection of President Donald Trump, thousands of people have turned out at protests across the country, including the "Not My Presidents Day" demonstrations in February, "Hands Off!" protests in April and "May Day" protests last month. And while protest movements have historically been driven by young people, the crowds at these protests seem noticeably older. So, where is Gen Z? Has the generation committed to a life of tradwives and the manosphere, leaving activism behind? Are they simply disenfranchised? Or has activism taken on a new meaning for a generation raised on tech? Newsweek spoke with experts to find out more. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty Where Is Gen Z, politically? Looking at the perceived absence of Gen Z from the protest scene, the easy conclusion to make is they're not protesting Trump because they support him. The reality is a bit more complicated. As with much of American politics, where Gen Z sits politically is in a state of sharp polarization. Trump has had a significant amount of support from young men, having secured 55 percent of the vote from men aged 18 to 29 in 2024. There is, though, a wide gender gap in this age group, with 61 percent of women from the same demographic having voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. As of late April 2025, though, polling found that Trump's support among Gen Z had tailed off since the election, with 37 percent approving of him and 58 percent disapproving. Shifting Protest Culture It's not that young people are completely absent from political protests. "Young people's participation in major protests on issues like gun violence after the Parkland school shooting in 2018, racial justice after the George Floyd murder in 2020 and the Israel-Palestine conflict in the past two years have been a major feature of this generation's political engagement," Alberto Medina, communications team lead at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), told Newsweek via email. But there's been a recent shift, and the image of an angry young person at a protest could now be relegated to the historical archives. "At the hands-off rally, there was a very clear demographic representation that excluded younger people," Dana Fisher, director of the Center for Environment, Community & Equity and a professor at America University, told Newsweek, adding that young people are "just not turning up at these mainstream protest events." As for why, Fisher said: "Young people are feeling really frustrated with the political process. They're feeling really frustrated with the two-party system in America, and they have lost confidence in the notion that democracy in America can work for them." She recounted an interaction with a young student in her research team who put it bluntly, telling her: "Young people have given up on democracy in America." And young people's relationship with activism is changing, too. Newsweek spoke with Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something, about this. "We have to consider that over the last year and a half, or last two years, when Gen Z has showed up to protest at college campuses in the last year in particular around what's happening in Gaza, they have been harangued, harassed, kicked out of school," Litman said. "They have faced incredible consequences. "I think the culture of protest, even in the last two years, has changed drastically." The current conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel retaliated and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to eradicate Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 54,677 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began, and there is a widespread humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with nearly all of the population having been displaced, according to the U.N. Students at universities across America have protested the conflict, with Columbia University becoming the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests last spring. Protests have led to arrests, unrest and concerns have been raised about antisemitism. Commitment To Other Causes But just because Gen Z isn't out on the streets protesting Trump doesn't mean they're not out on the streets protesting. "A lot of young people who were engaged in all sorts of activism [are] shifting their focus to Gaza in the past year, year and a half since the violence broke out," Fisher told Newsweek. Newsweek spoke with Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) about Gen Z presence at pro-Palestine protests. "We're still organizing protests every single week, and we still have a lot of college students, and even high-school-age students, Gen Z kids, who are coming to those," he said. "College-age young people and campus organizers and activists have been a part of all the social justice movements in the United States for decades." Pointing to the encampments and college protests, he said: "That clearly was something that not only the Palestine Support Movement had not seen in the United States before, but none of the social justice movements had seen [it] in the U.S. before since probably the Vietnam War era," and described Israel vs. Palestinians as "the Vietnam War issue of this era." New Era Of Activism It seems that activism, and political engagement itself, is changing significantly for young people. "It's evolving," Litman said. "Not all activism is flashy. It doesn't always make for a compelling video or photo. That doesn't mean it doesn't work." "In the first Trump administration, protesting was one of the primary ways that people showed their anger at Trump. And that was good for that moment. But we also saw the limits of that as a tactic. Gen Z is thinking about different ways that they can make their voice heard. "We're seeing young people be really intentional about the ways in which they can move the needle," Litman added, pointing to consumer activism and social media activism and highlighting that Trump cares about the latter. Medina told Newsweek:"Engagement online can serve as an entry point for youth to learn about and find opportunities to engage in issue advocacy or other forms of political participation. The key is ensuring that those opportunities are available and accessible to young people, that the structures and support systems are in place for youth to get involved and find political homes. "Young people are looking for opportunities to learn, to be heard and to have an impact on issues they care about. That process can begin with a post on social media but requires more sustained support that can empower youth to do more than be passive consumers of political ads or information." And beyond the discourse online or on the streets protesting, Litman highlighted one thing young people are clearly thinking about: running for office, she said. "Run for Something has had nearly 50,000 young people raise their hands to say they want to run for office in the last seven months," she said. "We've had more people raise their hands since the election than we did in the first three years of Trump's first term."
3 hours ago
Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to US for a better life
IRMO, S.C. -- Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family's three-bedroom suburban American home. He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the United States to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path. But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries. 'It's kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for ladies who are affected more than others with the new government,' Mohammad Sharafoddin said. 'We didn't think about this travel ban.' President Donald Trump signed the ban Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the U.S. is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn't included in the ban. The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the U.S. after their visas expire, Trump said. The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade war there. Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office. It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkey. He worked in a factory for years in Turkey, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia. His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the U.S. who is now 3. There is a job at a jewelry maker that allows him to afford a two-story, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Sharafoddin's wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn't do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. 'I'm very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,' she said. It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the U.S. at least to further her education. Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn't know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn't had the heart to call and tell her. 'I'm not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,' Nuriya Sharafoddin said. While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language. Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the U.S. deals with their native country. But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren't included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said. 'We'll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,' Ray said. 'This kind of thing that they're experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.' The Taliban have criticized Trump for the ban, with their top leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the U.S. was now the oppressor of the world. 'Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,' he said on a recording shared on social media. 'Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?'
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to US for a better life
IRMO, S.C. (AP) — Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family's three-bedroom suburban American home. He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the United States to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path. But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries. 'It's kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for ladies who are affected more than others with the new government,' Mohammad Sharafoddin said. 'We didn't think about this travel ban.' President Donald Trump signed the ban Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the U.S. is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn't included in the ban. The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the U.S. after their visas expire, Trump said. The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade war there. Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office. It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkey. He worked in a factory for years in Turkey, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia. His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the U.S. who is now 3. There is a job at a jewelry maker that allows him to afford a two-story, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Sharafoddin's wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn't do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. 'I'm very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,' she said. It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the U.S. at least to further her education. Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn't know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn't had the heart to call and tell her. 'I'm not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,' Nuriya Sharafoddin said. While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language. Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the U.S. deals with their native country. But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren't included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said. 'We'll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,' Ray said. 'This kind of thing that they're experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.' The Taliban have criticized Trump for the ban, with their top leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the U.S. was now the oppressor of the world. 'Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,' he said on a recording shared on social media. 'Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?'
