Karoline Leavitt, on her X handle, shared a meme that didn’t really resonate with netizens. The White House Press Secretary shared the post on her personal (and verified) X handle and not the Official White House account. Leavitt dropped a series of tears-of-joy emojis.
The aforementioned meme was an AI-generated video featuring baby versions of everyone, including Donald Trump, joking about Pearl Harbour with Japan’s PM Sanae Takaichi seated by his side. The video had the original voice-over from Trump and Takaichi’s media interaction session.
The caption accompanying the video read, “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” — Trump brings ‘surprise diplomacy’ to Japan.”
— Karoline Leavitt (@karolineleavitt) March 20, 2026
Karoline Leavitt was schooled by a section of the Internet instantly. “This might be funny if people weren’t dead,” an X user wrote. Echoing similar thoughts, another user wrote, “2,400 people died then, but let’s laugh at it.”
Here’s a glance at what the comments section of Karoline Leavitt’s X post looked like. “This should be a serious matter. Nothing funny about this war,” read a remark from a netizen. “Look at you, laughing about one of the most disgraceful things,” added another. “What happened after that surprise is why it’s not joke-worthy to me,” another comment on the post read.
A brief memory refresher, in case one is needed. Earlier this week, while addressing the press, Trump said, “I didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted a surprise.” He then added jokingly, “Who knows better about surprise than Japan, ok? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor? You believe in surprise, so much more than us.”
The White House hosted Japan’s PM Sanae Takaichi this week, which involved a Bilateral meeting that was followed by a dinner at the State Dining Room.
After her US visit, the PM summed up her meeting with Donald Trump with these words, “I met with President Trump. We confirmed that Japan and the United States will work together toward the early realization of peace and stability in the Middle East, including energy security. We also agreed to advance concrete cooperation on economic security and strategically important areas, including critical minerals, and on strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance, which underpins peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Coming back to Karoline Leavitt. This wasn’t the sole post that garnered social media flak. Earlier on Friday, she shared an article, this time on the Official White House Press Secretary social media account, that was hit with a Community Note by X. The article published on the official White House site read ‘Americans Agree that Operation Epic Fury Is an Overwhelming Success.’
The Community Note that was pinned to Karoline Leavitt’s post read, “The White House’s polls mentioned in the link only refers to MAGA Republicans or Republicans being in favor of the war, not the broader American public. This excludes Democrats and Independents being polled which skews the data and misrepresents America’s views as a whole.”
Americans Agree that Operation Epic Fury Is an Overwhelming Successhttps://t.co/8UsYxz6FvV
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 19, 2026
Community notes on X are often used to flag potentially misleading information to give readers more context. The post is accompanied by a question asking readers whether the note is helpful. In Karoline Leavitt’s case, the post was largely marked ‘Helpful’. “Enough contributors from different perspectives agreed that this note is helpful, so it’s being shown as context on the post,” read the text accompanying the note.
