The White House faced scrutiny and tough questions after two controversial social media posts from U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were deleted within a few days of being published.
During Tuesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked directly whether the administration has a “social media problem.” She was asked the question by Agence France-Presse correspondent Danny Kemp.
“Does the White House have a social media problem at the moment? Do you have an auto-posting problem that’s leading to these mistakes?” Kemp pushed. To which Leavitt gave a short answer: “No.”
The question came after a video shared on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account and a post from JD Vance’s X account were taken down after several few days of controversy. He then asked whether mistakes were being made behind the scenes.
Full video 💀 pic.twitter.com/x38iB7Kwnn
— LibHypocrisy (@WKazingmei) February 6, 2026
However, Leavitt responded firmly, saying, “As for the Armenian tweet that you’re referring to, I would just refer you back to the White House’s message that was issued on Armenian Remembrance Day, and there’s been no change of policy at this time.”
Addressing Vance’s tweet, Leavitt assured that there has been “no change of policy” and redirected Kemp to the official White House statement released on Armenian Remembrance Day. In that statement, the White House did not use the word “genocide.”
However, they commemorated “Meds Yeghern,” which is an Armenian phrase meaning “Great Crime”. The controversy began when JD Vance took to his X account to post a message about attending a wreath-laying ceremony at the Armenian Genocide memorial.
BREAKING: Vice President @VP Vance posted on X about his visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Armenia and then deleted his own post.
His aide then tweeted a post stripped of the words Armenian Genocide – a denialist action consistent with President Trump’s shameful… pic.twitter.com/YQQMZyqXPB
— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) February 10, 2026
Because the tweet clearly used the term “Armenian genocide,” it was later deleted. Later, an official from the vice president’s office clarified that the tweet was “posted in error” by a staff member who wasn’t traveling with Vance in Armenia.
Since the post used a particular type of language that did not match the Trump administration’s current policy, it was deleted. However, this move caught the attention of the Armenian National Committee of America, which strongly criticized the deletion, calling it a “denialist action”.
At the same time, even Donald Trump faced a wave of controversy for his Truth Social post. Last Thursday, he shared a video that showed an edited image of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama depicting them as apes.
The post was immediately met with backlash, as U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer found it racist and offensive. However, when Karoline Leavitt was asked about the video, she simply described it as an “Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle”.
Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country—where are Senate Republicans?
The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man. https://t.co/HHhdYZoUGK
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 6, 2026
Further accusing critics of creating “fake outrage”, Leavitt went on to gloss over the post, instead of addressing it directly. The video was removed in less than 12 hours, and the White House claimed it was posted by a staff member.
However, Donald Trump later said he had approved the post before it was posted, adding that he did not notice the image showing the Obamas as apes, because he was too focused on claims about voter fraud mentioned in the video.
