Norms Impact
Karoline Leavitt says Truth Social posts are straight from Trump, despite his claims
The White House is declaring presidential social media posts binding policy while simultaneously blaming unnamed staff for the same account—collapsing transparency, accountability, and basic governance discipline.
Feb 18, 2026
Sources
Summary
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Truth Social posts should be treated as official Trump administration policy because they come “straight from” President Trump. That statement clashes with the White House’s recent effort to attribute a racist post from the same account to an unnamed staffer and to Trump’s own claim he handed off a link for someone else to post. The result is an unstable and unaccountable system where presidential policy, public messaging, and responsibility for misconduct can be reassigned on demand.
Reality Check
Normalizing policy-by-post while reserving the option to pin consequences on anonymous aides is a blueprint for unreviewable executive power that leaves our rights hostage to plausible deniability. The conduct described is not clearly criminal on these facts, but it is a direct assault on core governance norms: accountable authorship, reliable official statements, and the prohibition on using government communications as a shield for racially charged misconduct. When the same channel is treated as binding policy one day and “staff error” the next, oversight collapses because Congress, agencies, courts, and the public cannot reliably attribute decisions or discipline to the officeholder. That erosion is the point: a presidency that can speak with the force of the state while evading responsibility whenever the message becomes indefensible.
Detail
<p>During a Wednesday press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to a question about a Truth Social message President Donald Trump had posted moments earlier criticizing plans for a U.K. land deal involving the Chagos Islands. Asked whether the post signaled an official U.S. policy shift against the deal, Leavitt said the post “should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration” because it was “straight from the horse’s mouth,” adding that when something appears on Truth Social it is “directly from President Trump.”</p><p>Her statement followed a recent controversy in which Trump’s Truth Social account posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces superimposed onto apes. After backlash, a White House official told The Independent that a staff member had “erroneously made the post,” and Trump said on Air Force One he had given a link to others to post and had not watched the video through. Officials did not name the staffer, and no one has been ousted. The report describes limited access to the account among Trump and close aides, with day-to-day posting often handled by Natalie Harp, and Daniel Scavino among trusted aides.</p>