Karoline Leavitt, 29, the former White House press secretary, said President Donald Trump curses a lot, offering a blunt account of the 80-year-old president’s private language in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, 64, that aired on Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
Hannity put the question to her directly: “Does he curse?”
“Yeah, he does,” she said. “He curses a lot, actually. Well, not particularly on those calls. Just, in general.”
The question came up as the two were discussing the tenser moments of Trump’s diplomacy, including his calls to Vladimir Putin and to China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Those conversations have occasionally turned sharp over the past year and a half.
Leavitt also told Hannity that Trump sounds much the same behind closed doors as he does in public. For the length of her tenure, she spent her days explaining Trump’s words to the White House press corps.
A Lunch With Starmer
Leavitt cited a lunch with then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. By her account, Trump laid into his host over U.K. immigration policy and told Starmer his policies were stupid. He insisted that he knew the country and its people, and he told Starmer that they hated what he was doing.
Leavitt said Starmer simply sat there. The anecdote came without profanity attached.
Insults on the Record
Trump has described political adversaries — among them Rep. Thomas Massie and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — as “stupid,” “nutjobs,” “disasters,” “losers” and “low-IQ individuals.”
In June 2025, with Israel and Iran both threatening a fragile ceasefire, Trump vented to reporters that the two countries had been fighting so long that they “don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.” A day later, pressed on the outburst, he defended himself, telling reporters that getting his way sometimes requires tough talk.
At a Las Vegas rally during the 2024 campaign, Trump used an unprintable epithet to describe an immigration order signed by former President Joe Biden. Supporters in the hall chanted the word back at him.
Across both terms, the language has surfaced in front of reporters, at rallies and inside the White House itself.
Life After the Briefing Room
Leavitt stepped down as press secretary in August 2026 to spend more time with her family. During her time in the job, she became a frequent and combative presence at the podium.
The Hannity interview was a retrospective on her stint, and she used part of it to revisit her dealings with the reporters she had faced from that podium. Leavitt said some White House correspondents privately apologized to her for asking what she called “unfair” questions.
Press secretaries typically spend their tenure smoothing the edges off a principal’s language, recasting an off-color line as candor or as strength. Leavitt, no longer holding the job, chose the shorter route.
