Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, is drawing fierce criticism and facing a furious backlash after sharing a link to a White House press release that praises Harriet Tubman, the freedom fighter and renowned Underground Railroad conductor.
Marking the 116th anniversary of Tubman’s death on March 10, 1913, the White House issued a glowing tribute on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, praising her courage, bravery, and perseverance in guiding and freeing as many as 70 enslaved people from the South after she herself broke free from bondage in 1849 at the age of 27.
The tribute detailed Tubman’s “indelible mark on our national story,” explaining how she returned to the South again and again, risking capture and death, to help other enslaved people reach free states.
She also served as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War because she traveled through the wilderness and knew the paths, using the North Star as a guide, leading people to freedom. She never lost anyone during her many journeys north to freedom, the press release noted.
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The problem with the White House tribute isn’t the honor itself. It’s more than well deserved for an iconic and mythic heroine of Tubman’s stature.
The problem is that Trump ordered Tubman’s image and a quote stripped from a National Park Service webpage in April of 2025, according to CNN, amid rightfully deserved fury as his administration began removing the accomplishments of everyone except white men from government databases and websites under the guise of anti-woke and anti-DEI policies.
Leavitt posted a “Presidential Message Celebrating the Life of Harriet Tubman” on her X account after the White House published the press release on Tubman on Tuesday, March 10.
“Today, in her honor, we renew our resolve to uphold the courage, conviction, and faith that she lived by and that have defined our Nation for 250 glorious years.” – @POTUS
Social media went scorched earth on Leavitt, calling out her hypocrisy and the administration she represents. Many flooded the replies with screenshots of a news article about Tubman’s removal from the National Service webpage. It has since been replaced.
“How about today in her honor you put back her references in the National Parks you f-cking racist old woman,” X user JAWSolyn angrily demanded.
X user Mark Mascoe agreed, “That’s crazy, the last time I checked he was removing any mention of Harriet Tubman and other black history from government websites. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
But that wasn’t the only problem with Trump and Leavitt’s glowing Tubman tribute.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term in office, his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a hold on putting Tubman on U.S. currency. The decision to overhaul the $20 in Tubman’s image was made by former President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
X user Keisha Harper, along with many others, never forgot.
“If we’re honoring Harriet Tubman, let’s follow through. The redesign to put Tubman on the $20 bill was announced in 2016 and delayed in 2019. Recognition isn’t just words. It’s an action. Move forward with the $20 redesign.”
Mnuchin’s decision was to wait until at least 2028 to change U.S. currency.
