President Donald Trump spent part of the prior week venting about his defeat in Virginia after residents approved a redistricting referendum that could hand Democrats up to four additional seats in Congress.
Trump branded the result a “RIGGED ELECTION” and a “Crooked Victory” in a Truth Social post, providing no evidence to justify his embarrassing loss, but then White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said something so nonsensical in attempting to shield him that social media erupted.
Trump joined a tele-rally on Monday, April 20, the eve of the election, but beyond that he campaigned sparingly and offered the opposition little backing in the weeks surrounding the vote.
Critics argue that he has spent more time complaining after his loss than he did campaigning against the redistricting effort itself, which passed by a fairly narrow margin of 51.5% to 48.5%.
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Leavitt attempted to distance herself from accounting for Trump’s defeat when she took questions from reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, April 22, insisting she wasn’t involved in the president’s political initiatives.
“On the Virginia redistricting issue, since he weighed in this afternoon and spoke about concerns over the vote, why didn’t he campaign more actively? … Why raise concerns after?” a journalist pressed Leavitt.
“That’s a question that’s political by nature. As you know, I’m not part of the president’s political team anymore,” she replied, in a way that many found perplexing.
“I do sit here at the White House as a government employee,” Leavitt added without directly citing the Hatch Act. She has previously faced accusations of violating the measure, which bars federal workers from engaging in political activities.
What Leavitt was attempting, awkwardly, was to draw a legal line. As White House press secretary, she’s technically a government employee now, which means she’s supposed to stay out of campaign politics under the law that bars officials from using their position to influence elections.
“Look, the president has a lot on his plate, a lot on his schedule,” she insisted, before mentioning his tele-rally. “He did host a telephone call the night before the election. But he’s made his position on the results of the election clear to all of you.”
But that explanation didn’t land, largely because it conflicted with how things stood in reality. Leavitt has regularly used that podium to push political messaging, often echoing Trump’s stance. And before taking this post, she was deeply embedded in his political operation, moving from campaign surrogate to spokesperson with little daylight in between.
A backlash against Leavitt’s gaslighting erupted on social media, with users denouncing her duplicity.
“She runs her mouth about political questions on a daily basis. And the answer is because they know if Trump had campaigned against it, it would have passed by even more,” a Threads user pointed out.
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“So, if she doesn’t serve a political purpose, then what is her purpose?” another person wondered.
More users joined in, attempting to decipher what Leavitt was talking about: “Everything she says is political propaganda devoid of facts.”
“She’s his spokesperson, isn’t she?” one observer noted, and another agreed, “When was she not a part of his political team?”
With the referendum passing on April 21, the revised map could enable Democrats to pick up as many as four additional House seats, a meaningful shift in a chamber currently controlled by Republicans by a narrow 217 to 213 margin.
The Virginia measure allows state officials to bypass the existing redistricting commission and redraw districts ahead of the midterms, though the state Supreme Court remains to decide on the plan’s legality after a lower court deemed the referendum unconstitutional the day after the election.
The broader redistricting battle has been heating up nationwide. Trump himself pushed similar efforts in Texas last year to benefit Republicans, prompting Democratic-led states like California to counter with their own map changes.
