During a recent appearance on Sean Hannity’s show, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she is not sure why the media does not believe President Donald Trump when he says he will do something. The conversation came up while they were talking about the ongoing military operation involving Iran.
Hannity told his audience that if they want to know what Trump is thinking, they should follow Leavitt or read Truth Social, the president’s social media platform. He argued that the president lays out his intentions with great detail and specificity.
Hannity also claimed that the legacy media, the radical left, and isolationists all want the president to fail, and that the media does not want to listen to what Trump says he is going to do, even though he has followed through on his promises so far. According to Mediaite, Leavitt agreed, calling the situation “incredibly frustrating.”
The media’s long record of doubting Trump sits at odds with the administration’s view of his transparency
She told the American people that if they want the truth, they should not pick up The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or watch CNN. She accused legacy American media outlets of siding with the Iranian regime over the American people and the U.S. military, and argued that these outlets are so opposed to Trump that they fail to seek and report on the facts.
During the segment, Leavitt described the military operation as a success and said the president has proven he does not bluff. She said, “President Trump has proven before, he does not bluff – when he makes a promise, he follows through on it.”
She added, “And I’m not sure why after ten years of covering this president, the American media still cannot understand, when President Trump says he’s gonna do something, he’s going to do it.” Hannity backed this up, saying the media should have had an open enough mind to learn about the president, but instead creates a false image of him.
This view is in sharp contrast to what fact checkers have found. CNN’s fact checker Daniel Dale has assessed the president as making numerous falsehoods and long-debunked lies about the Iran War and other topics. Reports have also emerged about Trump’s team heading to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran, though Tehran reportedly believes the move is a trap.
During Trump’s previous time in office, The Washington Post‘s Fact Checker team tracked his statements closely. According to their final count, the president made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency.
The number of false claims grew as his term went on, averaging about six per day in his first year, 16 in the second, 22 in the third, and 39 in his final year, adding up to 30,573 total, or about 21 per day by the end.
Researchers noted that the public reaction to these claims was often one of apathy and despair, which they suggest was intentional. This approach has been compared to a Russian propaganda method called the “firehose of falsehood,” which involves the delivery of relentless, rapid, and false information.
Glenn Kessler, the editor and chief writer of the Fact Checker team, described the project as “a terrible time suck,” and said that if the president were to win another term, his team might need to hire more people to keep up with the volume of claims.
Separately, Trump is also making news on the legal front, with reports that he is moving to settle a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, with his own appointees potentially having to approve the payout. The gap between the administration’s view of Trump’s transparency and the documented record of his past statements remains a major point of division in public debate.
Published: Apr 21, 2026 11:45 am