President Donald Trump publicly humiliated his own press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on air in the Oval Office, and White House insiders say the moment exposed a total loss of control happening well beneath the surface. It was not a slip of the tongue or a bad joke that landed wrong. It was a window into how Trump behaves when the pressure builds and the poll numbers stop cooperating.
Trump has never been comfortable with approval ratings he cannot spin. When the numbers turn against him, he looks for someone to blame. That instinct has followed him from the campaign trail all the way into his second term.
On March 31, reporters asked Trump about his sharp drop in the polls. He responded with a rant that started with the media and ended with a moment nobody in the room expected. He pointed across the Oval Office and called out Leavitt directly, right in front of the cameras. “The Washington Post is almost extinct,” Trump said first, warming up his grievances.
Then came the part that stopped people mid-scroll. “I got 93 percent bad publicity. Some people say 97, but between 93 and 97. A person that gets 97 percent of bad stories,” Trump continued. He then pointed at his own press secretary and said: “Maybe Karoline is doing a poor job, I don’t know. She’s my representative; you’re doing a terrible job. Should we keep her? I think we’ll keep her.”
Trump: I got 93% bad publicity. Maybe Karoline is doing a poor job. pic.twitter.com/HINANqxbs9
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2026
Leavitt is the same person who shows up every single day to defend Trump in front of a hostile press room. She deflects tough questions, pushes back on reporters, and shields the president from bad headlines. That loyalty, apparently, was not enough to protect her from being thrown under the bus on national television.
The moment landed at the worst possible time for the White House. New polling from YouGov and The Economist showed Trump’s net approval crashing to minus 23 points. Only 35 percent of Americans said they approve of how he is doing his job, while 58 percent disapprove.
A separate University of Massachusetts Amherst survey placed his approval even lower, at just 33 percent. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they disapprove of his performance. Polls from Fox News and Quinnipiac University told the same story, with disapproval outpacing approval by wide margins across the board.
The decline is not just coming from Democrats or independents. Among Trump’s own 2024 voters, support has quietly softened. His approval within that group dropped from 84 percent just three weeks ago to 76 percent, a warning sign that even his most loyal supporters are beginning to waver.
Political scientists behind the UMass poll pointed directly at the economy as the main driver. Large majorities of Americans say Trump is not handling inflation or jobs effectively. His tariff policy, once promoted as a cornerstone of his economic vision, is now drawing negative marks from nearly two-thirds of survey respondents.
The Iran war, rising gas prices, and a partial government shutdown have added even more weight to an already struggling administration. Each of these issues is eating into public trust at the same time. The pressure from all directions is building fast.
Online, the reaction to Trump’s comments about Leavitt reflected deep frustration. “Trump gets 93% bad publicity and blames Karoline Leavitt,” one observer wrote. “Not the Iran escalation. Not rising gas prices. Not global instability. Always someone else.”
Not everyone agreed with the pile-on directed at Leavitt. “After all his goof-ups, is he expecting positive publicity,” another commenter wrote. “Whoever Karoline is, she has done a great job. Be grateful.”
Many others saw the moment as proof of a much longer pattern inside Trump’s inner circle. “He has a bus schedule to throw everyone of these clowns under, but they don’t see it,” one social media post read.
Some observers went even further, connecting the Leavitt moment to a defining character trait. “When everything goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault — the generals, fake news, Obama, Biden, NATO, now even your own spokesperson,” one person wrote. “At some point, the pattern isn’t a coincidence, it’s character.”
Inside the White House, aides have tried to push back on the negative polling narrative. A spokesperson argued that the “ultimate poll” was the 2024 election, when nearly 80 million Americans voted for Trump. Officials say his policies are still taking shape and results take time.
But the steady drumbeat of unfavorable surveys is making Republicans nervous heading into the 2026 midterms. Low approval ratings could drag down candidates in competitive Senate and House races. Economic anxiety and foreign policy tension are not going away anytime soon.
Trump’s decision to publicly attack his own press secretary only adds another layer of chaos to an already difficult moment. For critics, it confirms what they have long suspected. The administration is far more focused on managing perception than on fixing the real problems driving voters away.
