21.10.2025 07:30
White House spokesperson Leavitt responded to a reporter's question about who chose Budapest for a possible meeting between President Trump and Russian leader Putin by saying, "Your mother chose." Leavitt later clarified his controversial response, stating that the reporter from Huffington Post who asked the question was "an activist attacking Trump."
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, after a reporter's question about who chose Budapest, the capital of Hungary, for a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded with "Your mother chose." She then referred to the reporter as a "leftist activist attacking Trump."
After Leavitt's response of "Your mother chose" to the question from S.V. Date, a reporter for the Huffington Post, "Who chose Budapest?", she made a written statement from the social media account of the U.S.-based company X.
"A LEFTIST ACTIVIST WHO HAS BEEN ATTACKING TRUMP FOR A LONG TIME"
Describing reporter S.V. Date as "a leftist activist who has been attacking Trump for a long time and repeating Democratic rhetoric," Leavitt stated, "Activists who act like real reporters are harming the profession."
HAD STATED IT CARRIED SYMBOLIC MEANING
Meanwhile, in a news article dated October 17 by the Huffington Post, reporter Date mentioned in a message to Spokesperson Leavitt that Trump's choice of Budapest for peace talks regarding Ukraine carried symbolic meaning.
In the same message, after reminding that the Budapest Memorandum, signed in 1994 by the UK, the US, and Russia, provided guarantees for Ukraine's territorial integrity following Ukraine's denuclearization, Date had asked who chose this city for the Trump-Putin meeting. Leavitt had responded with "your mother chose" to that.