Karoline Leavitt likely didn’t expect a campaign moment to come back with such force, but the internet has a way of finding what people like to keep buried.
A snapshot captures the now-28-year-old candidate still finding her footing, prompting side-by-side comparisons of how much the White House Press Secretary’s look has changed from her early campaign days to the version now dominating national television.
The Real America’s Voice footage — originally tied to a failed congressional bid — has since taken on a second life online with a clip from her 2022 run for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, reminding viewers of her early political ambitions long before she became a familiar face behind the White House podium.
As often happens in today’s media climate, the focus has drifted away from what she was actually talking about and toward appearance. Many people claimed her lips look different in the three-year-old video.
Once the clip spread across social platforms, commentary quickly followed. One Threads user zeroed in bluntly, asking, “Where’s the top lip?”
Another replied with biting sarcasm, “She couldn’t afford it yet. This was before she married… .”
View on Threads
A third comment framed the moment as a before-and-after reveal, writing, “Ahhhh pre lip filler Karoline.”
Others leaned into the nostalgia of it all, with one person joking, “I’m just here for the upper lip throwback.”
The renewed attention didn’t come out of nowhere.
Leavitt’s lips have been a recurring subject of online chatter for months, particularly after a magazine profile featured an extreme close-up of her face.
Well, if you call syphilis-lips normal, then yes. https://t.co/rzxaQqKTND pic.twitter.com/sI1doW71Y3
— PaulleyTicks (@PaulleyTicks) January 18, 2026
That image sparked its own wave of reactions, with viewers fixating on the glossy red bumps on top of her lips rather than the substance of the profile itself.
Those lips, now a little plumper, are still making rounds.
One user shared on Jan. 17 an altered image exaggerating the close-up blisters on her mouth, writing, “Well, if you call [those]-lips normal, then yes.”
Karoline Leavitt has aged 40 years in the past 12 months. pic.twitter.com/IPhNi8cMbG
— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) January 22, 2026
The mother of one finds herself like other women in Trump’s orbit, fighting rumors that she has had work done to look the part.
This latest round of scrutiny unfolded alongside a separate controversy that briefly pushed Leavitt into fashion discourse.
As White House press secretary, she criticized New York City first lady Rama Duwaji for wearing designer boots to her husband Zohran Mamdani’s swearing-in ceremony. Framing the footwear as hypocritical, Leavitt’s remarks drew swift backlash and redirected attention back to her own taste for luxury fashion. Many also alleged that while she was complaining about how much New York’s first lady’s footwear cost, her own cosmetic work, specifically around her lips, was just as expensive.
In the end, the resurfaced clip keeps circling back to the same visual contrast: the thinner upper lip from years ago versus the fuller and blistery look people see today. Whether nostalgia, curiosity, or pure internet fixation, it’s that then-and-now comparison — more than anything she’s said —that continues to fuel the chatter.
