The White House on Monday offered a revealing glimpse into how far President Donald Trump is willing to go to distance himself from his own administration’s rhetoric following the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, as press secretary Karoline Leavitt struggled to respond to questions from reporters about how senior officials characterized the shooting victim.
Leavitt faced sustained pressure during a Monday press briefing over whether Trump supports comments made by top aides who swiftly framed Pretti as a violent extremist after he was fatally shot by Department of Homeland Security officers in Minnesota.
While Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller spoke with certainty and force over the weekend, the White House appeared much less confident when asked to stand behind those claims when the work week began.
The exchange that set the tone came when ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce directly confronted Leavitt about the administration’s language.
“Secretary Noem said Alex Pretti committed an act of domestic terrorism. Stephen Miller labeled Pretti a domestic terrorist. Does the president agree with them?” Bruce asked.
Leavitt replied cautiously. “Look, as I’ve said, I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”
Noem had asserted that Pretti engaged federal agents and framed the incident as domestic extremism, while Miller went further, publicly portraying Pretti as someone who intended to kill law enforcement officers. Leavitt’s answer stopped short of endorsing either claim, signaling an effort to separate the president from his own officials’ rhetoric.
Bruce immediately followed up.
“Was he alarmed to hear his top officials referring to him in that way? Rushing to that judgment?”
Leavitt did not respond. Instead, she skipped over the question entirely and called on another reporter without explanation.
But the unanswered question did not go unnoticed in the room.
Agence France-Presse reporter Danny Kemp picked up where Bruce left off, pressing Leavitt on the human impact of Miller’s remarks. In her response, the press secretary appeared unsettled and visibly stumbled through her response, a rare lapse for an official whose role centers on projecting control and clarity.
“Will Stephen Miller be apologizing to the family of Alex Pretti for calling him ‘an assassin’ trying to murder federal agents, despite the fact that, as you say, this is still under investigation?” Kemp asked.
Leavitt declined to address the substance of the question. “Again, this incident remains under investigation and nobody here at the White House, including the President of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets” she said.
Leavitt continued — stammering — “We mourn for the parents. As a mother myself, of course I cannot image the loss of life, especially losing one’s child. And that same empathy from the president goes for the parents of angel families, parents of victims of illegal alien crime across our country as well. And that’s exactly why the president continues to be wholeheartedly committed to deporting the worst of the worst criminals from our country.”
Her clear deflection only intensified scrutiny. Clips of the briefing circulated widely on social media, where viewers zeroed in on Leavitt’s noticeable frustration, her refusal to answer follow-ups, and what many described as a rattled performance.
“They’re all so rattled,” one Threads user wrote. “She looks angry,” someone else pointed out, suggesting that it’s the public, and Pretti’s family, who should be outraged.
Several commentators praised the reporters’ coordination, pointing out that Kemp’s question directly built on Bruce’s unanswered follow-up. “Good to see reporters work in solidarity for once,” another Threads user said.
One reaction on X distilled the moment into a broader critique of the administration: “Are the wheels starting to come off the regime?”
The briefing came amid growing scrutiny of how the administration has handled the political fallout between Trump and his team. The president broke with the Department of Homeland Security’s narrative in a Sunday interview with The Wall Street Journal, declining to say whether the officer who shot Pretti acted appropriately.
Noting that investigators are still reviewing the case, Trump said, “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination. I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it. But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
That internal frustration comes as questions quickly mount over how Pretti’s death is being investigated.
Several reports indicated Tuesday that the Justice Department has declined to pursue a traditional civil rights investigation, and Department of Homeland Security components, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, are leading internal reviews.
Minnesota authorities have said they were not granted access to key materials, raising concerns about independence and transparency. Former FBI agent Rob D’Amico warned to MS Now that having the Department of Homeland Security oversee both sides of the investigation presents serious issues.
Trump said on Jan. 27 the investigation will be fair and closely monitored, but Leavitt’s careful distancing from Noem and Miller, combined with her repeated refusals to answer follow-up questions, painted a picture of an administration retreating from its own words while offering few answers to the public as scrutiny intensifies.
