Karoline Leavitt really put her foot in her mouth after a remark about Gen-Z went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The 28-year-old mom of two often gets the side eye not just for working as President Donald Trump’s White House Secretary. But also for her marriage to her 61-year-old husband, Nicholas Riccio.
Leavitt got torched over comments during her sit-down with Fox News host Jesse Watters on “Primetime.”
“This generation, my generation, I hate to say it, Gen Z and those younger than me have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths,” she said on July 2.
She further humiliated herself, claiming her peers are used to “getting everything handed to them.”
Joy Behar and the rest of “The View” hosts watched the clip and ripped into Leavitt instantly.
Joy Behar on Karoline Leavitt: She got an education. She married a rich guy. Talk about a DEI hire.
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) July 9, 2026
Sunny Hostin: It's really rich for her. At 28 she married a 65-year-old. He is worth $61 million. I'm not sure where comes off saying Gen Zers are lazy
pic.twitter.com/X0IAQLcehE
Behar then pivoted straight to Leavitt’s personal life, pointing to her marriage to millionaire New Hampshire real estate developer Nicholas Riccio, who is more than twice her age.
“She has all these things…got an education. She married a rich guy, so talk about a DEI hire,” Behar said.
Sunny Hostin backed her up, arguing that Leavitt’s own financial cushion makes her lecture ring hollow.
“It’s really rich for her to, at 28 years old, married to a 65-year-old — that’s her choice, he’s worth $61 million — so I’m not sure where she comes off saying Gen Zers are lazy,” Hostin said, noting that two-thirds of Gen Z is now in the workforce and 42 percent say they’re living paycheck to paycheck.
Alyssa Griffin tried to play peacemaker, noting Leavitt has “had a big career in politics and media” and made over a million dollars herself.
Behar wasn’t having it. “She’s 28 years old!” she shot back.
X lit up within hours.
“I cannot believe she Married a guy that’s old enough to be her grandfather,” one wrote.
Others weren’t gentler.
“And let’s be clear: the minute Karoline gets bigger than she already is, he’s gonna kick her to the curb. You heard it here first,” someone predicted.
“Wow I agree with The View for the first time in my life,” another admitted.
“I would say marrying a man old enough to be her father is the lazy way out. Just my opinion,” one wrote.
Not everyone sided with the panel.
A business owner chimed, “I’m a business owner and I will tell you right now. Gen Z is lazy as f—k. They have no work ethic at all. They want to be paid for doing NOTHING.”
Others turned on the hosts themselves: “Nothing more humorous than old catty nags envying a younger woman who married rich. It’s transparent.” One Gen Zer clapped back at critics of the critics: “Why are they offended? They aren’t Gen Z. I am and can admit, WE ARE!”
And simply: “Jealousy is so unattractive.”
Leavitt tried to clean it up days later with a 404-word statement claiming she’d been quoted “out of context,” insisting “many Gen Z Americans are hardworking, entrepreneurial, and deeply patriotic.” Critics called the walk-back pointless.
I am seeing a lot of bad faith actors take my comments from this interview out of context. So here’s the full interview, and let me expound.
— Karoline Leavitt (@karolineleavitt) July 5, 2026
This interview was about the rise of communism on the Left, and I was asked by Jesse Watters why so many young people are buying the false… https://t.co/dbnfxZAEqV
So why is “DEI hire” even the insult of choice? Because Trump made it one.
On January 21, 2025, he signed Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which branded diversity, equity and inclusion programs a threat to “individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination” and ordered federal agencies to scrap them. The order also revoked LBJ’s 1965 affirmative action mandate for federal contractors.
Which is exactly why Behar’s jab landed the way it did.
Trump’s executive order was built on the idea that merit — not identity or connections — should determine who gets ahead.
Leavitt’s own rise, from Fox News intern to the youngest press secretary in history, is believed to have been fueled less by traditional credentials than by her fit as a young, camera-ready face for Trump’s message.
That contrast is what made the line sting and why so much of the blowback came from Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, and the boomers.
