President Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sparked a viral social media meltdown after she posted a staged photo of herself taken at the White House that she clearly thought projected strength and competence.
The only problem? Eagle-eyed viewers zoomed in on the newspaper she’s holding, and a closer inspection of the back of the paper leaves viewers stunned.
That’s because the paper Leavitt is astonishingly holding up shows a satirical 2017 political drawing by the legendary late cartoonist Pat Oliphant depicting Trump as a Nazi.
The photo of Leavitt dressed in a pink suit, looking at her smartphone while holding the paper, along with close-up shots of the cartoon, quickly went viral.
The artwork at the center of the uproar shows the president looking at himself in a mirror, dressed in Nazi attire with a swastika armband on his upper arm, as former White House strategist and close Trump ally Steve Bannon looks on.
In the drawing, Trump asks, “How do I look, Herr Bannon?”
Bannon, looking like the Grim Reaper, is giving Trump the Nazi one-arm salute and responds, “Exquisite as usual, Herr Trump.”
The Oliphant cartoon also featured a small pig exclaiming, “Heil Trump!”
Social media erupted in a frenzy of speculation and ridicule about Leavitt’s blunder with some suggesting what appears to be a mistake was actually a very intentional move on Leavitt’s part.
“She’s too stupid to understand the cartoon,” an X user proclaimed.
Another weighed in, “She’s disgusting.”
X poster Kyle pointed out, “We’re not working with most ‘aware’ administration here.”
This commenter noted the elephant in the room, “They aren’t even hiding themselves anymore.”
OK! Magazine reported Leavitt posed for the photos as part of a story on White House make-up artist Brittany Danielle published in the Independent Women’s Forum.
Danielle does make-up for Leavitt, and gushed on Instagram, “Thank you, @independentwomensforum, for reaching out and writing such a beautiful article. I’m truly honored to have been featured and so grateful for the opportunity,” AOL.com reported.
“I’m also incredibly thankful that @karolineleavitt, the world’s greatest Press Secretary, was so gracious in sharing her time for this photoshoot and feature. It truly meant so much,” she added.
Oliphant, who died earlier this month, frequently featured Trump as a fascist in his artwork, never hiding his clear and intense contempt for the Republican leader.
But according to Daily Express U.S., Oliphant had his critics. His portrayal of former President Jimmy Carter focused on Carter’s farming roots and Southern stereotypes, and a cartoon of Ronald Reagan showed him with an earplug because Oliphant believed he didn’t care about average Americans. He is also known for exaggerating former President Barack Obama’s ears.
Oliphant also tackled sensitive issues through his satirical cartoons, including the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal that erupted in the early 2000s and Israel’s 2008 military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the Daily Express reported.
Groups including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Asian American Journalists Association condemned some of his drawings as deeply offensive, accusing him of promoting stereotypes and racist imagery.
