HOW DO YOU DO IT, KAROLINE?

Dr. Common Good

Dr. Common Good has a question to ask of press secretary Karoline Leavitt: How do you do it? How do you get up, look at yourself in the mirror, and then stand up at the podium and lie like there will never again be an opportunity to lie?

Let’s just take your press conference on Wednesday March 4 as one of many examples. Among other things, you said:

President Trump didn’t start the war, Iran did: No, Iran did not. Trump claimed to be in negotiations with Iran about their nuclear program and, during these negotiations, launched the attack.

One reason for the attack was an imminent threat from ballistic missiles: The president, you said, “had a feeling” that an attack from Iran was imminent. But there was and is no intelligence supporting any claim of imminent threat from Iranian ballistic missiles, or any intelligence that demonstrates that they even have an intercontinental ballistic missile capability that could threaten the US.

Another reason for the attack was to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability: First of all, the Trump administration claimed that their June, 2025 attacks “completely eliminated and obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, and later claimed that the attack had significantly set back Iran’s nuclear program. If that is true, then what was the nuclear threat prompting this attack?

You claimed that President Barack “Hussein” Obama sent pallets of cash to the Iranians to finance their terrorist operations and signed “stupid and naïve deals that put Iran on the path of developing nuclear bombs”:  Aside from the intentional and repugnant “red meat” repetition of President Obama’s middle name, this is patently false. The 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, spearheaded by President Obama and more properly called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US. The deal imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to ensure that it could only be used for peaceful purposes, not for nuclear weapons. Those restrictions were guaranteed via inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Only after the IAEA verified compliance with those terms were oil and financial sanctions lifted and Iranian assets unfrozen. Experts, including the Council on Foreign Relations, estimated at the time that the deal would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon for more than a decade, and if they tried to build a weapon at that point the sanctions would go back in effect.

But Trump, in his first term, pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions, calling it “horrible.” What had been a successful deal then fell apart, and Trump has never been able to come up with anything better, or even close. So, what does he resort to? A military attack that will destabilize the region, cause untold harm, and virtually guarantee that whatever regime comes to power in Iran will never, ever again negotiate anything with the United States. Some deal, Trump.  

“The world knows this president’s preference is always peace and diplomacy first. Look no further than the eight additional global conflicts he has ended in the past year as proof”: I don’t know how Ms. Leavitt spews out such garbage, with an apparent straight face. Sorry to disabuse you of your ridiculous fantasy, Karoline, but what the world actually knows is that Trump is a mindless, ignorant and trigger-happy purveyor of military force to attain whatever goal he fancies, never mind the consequent destruction of long-term alliances and people’s lives, or the breach of international law. Let’s just recap some of his record, in just one year since re-election: Threatening Canada, and Greenland, with military force if his demands are not met. Attacking small boats in the Caribbean and killing their occupants with no proof that they are drug trafficking boats as claimed, and absolutely no proof that they are transporting illegal drugs to the United States. Without any authorization from Congress or legal basis, using the American military to depose a sitting head of government* by force in Venezuela. And now, without any authorization from Congress or legal basis, attacking Iran, and in the process assassinating its leader*. Please, Karoline, spare everyone the silly and unsubstantiated claim of stopping eight conflicts.  

It is obvious to anyone not incapacitated by a hallucinatory Trumpian fantasy that Trump is unstable, stunningly ignorant of world history or any history, not bound by his oath of office to protect and defend the US Constitution, and a dangerous narcissist whose only motivation is to assert power by any means, and to have that power acknowledged with either flattery or rank subservience. And it is a tragedy, for the American people and peoples of the world, that he has a willing team of sycophants like yourself and the puppet Defense Secretary Hegseth, along with a spineless, craven Republican party, to facilitate his destruction of peace and decency.      

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*Regardless of whether or not that leader/head of government is viewed negatively.