WATCH: Karoline Leavitt Drops Receipts, Pummels Reporter After ‘Gotcha’ Question Backfires

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt went toe-to-toe with a combative reporter this week after he accused her of lying about Democrats’ push for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. Instead of backing down, Leavitt dropped a barrage of facts and figures that left the so-called “gotcha” question in shambles.

The reporter quickly insisted U.S. law prohibits such benefits. “It’s a 1996 law saying that they cannot give unauthorized immigrants any federally subsidized health care coverage through Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program,” she said.

Leavitt then asked, “Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens in the United States of America?”

“The Democrats’ proposal, their continuing resolution — let me just reiterate, the Republicans’ continuing resolution was a clean, continuing resolution,” Leavitt went on. “There was no partisan politics injected into it. There were no conservative wish lists injected to it. What the Republicans want and still want to this very second is a clean, continuing resolution to fund the United States government.”

“What did the Democrats want in their continuing resolution?” Leavitt asked. “They inserted a provision to undo a provision in the Working Families Tax Cut, the one big beautiful bill, that ended taxpayer-funded health care… benefits for illegal aliens. Democrats’ proposal would require Medicaid to pay more for emergency care provided to illegal aliens than Medicaid does for American patients who are disabled, elderly, or children. And this bill would have also allowed California to continue a gimmick that funds its Medicaid for Illegals program.”

Leavitt stressed that the Biden administration reversed Trump-era reforms: “Those are things that we ended, the Trump administration ended, with the passage and the signage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. And it is an undisputed fact, a fact that under the Biden administration, illegal aliens were absolutely receiving taxpayer-funded health care benefits.”

She then cited the numbers: “In fact, in fiscal year 2024, Medicaid costs for emergency services for illegal immigrants skyrocketed by 142 percent from the previous year to $9.1 billion. That’s $9.1 billion taxpayer dollars that were going to emergency services for illegals.”

WATCH:

🚨 JUST IN: Karoline Leavitt PUMMELS a fake news “reporter” who got combative and accused her of LYING that Democrats want taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals

LEAVITT: “Are you DENYING that Medicaid money has NEVER gone to illegal aliens?”

REPORTER: I’m asking you if you… pic.twitter.com/bxRt5lhvXW

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 3, 2025

“Between President Trump’s last full fiscal year under his first administration and Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year, Medicaid spending on emergency services for illegal immigrants nearly tripled. There was an increase of 196 percent between 2020 and 2024. And I have a chart here for you, and I’m more than happy to email it to you,” she continued.

Leavitt turned from statistics to real-life consequences. “I’d also like to add, because some were asking dishonest questions yesterday about emergency rooms. In Southern California, according to healthcare professionals, in 2023, under the Biden administration, Southern California’s, quote, entire healthcare system was being bombarded with illegal immigrants and forcing American patients to endure longer wait times.”

Leavitt pointed to Denver, Colorado, where she said 8,000 illegal immigrants made 20,000 visits to the city’s health system in 2023, racking up more than $10 million in uncompensated bills that ultimately fell on American taxpayers. She argued that Denver’s safety-net hospital was forced to turn patients away because of the surge, while UC Health Hospitals in 2024 reported their system was under significant stress from the growing number of migrants.