Politics

NEW: Karoline Leavitt Spites Liberal Media With Epic Move: ‘Do Not Respond’

Published

3 weeks ago

April 9, 2025

The Trump White House is doubling down on its stance against what officials call “gender ideology,” this time turning the tables on the media.

Senior members of the Trump administration’s press team are now refusing to respond to journalists who include gender pronouns in their email signatures—an eyebrow-raising policy that’s left some mainstream reporters stunned. In at least three known instances, top White House aides rejected media inquiries solely because the reporters identified themselves with pronouns like “he/him” or “they/them.”

“As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a New York Times reporter who had asked about the future of a climate observatory.

The move echoes an earlier directive under President Donald Trump’s administration that barred federal employees from listing their preferred pronouns in official email signatures. At the time, the White House described the practice as a byproduct of a broader ideological push.

Now, Leavitt and others are applying the same approach to journalists who, they argue, prioritize political signaling over facts.

Washington, DC USA – Feb. 22, 2025 – White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters following a flight on Marine One with President Trump.

“Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story,” Leavitt said in a separate email.

Katie Miller, a senior adviser at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responded similarly when contacted by another Times reporter about government record keeping.

“As a matter of policy, I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts,” she said. “This applies to all reporters who have pronouns in their signature.”

Conservative leaders have long viewed the trend as political activism disguised as etiquette—pushing back against what they say is an effort to redefine gender in defiance of science. Leavitt and Miller’s position appears to reflect that concern—and they’re not backing down.

President Donald J. Trump speaks with members of the press prior to boarding Marine One to begin his trip to South Carolina. Washington, D.C. – February 28, 2020

Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, dismissed the media backlash in a terse email. “If The New York Times spent the same amount of time actually reporting the truth as they do being obsessed with pronouns, maybe they would be a half-decent publication.”

This hardline stance isn’t just affecting Times reporters. Matt Berg, a reporter for the left-leaning Crooked Media, tried an experiment in February after hearing about the administration’s new approach. Normally, he doesn’t include pronouns in his signature, but for one email to Miller, he added “(he/him)”—just to see what would happen.

The result? He received the exact same type of rejection email.

“I find it baffling that they care more about pronouns than giving journalists accurate information, but here we are,” Berg told The Times.

The Trump administration has made transgender policy a central pillar of its second-term agenda. On Day One, President Trump signed an executive order recognizing only two sexes: male and female.

“Evading tough questions certainly runs counter to transparent engagement with free and independent press reporting. But refusing to answer a straightforward request to explain the administration’s policies because of the formatting of an email signature is both a concerning and baffling choice, especially from the highest press office in the U.S. government,” a spokesperson for The Times said.

But for Trump officials, the message is clear.