Donald Trump has shown warning signs of an obsession with Karoline Leavitt, which has people wondering why Melania Trump has not stepped in. During an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty on August 1, POTUS was asked for his thoughts on multiple people, which led to Leavitt’s name coming up. Being Donald’s press secretary, people likely expected him to gush over Leavitt, but his answer went beyond that and bordered on unhinged. “She’s become a star. It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun,” Donald responded. The president then asked if Leavitt was present, and continued praising her. “She’s a star, and she’s great. She’s a great person,” he added.
Trump on Karoline Leavitt: She’s become a star. It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips. The way they move. pic.twitter.com/w1IpjKKcD7
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 2, 2025
Unsurprisingly, the focus on his press secretary’s “face” and “lips” had people raising their eyebrows as clips of the exchange with Finnerty were shared online. “Anyone else think Trump’s comment is creepy and bizarre?” one X user asked. “Ew. The worst part is she probably likes this too,” another added. Some pointed out that Leavitt’s huge age gap with her husband — Nicholas Riccio, who is 32 years her senior — made Donald a viable romantic partner. “He’s old enough to be her husband’s brother,” a member of the Twitterati joked.
The knee-jerk response to the focus on Leavitt’s physical attributes had some folks wondering about the status of the relationship between her and Donald. “Are they having an affair?” an X user asked. Another mentioned how the president’s wife had been conspicuously absent during most of the president’s second term. “Have you seen Melania lately?” they responded. To further muddle the matter, an insider claimed that Donald had surrounded himself with Melania replacements.
Does Karoline Leavitt have Melania Trump qualities?
According to a writer who spent time in the White House during the first Trump administration, Donald Trump hired Melania Trump clones as staffers. Author Michael Wolff spent time around POTUS in 2018 for his book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” and noticed some aesthetic similarities between many of the women hired to work for the administration. “One of the things he is doing is populating his world with women who he, I suppose, in another life or at another stage of life, might have been involved with,” Wolff said, appearing on “The Daily Beast Podcast” in July 2025. “I mean, they look like Melania, in fact. So they’re a kind of sexual surrogacy in its own peculiar fashion,” he added. After the podcast aired, Wolff’s claims made the rounds on social media, and despite having contrasting hair color, some people believed Karoline Leavitt fit the bill. “From a very certain perspective, u can actually see the similarity between Melania and Karoline Leavitt,” someone wrote.
That same month, Leavitt was with Donald and his team when he travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The press secretary uploaded an Instagram carousel from the trip, and the first slide was a snap of her and Donald cozying up for the pic. This sparked speculation about their relationship. “Botox Barbie with her next husband,” an Instagram user commented. In fact, Leavitt has been routinely roasted on the social media platform whenever she posts pics with the president. She uploaded a photo walking alongside Donald outside the White House in April 2025, and followers brought up Leavitt’s penchant for dating older men. “You don’t have [to] give Trump his sponge bath every night,” a troll wrote.
