Overview
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a screenshot of her exchange with HuffPost’s S. V. Dáte, calling him a “far left hack” and telling him to stop sending “disingenuous, biased, and bullsh*t questions.”
- Dáte’s original text asked whether the president understood Budapest’s significance under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and pressed, “Who suggested Budapest?”
- Leavitt replied “Your mom did,” and White House communications director Steven Cheung also responded “Your mom,” according to multiple reports.
- After Leavitt’s post, Dáte publicly asked her to answer the question, and there has been no official explanation of the venue choice.
- Coverage notes concerns that selecting Budapest could be sensitive for Ukraine, and reports say a Trump–Putin meeting there is expected but not yet dated or finalized.