Karoline Leavitt shared new photos on Wednesday, Dec. 17, in what appeared to be a subtle response to a recent Vanity Fair photoshoot.
In a new Instagram post, Leavitt, 28, posted images of herself adjusting her hair while getting ready for a live interview. She wore a leopard-print jacket with a black turtleneck and red nail polish.
“Behind the scenes before a live interview on the North Lawn of the White House, captured by @anna.money 📸,” Leavitt wrote.
The post arrived shortly after Leavitt appeared in Vanity Fair’s recent series featuring several members of President Donald Trump’s administration, tied to interviews with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Leavitt — described by Vanity Fair as the administration’s “mouthpiece” — was photographed in a tight close-up portrait that showed what appeared to be lip filler injection sites. The image quickly sparked strong reactions online, including comments like “jumpscare” and “no trigger warning is insane” under Vanity Fair’s Instagram post.
The portrait was taken by photographer Christopher Anderson, known for close-up images that have also appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, and other major outlets.
“Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years,” Anderson told The Independent after the Vanity Fair story and its images circulated widely on Tuesday, Dec. 16. “Particularly, political portraits that I’ve done over the years. I like the idea of penetrating the theater of politics.”
Anderson also photographed Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs James Blair.
“I know there’s a lot to be made with, ‘Oh, he intentionally is trying to make people look bad’ and that kind of thing — that’s not the case,” Anderson told The Independent. “If you look at my photograph work, I’ve done a lot of close-ups in the same style with people of all political stripes.”
After the interview, the White House issued a statement criticizing the photoshoot, saying it was “clear that Vanity Fair intentionally photographed Karoline and the White House staff in bizarre ways, and deliberately edited the photos, to try to demean and embarrass them.”
Leavitt has not publicly commented on the Vanity Fair portrait.
