Karoline Leavitt, 29, the former White House press secretary, told Fox News host Sean Hannity, 64, that President Donald Trump curses a lot, in an interview that aired Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
Hannity put the question to her directly during the interview. “Does he curse?” he asked.
“Yeah, he does,” she said. “He curses a lot, actually. Well, not particularly on those calls. Just, in general.”
The question came up as the two discussed tense moments in Trump’s diplomacy, including his calls to Vladimir Putin and to China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Those conversations have occasionally turned sharp over the past year and a half.
Leavitt told Hannity that Trump, 80, sounds much the same behind closed doors as he does in public.
A Lunch With Starmer
Leavitt described a lunch with then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. By her account, Trump laid into his host over U.K. immigration policy.
Trump told Starmer his policies were stupid, insisted he knew the country and its people, and told him they hated what he was doing, Leavitt said. Starmer simply sat there, according to her account.
The Starmer anecdote arrived without profanity attached.
Apologies From the Press Corps
Leavitt also said some White House correspondents privately apologized to her for asking what she called “unfair” questions.
The Hannity interview was a retrospective on her stint as press secretary, and she used part of it to revisit her dealings with the reporters she had faced from the podium.
Her broader message was that the president critics watch on television is the same man his staff sees in private.
Leavitt stepped down as press secretary in August 2026 to spend more time with her family. During her tenure she became a frequent and combative presence at the podium.
A Record of Rough Language
Trump has described political adversaries — among them Rep. Thomas Massie and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — as “stupid,” “nutjobs,” “disasters,” “losers” and “low-IQ individuals.”
In June 2025, with Israel and Iran both threatening a fragile ceasefire, Trump vented to reporters that the two countries had been fighting so long that they “don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
A day later, pressed on that outburst, Trump defended himself. He told reporters that getting his way sometimes requires tough talk.
At a Las Vegas rally during the 2024 campaign, Trump used an unprintable epithet to describe an immigration order signed by former President Joe Biden. Supporters in the hall chanted the word back at him.
Across both terms, the language has surfaced in front of reporters, at rallies and inside the White House itself.
