The White House pushed back hard on New York Times reporter Katie Rogers’ claim that President Donald Trump is showing signs of “fatigue” in his second term. During Monday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted the irony of Rogers’ piece, noting that this is the same reporter at the same outlet who spent years publishing glowing stories about former President Joe Biden’s supposedly “vigorous” health — even as his public appearances told a very different story.
Leavitt pointed out the contrast to underscore what the administration sees as yet another example of selective framing by legacy media when it comes to covering Trump:
?@PressSec HUMILIATES NYT Reporter Katie Rogers for LYING to the American people.
NYT wrote POTUS 'Might not be fit for the job.'
"That is UNEQUIVOCALLY FALSE & written by the SAME outlet, SAME reporter who wrote 'Biden is doing just fine after tripping…"
"Are you KIDDING?" pic.twitter.com/xqOD3pPZD5
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 1, 2025
“One fake news story over the weekend, before I let you all go, from the New York Times that took about one-third of the president’s daily calendar and his daily schedule, and said that ‘he’s doing less than he did in his first term or he might not be fit for the job,’ that is unequivocally false,” Leavitt said.
“And it’s deeply unfortunate that this story was written by the same outlet and the same reporter who wrote this,” she added, as she held up a copy of Rogers’ NYT piece, “Biden is doing 100 percent fine after tripping while boarding Air Force One.”
“Same outlet, same reporter who wrote that President Trump is not fit for the job,” Leavitt continued. “Are you kidding me? “Another one [article], ‘Biden declared ‘healthy’ and ‘vigorous’ after this first presidential physical.’ Hmmm, I don’t see headlines like that too often about this president. Again, same reporter, same outlet, who wrote falsely over the weekend that President Trump is not fit for the job. I can assure you, he absolutely is.”
She wrapped up her remarks by citing three separate, detailed White House medical reports affirming that President Trump is in excellent health.
Later in the briefing, reporters pressed the administration about the new media-bias website launched over the weekend, which calls out inaccurate stories and misleading headlines about Trump and his administration. Leavitt was unequivocal: the White House will name the outlets that publish false reports — and the individual correspondents behind them — “much to the dismay” of several members of the press corps sitting in the room.
.@PressSec: "It goes to our original promise on Day One to hold the media accountable… there are so many fake stories that are unfortunately written… the standard for journalism unfortunately has dropped to such a historic low in this country." https://t.co/9saAIUpZsG pic.twitter.com/Pkh7RUrP9s
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 1, 2025
“It goes to our original promise on Day One to hold the media accountable,” Leavitt said. “Because unfortunately, and we deal with this all day, every day around here, there are so many fake stories that are unfortunately written.”
“That have inaccurate characterizations of meetings that took place, and it’s all based on anonymous sourcing,” she added. “And the standard for journalism, unfortunately, has dropped to such a historic low in this country.”
“And again we deal with this every day,” Leavitt continued. “Where you can have an anonymous source who has no idea what they’re talking about, zero credibility, call up a reporter in Washington and say ‘Hey, I heard this.’ And then the next thing you know, it’s on the front page of the New York Times. It’s really incomprehensible.”
