Karoline Leavitt slams Vanity Fair for 'disingenuous' article after Trump administration portraits go viral

Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt has accused Vanity Fair journalists of being 'disingenuous' after sharing a controversial collection of super close-up portraits online.

For those who missed it, the fashion mag arranged a shoot this week with a number of the President's senior administration members, including 28-year-old Leavitt, as well as Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, Secretary of State and Vice President, JD Vance.

The mission of the right-wing get-together was to reflect on the first 12 months of Trump's second stint in the Oval Office. Sharing the portraits on Instagram, the publication wrote in the caption: "In the past year, Trump and his team have expanded the limits of presidential power, unilaterally declared war on drug cartels, imposed tariffs according to whim, sealed the southern border, achieved a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, and pressured NATO allies into increasing their defence spending."

Despite the caption somewhat buttering-up the group's 'achievements', the article itself tells a totally different story.

Filled with candid interviews from Trump's close-knit team, the bombshell piece subtly implies that relations behind the walls of the White House aren't quite as amicable as they seem.

Alongside shocking quotes - the majority of which allegedly given by Wells - the piece included a collection of official portraits which differ greatly to others we've seen in the past.

As opposed to positioning each sitter beside a historical painting, behind a desk or close to an American flag, the photographer since identified as Christopher Anderson chose to get up close and personal.

Famed for his signature zoomed-in style of portraiture, Anderson managed to capture every crease, pimple, make-up smudge and ingrown hair in his images - much to the amusement of some left-leaning onlookers, who joked that the mag had done the group 'dirty'.

Seemingly the most hotly-discussed image was of media boss Leavitt, with critics claiming to have noticed several puncture marks around her mouth and putting them down to lip injections - though, this theory hasn't yet been confirmed.

"This is the meanest photo I’ve ever seen," one X user wrote, whilst another asked of the press sec: "Did she not notice the camera was 2 inches from her face? Why did she let them do this?"

As we say, however, whilst Leavitt hasn't yet addressed her headline-hitting headshot, she has spoken out against the outlet's team of writers, claiming they warped the quotes given to fit a specific narrative.

The claim was firstly made by Susie Wiles, who accused Vanity Fair reporters of changing the context of her words, after she was said to have described Trump as having an 'alcoholic's personality'.

Journalist Chris Whipple - the man responsible for the piece - also claimed Wiles accused VP, Vance of having been a 'conspiracy theorist for a decade'.

She went on to slam the article as a 'hit piece', claiming 'significant context' was disregarded by editors, who hoped to 'paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative' about her team.

Reiterating these allegations, Leavitt told press outside the White House today (17 Dec): "This is, unfortunately, another example of disingenuous reporting, where you have a reporter who took the Chief of Staff's words wildly out of context - did not include the context of these conversations."

She went on to add: "Further, I think the most egregious part of this article was the bias of omission that was clearly present.

"We see a lot of this when dealing with the media everyday."

Leavitt went on to allege of the press: "You will leave out important context, leave out comments and facts.

"You know, many people in this building spoke with that reporter, and those comments were never included in the story - probably because it didn't push this false narrative of chaos and confusion that the reporter was clearly trying to push."

In response, Whipple told CNN that 'everything' included in the article was 'on the record', adding: "I recorded every interview."

You can read Vanity Fair's full piece here.