Karoline Leavitt lashes out at ABC but it backfires massively

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X to unleash a brutal clap back at ABC News and warned the American public that fake news is 'real and it is dangerous'

Karoline Leavitt lashed out at ABC News for publishing a "misleading" story, even after the outlet updated it.

On Friday, March 13, the 28-year-old White House Press Secretary took to her X account to unleash a brutal clap back at ABC News for publishing an exclusive article detailing the FBI's warning to police departments in California that Iran "wants to retaliate for American attacks by launching offensive drones against the West Coast."

On X, ABC News issued an update that read, "UPDATE: The FBI has posted a fuller version of its alert to California authorities, which includes that the information was unverified. The latest version of this story has been updated with the full statement." However, Leavitt was still displeased with the outlet and went on to warn the American public that fake news is "real and it is dangerous."

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In her X post, Leavitt wrote, "Thank you to ABC News for issuing a correction to this story. The problem? Their original, misleading story received 10M views and panicked people across the country. The correction only has 100K views.

Leavitt, who is currently pregnant with her second child, concluded her message with, "Fake News is real and it is dangerous. The Trump White House is working 24/7 to keep up with it all and fight back."

In ABC News' original article, they wrote that the FBI warned police departments in California recently that Iran could retaliate for America's recent attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by the outlet.

"We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran," according to the alert sent at the end of February. "We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack."

The information about Iran's potential attack on the West Coast came before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28. However, a senior law enforcement official said it's believed the attack has severely damaged Iran's capabilities to carry out such a mission.

A spokeswoman for the FBI office in LA declined to comment to the outlet, but President Donald Trump spoke about the alert sent to California police on Wednesday, saying, "It's being investigated. But you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come, and the war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen."

Meanwhile, Leavitt's post about ABC News's correction seemed to have backfired as several social media users clapped back at her. One person wrote, "ABC issues corrections when they've made a mistake. Karoline Leavitt issues insults when she's caught in a lie."

Another added, "Ok now you stop lying every day and apologize for the thousands of lies you've told," as a third bashed, "I mean you guys said you didn’t hit the Iranian school and kill a bunch of kids, where’s the correction on that?" Yet another added, "Did you make them correct it by force?"

However, Leavitt did have some defenders, as one pointed out, "Pass laws that fine major outlets for proven fake news. Significant fines," as a second added, "Should fine them. Irresponsibility in journalism used to be a serious issue. Make it so again."

A third chimed in, "Americans should be able to file lawsuits against these media outlets, one good lawsuit should put them out of business."