Conservatives on social media praised newly minted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s performance in her first press conference on Tuesday and made the case that her tenure would be a welcome change from the previous administration’s.

Leavitt stepped to the White House pressroom podium on Tuesday and answered questions from more than a dozen reporters with various political affiliations and spoke for almost an hour on Tuesday.

As Leavitt addressed the media, conservatives on social media reacted with positive reviews of her handling of the questions and the variety of reporters she called on. 

‘Karoline Leavitt is a rock star,’ actor James Woods posted on X. ‘These next four years are going to be sublime.’

‘Well @karolineleavitt is certainly up for the job,’ Fox News contributor Joey Jones posted on X. ‘Impressive, but not surprising.’

‘Both KJP and Jen Psaki were extremely dependent on their oversized binders jam-packed with scripted talking points,’ talk show host Addison Smith posted on X. ‘Today, @karolineleavitt took to the podium for the first time with a couple sheets of paper that she barely even glanced at. Competence is back.’

‘Damn White House press secretary @karolineleavitt absolutely smoking left wing reporters,’ Outkick founder and radio host Clay Travis posted on X.

‘This Press Secretary – Karoline Leavitt – is so refreshingly clear in the positions she articulates,’ Rush Limbaugh’s longtime friend and producer, James Golden, posted on X. ‘No dancing around facts, no avoidance of questions, in contrast to the previous Press Secretary.’

‘Karoline Leavitt is 30 minutes into a Press Briefing and she hasn’t looked up a single answer yet,’ Fox News contributor and comedian Jimmy Faila posted on X. ‘KJP would have gone through three binders and a Magic 8 Ball by now. THIS is why people wanna ditch DEI for Meritocracy.’

‘How refreshing to have a Press Sec at the podium who can answer questions directly and without reading word for word from a script,’ Coign Vice President Cassie Smedile Docksey posted on X. ‘We are so back.’

Leavitt, 27, is the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history, surpassing President Richard Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969. Leavitt was a fierce defender of Trump throughout his campaign against former Vice President Kamala Harris and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. 

Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director after the 2020 election. She launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary but losing the election to a Democrat. 

Leavitt picked up the torch of press secretary from the Biden administration’s chief spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Acting Director Matthew Memoli sought to clarify the extent of the Trump administration’s freeze on communications and other functions within the Health and Human Services Department, which has raised concern among agency officials and lawmakers.

Memoli’s memo, sent Monday to leaders across the NIH’s more than two dozen centers and institutions, said the freeze had been issued to ‘allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,’ but noted that due to ‘confusion on the scope of the pause’ he wanted to provide additional guidance.

The internal memo was first reported by STAT News .The NIH did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

Last week, the new Trump administration abruptly paused external communications at HHS through the first of next month. In addition to halting announcements, press releases, website and social media posts, new guidance, and new regulations, the freeze also halted public appearances and travel by agency officials, and prohibited new purchases or service requests related to agency work.

The move caused anger and confusion among both HHS officials and those in the broader medical community. Following the directive, scientific meetings and grant reviews were canceled, raising significant concerns about the impact on research.

‘We write to express our grave concerns about actions that have taken place in recent days that potentially disrupt lifesaving research being conducted and supported by the National Institutes of Health,’ a trio of Democratic lawmakers from Maryland said in a Monday letter to HHS’s Acting Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink. ‘Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous.’

According to Memoli’s memo, while agency officials are not permitted to begin new research while the pause is in effect, any research or clinical trials initiated before Jan. 20 can keep going ‘so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies.’ Officials working on these studies may also purchase any ‘necessary supplies’ and conduct meetings related to such work. Although new research projects are still prohibited, NIH staff can continue submitting papers to medical journals and can communicate with those journals about submitted work.

The freeze on purchases was further clarified by Memoli’s memo, which indicated that while the pause remains, purchases ‘directly related to human safety, human or animal healthcare, security, biosafety, biosecurity, or IT security,’ can continue. Travel and hiring for such work can continue as well, Memoli indicated, but his office must grant specific exemptions for new hires as President Donald Trump also initiated a freeze on the hiring of new federal civilian employees across all agencies during his first week in office.

Routine travel planned for after Feb. 1 ‘does not need to be canceled at this time,’ Memoli added. Patients receiving treatment at NIH facilities can also continue to do so.

Meanwhile, external communications will continue to be prohibited except for ‘announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical.’ On Monday, amid the freeze, Fink announced that HHS would begin evaluating its current practices to ensure they meet federal requirements under the Hyde Amendment, a law prohibiting the use of federal funds for non-medically necessary, elective abortions.  

One subject area that was notably absent from Memoli’s memo to federal health leaders was clarifications around grant review meetings. However, the acting director’s memo concluded by indicating that further guidance is expected to be made available later this week.

While the pause at HHS has caused a firestorm of concern and criticism, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who is now the dean of the University of Nebraska’s school of public health, Dr. Ali Khan, told the Associated Press that such pauses are not unusual. Khan said concern is only warranted if the pause was aimed at ‘silencing the agencies around a political narrative.’

‘I think the intention of such a chaotic freezing of communications was to scare us, to demoralize us, and to set science back a bit in an effort to make us look bad,’ said a long-time NIH staffer who spoke to Forbes on the condition of anonymity. ‘We are by no means perfect, but, ffs, our job is literally to enable research to save lives, what the heck?’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday defended the legality of President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of at least 17 inspectors general, telling reporters that the administration is confident that the oustings, ordered across nearly every major federal agency, would survive any potential challenges in court.

Speaking to reporters for the first time from the podium of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Leavitt defended Trump’s decision to fire, without warning, the inspectors general of nearly every Cabinet-level agency – an abrupt and unprecedented purge that shocked many outside observers.

Asked about the terminations Tuesday, Leavitt doubled down on Trump’s argument that the president is well within his power to fire the independent watchdogs, regardless of their Senate-confirmed status. 

Trump’s firings of the inspectors general included watchdogs for the Departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, as well as the EPA, among others. 

‘It is the belief of this White House and the White House counsel’s office that the president was within his executive authority’ to do so, Leavitt said Tuesday.

Trump, she added, ‘is the executive of the executive branch, and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to.’

Leavitt then referenced a 2020 Supreme Court decision, Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which ruled that the CFPB’s agency structure violates the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.

‘I would advise you to look at that case, and that’s the legality that this White House was resting on,’ Leavitt said. 

Asked by the reporter whether the Trump administration believed its order would survive a lawsuit or court challenge from the former inspectors general, Leavitt responded affirmatively.

 ‘We will win in court,’ she said decisively, before moving on. 

The remarks come as Trump’s Friday night terminations have sparked deep concern from lawmakers. The terminations were criticized by Republicans and Democrats in Congress, who noted that the independent watchdogs were created to identify and root out government waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct. 

Many of the individuals fired were also installed during Trump’s first term. 

Lawmakers have noted that Trump ordered the terminations without notifying Congress of his intent to do so at least 30 days in advance, as required for the Senate-confirmed roles.

A group of House Democrats criticized the action in a letter this week as ‘unethical,’ arbitrary and illegal.

‘Firing inspectors general without due cause is antithetical to good government, undermines the proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and degrades the federal government’s ability to function effectively and efficiently,’ reads the letter, signed by Reps. Jamie Raskin, Maxine Waters, Adam Smith, Bennie Thompson and Gregory Meeks, among others.

Tuesday’s briefing is the first conducted by Leavitt as White House press secretary. At 27, she is the youngest person in White House history to serve in the role.

It is unclear how often Leavitt will hold press briefings. 

Her role was announced in November by Trump, who praised the ‘phenomenal job’ she did as his campaign and transition spokesperson.

‘Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,’ Trump said in a statement announcing her role. ‘I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we Make America Great Again.’

Trump’s first term saw several White House advisers and communications aides, who struggled at times to communicate the views of a president who frequently opted to share his views directly via public rallies, briefings and social media posts.

This prompted high-profile clashes with some of the individuals tasked with officially communicating his views. 

Trump’s most recent White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, did not hold a single press briefing during her time in office. Famously, former White House communications aide Anthony Scaramucci served in his post for just 11 days.

A group of transgender service members and rights groups are filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s restrictions on transgender troops in the military. 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of six active duty transgender service members by GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), argues that the new executive order violates the equality guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit says the six transgender service members would lose access to healthcare and retirement benefits as a result of the executive order.

‘When you put on the uniform, differences fall away and what matters is your ability to do the job,’ said Army 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, named as plaintiff in the suit: Talbott v. Trump. 

The new order, signed by Trump on Monday evening, requires Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to update medical standards to ensure they ‘prioritize readiness and lethality’ and take action to ‘end the use of invented and identification-based pronouns’ within DOD.

It says that expressing a ‘gender identity’ different from an individual’s sex at birth does not meet military standards. 

The order also restricts sleeping, changing and bathing facilities by biological sex. It’s not an immediate ban, but a direction for the secretary of Defense to implement such policies. 

It revokes former President Joe Biden’s executive order that the White House argues ‘allowed for special circumstances to accommodate ‘gender identity’ in the military – to the detriment of military readiness and unit cohesion.’

The categorical ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2014 under President Barack Obama. 

‘I’ve been military my entire life. I was born on a military base,’ said Navy Ensign Dan Danridge, student flight officer, a plaintiff in the suit. 

‘Every day I lace up my boots the same as everybody else. I pass the same tests as everybody else. Being transgender is irrelevant to my service. What matters is that I can complete the tasks that are critical to our mission.’

‘I’ve spent more than half my life in the Army, including combat in Afghanistan,’ said Army Sgt. 1st Class Kate Cole. ‘Removing qualified transgender soldiers like me means an exodus of experienced personnel who fill key positions and can’t be easily replaced.’

Trump’s new order builds on another directive he issued last week that revoked a Biden-era order allowing transgender people to serve in the military. 

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to reinstate the ban on transgender troops he imposed during his first term. In his inauguration speech, he said he would formally recognize that there are only two genders: male and female.

There are an estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender service members – exact figures are not publicly available.

Between Jan. 1, 2016, and May 14, 2021, the DOD reportedly spent approximately $15 million on providing transgender treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) to 1,892 active duty service members, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

The move comes as part of a campaign taken up by Trump and Hegseth to weed out any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices across the military. And GOP lawmakers successfully included an amendment in their 2025 defense policy bill that bans irreversible transgender care for minors in the military healthcare system.

Naama Levy, one of the four female IDF soldiers released from Hamas captivity on Saturday, is speaking out for the first time.

‘After 477 days, I’m finally home,’ Levy wrote on Instagram. ‘I’m safe and protected, surrounded by family and friends, and I am feeling better by the day.’

In the post, Levy expressed her gratitude to ‘Israeli combat soldiers and the Israeli people,’ saying she saw how they were fighting for her release. ‘Thank you all. I love you,’ Levy wrote.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists kidnapped Levy alongside Liri Albag, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Agam Berger. All the girls, except Berger, were released as part of Israel and Hamas’ ceasefire deal.

Levy revealed that she was alone most of the time for the first 50 days of captivity. However, once she was reunited with the other soldiers taken from her base, they stuck together and ‘strengthened each other every day until our release and also after it.’

‘We are waiting for Agami and the rest of the hostages to return so we can complete the recovery process.’

Berger, who Levy mentioned in the post, is expected to be released on Thursday along with Arbel Yehoud and an unnamed male hostage.

A video of Levy on the day she was kidnapped went viral. She was seen wearing a black shirt and blood-soaked gray sweatpants as an armed man pulls her from a Jeep. Her ankles slashed, Levy was clearly struggling to walk after her apparently violent abduction. Levy became a symbol for the plight of the female hostages and victims of Hamas’ surprise attacks.

In a November 2023 essay for The Free Press, Levy’s mother, Ayelet Levy Shachar, emphasized that though the video of her daughter’s kidnapping was seen around the world, it was ‘totally unrepresentative of the life she had led until October 7.’

‘When she is released, I pray that the image of her abduction, and the experience of what that image represents, isn’t how she comes to see the world,’ Shachar wrote at the time.

Upon Levy, Albag, Gilboa and Ariev’s release, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said that ‘their return today represents a moment of light in the darkness, a moment of hope and triumph of spirit, while serving as a painful reminder of the urgency to bring back the 90 hostages still in Gaza.’

More than 15 months into the Israel-Hamas war, which started with the brutal surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza.