White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is one of the most public faces of the administration and is its voice, too. Every statement she gives is considered to be the point of view of the current administration.
There have been numerous times when the public has not received her statements well. One such moment came when she shared an Instagram Story in the wake of Wednesday’s tragic shooting.
On Wednesday, two children aged 8 and 10 were killed in a mass shooting incident at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
The Conservateur originally published the post. It is a conservative lifestyle magazine, and the post appeared to be a standard call for prayer that was later reposted by Leavitt.
It read: “We pray for the victims, their families, and the entire Annunciation community during this grueling time. And yes, prayers do count and do work.”
But a second slide in the same post had a far more charged tone. The post was blaming demonic forces for the violence, and it condemned progressive leaders.
View this post on Instagram
“There is a demonic force moving when a transgender maniac sprays bullets at pews of Catholic school children,” the post declared. “Shame on the progressive leaders and lawmakers who make this about the man in the White House, the Second Amendment or so-called trans bigotry. This is a corruption of minds to commit horrific acts of violence.”
FBI Director Kash Patel identified the shooter as a 23-year-old male. However, a few court documents have revealed that the shooter had filed for a legal name change and to be identified as a female.
This discovery quickly changed the narrative of the incident, and it no longer remained a case of mass shooting but a case of transgender shooter targeting kids. It also fueled a wave of incendiary messaging from conservative media and commentators and the president Donald Trump’s allies.
The trans agenda is losing. They’re losing on every playing field, in every area of American life. We’ve defeated them politically. We’ve defeated them culturally. But understand this: now is precisely the moment when trans militants are the MOST dangerous. They’ve lost. The game…
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 27, 2025
Matt Walsh is a right-wing commentator with a large following on X. He argued that transgender individuals posed a heightened threat. He wrote that “now is precisely the moment when trans militants are the MOST dangerous” and called for “common sense restrictions on transgenders.”
Bo Loudon is a close associate of Barron Trump who went further and declared, “America does NOT have a gun problem. America HAS a transgender problem. Transgenderism needs to be labeled as a MENTAL ILLNESS!”
America does NOT have a “gun problem.”
America HAS a transgender problem.
Transgenderism needs to be labeled as a MENTAL ILLNESS!
— Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) August 27, 2025
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had also issued a formal statement. She had confirmed that the shooter was “a 23-year-old claiming to be transgender.”
Noem also said the attacker had disturbing messages on their rifle magazine, which included “For the Children,” “Where is your God?” and “Kill Donald Trump.” She has described the assault as “unthinkable.”
Noem added that “This deranged monster targeted our most vulnerable: young children praying in their first morning Mass of the school year.”
Conservative figures had taken this incident as an opportunity to quickly frame the Minneapolis tragedy as evidence in their fight against transgender people.
However, the research does not support that conclusion. A report from the Violence Prevention Project examined this issue and came to a different conclusion. For this study, more than 200 mass shootings between 1999 and 2024 were considered, and it identified just one transgender shooter—Audrey Hale. She had killed six people in a 2023 attack on a Nashville elementary school.
Trans people commit 0.11% of mass shootings and are 0.8% of the population.
C!s men commit 98% of mass shootings and are 50% of the population.
And at least one of those 98% of the mass shooters was inspired by Libs of TikTok.
Who’s really the epidemic? pic.twitter.com/lRzZLxPevV
— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) August 27, 2025
In comparison, 192 of the shooters studied were men.
The right has completely let go of their stance on the mass shooting that happened in the past, where they have blamed it on mental health problems and how youth need help. Now that the shooter is a transgender person, the emphasis is on the shooter’s gender identity and description of violence as a demonic force.
Karoline Leavitt and other figures in conservative media are exploiting the tragedy to push a political agenda. Leavitt might not have written the post herself, but her decision to share it from the official White House podium clearly shows where the administration stands.
