When Geraldo Rivera praised White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X as “measured, controlled, informed, competent,” the unprompted endorsement stood in jarring contrast to his recent criticisms of the Trump administration and sparked widespread bewilderment across the media landscape.
The 82-year-old former Fox News correspondent had just weeks earlier condemned the administration’s handling of the Minneapolis Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting that killed Renee Nicole Good, directly contradicting the official White House narrative that Rivera publicly disputed.
“I love cops, but they sometimes **** up,” Rivera wrote on X in January 2026 after new cellphone footage emerged. “The killing of Renee Good was entirely unnecessary. Two middle-aged ladies, talking smack, were not the ones with a loaded handgun and a hair trigger. They did not escalate this deadly confrontation that led to the death of this mother of three young children. This is on ICE.”
His strong rebuke came as Leavitt mounted a vigorous defense of the administration, posting on social media that “President Trump was right again” and demanding The New York Times update its coverage of the incident.
Rivera’s March 25, 2026 endorsement becomes even more perplexing when considering that Leavitt herself had publicly called him out just one month prior. During a February 2026 press briefing, the 28-year-old press secretary cited Rivera as someone who had falsely accused the president of racism, referencing his characterization of Trump’s immigration crackdown as “racist government policy.”
“Karoline Leavitt is a terrific White House press secretary and spokesperson for the president, measured, controlled, informed, competent,” Rivera posted. “Whether you’re right or left, Republican or Democrat, you have to appreciate competence and loyalty.”
The veteran journalist did not explain his dramatic shift from critic to cheerleader, leaving media observers to speculate about his motivations. Some noted a personal detail: Rivera is married to his fifth wife, Erica Levy, who is 31 years his junior, while Leavitt is married to a man 32 years her senior. Whether this shared circumstance influenced Rivera’s sudden warmth toward the press secretary remains unknown.
Rivera’s ideological trajectory has always defied easy categorization. The self-described liberal drifted rightward during his tenure at Fox News, maintained an on-again, off-again friendship with Trump, and frequently broke with both sides of the political spectrum. His unsolicited praise for Leavitt continues that unpredictable pattern.
Leavitt continues to navigate multiple controversies, including the administration’s military campaign against Iran, confrontations with reporters, and a separate dispute over a White House photo she allegedly attempted to have scrubbed from news agency archives.
For a journalist who built his reputation on challenging authority, Rivera’s decision to publicly celebrate the administration’s chief spokesperson, without being asked and without qualification, struck many as surprising.
That bewilderment deepened in the weeks that followed. By mid-April, Rivera had pivoted sharply back to criticism, appearing on CNN on April 20, 2026, to publicly question whether Trump had any clear objective in the ongoing Iran war. He also issued a stark political warning, predicting that Republicans faced electoral disaster in the 2026 midterm elections if gas prices, then above $4 a gallon, failed to drop. The reversal left observers no closer to understanding Rivera’s underlying convictions. Even longtime supporters found themselves questioning what prompted the 82-year-old to wade into the controversy at all.
Leavitt has not acknowledged Rivera’s endorsement publicly. The press secretary’s silence has done nothing to quiet speculation about why Rivera chose this moment to offer his support, or what he hoped to accomplish by doing so.