Veteran AP reporter Josh Boak took a bold step into contentious territory during a recent press briefing, confronting White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a challenging question that quickly escalated tensions. As the stock market continued to plummet and the administration faced mounting scrutiny over its handling of the so-called “Gulf of America,” Boak asked Leavitt directly if she had ever paid a tariff. The question, while straightforward, struck a nerve and set the stage for a fiery exchange.
An Associated Press reporter taxed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s patience when he asked her Tuesday if she had ever paid a tariff.
The clash came amid tanking stock market and a battle with the press over the ‘Gulf of America’, as the press briefing took a personal tone.
It happened when Leavitt called on the reporter from the AP – an outlet the White House has banned from ‘pooled’ Oval Office visits and Air Force One trips amid fury over the wire service’s refusal to adopt Trump’s renaming of the Gulf.
By the time it ended, an ‘insulted’ Leavitt said she regretted calling on the reporter in the first place.
The reporter, Josh Boak, was among several who pressed Leavitt on the plummeting stock market, amid massive uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs – on a day the president said he would double levies on steel and aluminum and Ontario imposed and then suspended a tariff on energy it sends to the U.S.
He asked Leavitt about an upcoming Trump speech to the Business Roundtable.
‘He’s going there today as he’s proposing tax hikes in the form of tariffs. And I’m curious he’s not for why he’s prioritizing that over the tax cuts,’ the reporter asked, echoing business criticism that has crept into the discourse amid market jitters.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was ‘insulted’ by a reporter who asked her: ‘Have you ever paid a tariff?’
Leavitt is “insulted” by AP questioning of Trump’s Tariff
‘Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the President is a staunch advocate of tax cuts,’ Leavitt, 27, told him.
‘I’m sorry. Have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have,’ the AP reporter tried to needle her. ‘They don’t get charged on foreign companies. They get charged on the importers.’
‘Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades. As I said at the beginning, revenues will stay here, wages will go up, and our country will be made wealthy again,’ said Leavitt.
Some economists have argued there could be downside risks, like higher inflation, slower growth, an escalating trade war, or even a recession.
‘And I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this President has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press,’ she said.
The tense exchange came on a day Trump addressed the Business Roundtable after markets tanked again
The Trump White House has been blacklisting the AP over its stylebook and the refusal to adopt Trump’s renamed ‘Gulf of America’
Her deputy, Harrison Fields, chimed in that the reporter, AP’s Josh Boak, ‘= activist NOT journalist,’ indicating that all is not forgiven.
