The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
–H. L. Mencken, American journalist, satirist, cultural critic
Henry Louis Mencken is best known for his satirical reporting on the 1925 Scopes Trial, in which famed defence attorney Clarence Darrow, with the ACLU, defended a teacher who dared to teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in his school.
Mencken may have believed American men were the “most daring liars”, but I wonder what he would have thought of a future where women were employed by the government to lie, obfuscate, and deflect professionally. Indeed, the last six White House Press Secretaries have all been women, and they have all lied in some capacity or other. Some lied more than others, and at least two did so outrageously.
I think the government’s reasoning is that citizens are more likely to believe nonsense from glossy lips attached to a pretty-ish face than from some guy, no matter how handsome. Besides, I think their target audience is men.
The most proficient and daring liar was Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary between 2025 and 2026. It’s entirely possible the Christian-cross-wearing charlatan may have out-lied Trump had she had more time in the job. Thankfully, she’s gone to further her fabulist career in that bastion of fake news and racist right-wing propaganda, Fox News.
Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s press secretary from 2020 to 2021, comes in a close second in the lying game. A very close second, mind you. I think Leavitt put in a huge effort to outrank McEnany as the premier deceiver. Kayleigh also joined Fox News because it would have been wasteful not to keep using her special talent for deceiving Republican supporters.
Trump’s other two press secretaries were also accomplished deflectors, but not in the same league as Karoline and Kayleigh. Sarah Huckabee Sanders served a stint of mandatory government fibbing from 2017 to 2019, while Stephanie Grisham did her bit to handle the press between 2019 and 2020 without actually holding any press conferences.
While Sanders went on to become governor of Arkansas, Grisham fell out with Trump and wrote about it in a book. Can we conclude, then, that lying pays?
The Democrats had two press secretaries who served in the Obama and Biden administrations. Jen Psaki served under Obama as deputy press secretary and under Biden as press secretary from 2021 to 2022. Jen was perhaps the least offensive liar of the lot, but she had her moments. She also went on to continue a career in spinning the news, albeit for liberals on MSNBC.
Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as Joe Biden’s press secretary from 2022 to 2025, is the strangest on this list and, for me, the biggest disappointment. Karine was the first and only openly gay Black person to serve as press secretary. I was expecting something different. I expected her to break the mould of lying, evading and spinning, but she continued to follow what is now a hallowed tradition of deceiving the public.
While her deflections and fibs about Biden’s health issues were expected, I was horrified when she not only blatantly lied to cover up his complicity in the unfolding war crimes in Gaza, but she actually denied that any were taking place. This is unforgivable. Karine is apparently now involved in academia. Hopefully she learns the definition of genocide and what it means to be complicit.
Before we continue, I think I need to point out that this essay is not about exposing the many individual violations each of these women committed. That is an exercise which my readers can perform on their own.
Following the departure of Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump has just announced the appointment of Katie Zacharia as his latest press secretary. Of course, she’s a devoted member of the MAGA flock. Anything else wouldn’t do.
Trump made the following absurd comment as part of his announcement, but if you understand his business background (what little success there is of it), it might make sense:
I am confident that Katie will deliver strong results for our Country as the next White House Press Secretary
Trump expects Zacharia to continue the fine tradition of lying that his previous press secretaries upheld, but he might actually want her to exceed Leavitt’s undeniable prowess in that regard. Can we expect better results than Leavitt delivered? Only time will tell.
Katie Zacharia must have passed the fabrication detector test with flying colours, or she wouldn’t be in the press pound seat at the White House. All that’s left now is for her to fill those big granny panties of Karoline Leavitt and make Papa Trump proud.
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