Karoline Leavitt Rips Gen Z Over Prices and Work

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News that Gen Z and younger Americans are driven by “laziness” and “liberal indoctrination,” linking that, in her view, to complaints about rising prices and to parents switching their children to privat

Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t argue about the numbers behind rising prices. On Fox News, she went straight to the people she says are complaining.

Appearing on host Jesse Watters’ “Primetime. ” Leavitt was pulled into a broader discussion about what the White House characterizes as “communist-style candidates” in the Democratic Party. Watters. setting the tone. told Leavitt. “Some of these kids. and I call them kids ’cause they’re in their 20s and they’ve never had real jobs and they’re complaining things are expensive.” He pressed the point: “Yes. things are expensive when you don’t have a real job. Do you think that’s getting traction?. Complaining?”.

Leavitt answered without hesitation. “Unfortunately. I do because this generation. my generation. I hate to say it. Gen Z and those younger than me have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths.” She said they are used to “getting everything handed to them.” Then she drew a line between that mindset and the story she believes the country was built on. “That’s not the values this country was built on,” she told Watters. “It was built on meritocracy and hard work. pulling up your sleeves. pulling yourself up from your bootstraps. and achieving the American dream. and we need to protect it with all we’ve got.”.

Watters pressed again, pushing the accusation as a direct question: “Do you think that it could be ‘laziness’?” Leavitt agreed, adding another element to her critique. In her framing, it wasn’t only a work ethic problem. “It’s also liberal indoctrination,” she said.

Leavitt then pointed to education choices. saying she has spoken with parents who are changing where their children go to school. She claimed they are “turning to private education” and Christian schools because. in her view. they “don’t want their children being taught these communist and liberal ideas slammed down their throat.”.

She tied the issue back to the White House’s school policy. “It’s why President Trump and the White House have advocated so strongly for school choice across the country. ” Leavitt said. Her pitch for the policy came with a pledge about what children should be taught. “We want kids to be taught to love our country. They should. It is the greatest country in the history of the world.”.

The exchange, watched by millions through the segment’s broadcast and online presence, left little doubt about the target of Leavitt’s message: not just Democratic politics or economic frustration, but the generation she says has learned to treat hardship as someone else’s problem.

Karoline Leavitt Gen Z school choice private education Christian schools Jesse Watters Primetime rising prices White House