Geraldo Rivera, the octogenarian ex-Fox News reporter and veteran television figure, caught numerous viewers off guard on March 25, 2026, when he utilized X to deliver an unprompted endorsement of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“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 message caused considerable surprise — not merely because Rivera delivered it without any obvious catalyst, but because the seasoned broadcaster has devoted considerable time over the past year openly disputing with the Trump administration on multiple significant matters. His unexpected commendation for one of the administration’s most visible representatives appeared to many as a dramatic reversal.
The endorsement is especially notable considering what Rivera was expressing just two months prior. In January 2026, when a fresh mobile phone video surfaced in the deadly Minneapolis Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)E shooting of Renee Nicole Good, Rivera emerged strongly opposed to the administration’s stance. While Leavitt used social media to announce “President Trump was right again” and urged The New York Times to revise its coverage, Rivera published a forcefully worded challenge.
“I love cops, but they sometimes **** up,” Rivera wrote on X at the time. “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.”
The difference between that January message and his March endorsement of Leavitt could not be more pronounced. In one instance, Rivera was openly challenging the White House narrative. In another, he was praising the virtues of the individual communicating that narrative daily from the press briefing platform.
Rivera’s complex connection with the Trump administration extends back even further. In February 2026, Leavitt personally referenced Rivera’s name at a press briefing — not as a supporter, but as an illustration of someone who had incorrectly charged the president with racism, mentioning his characterization of Trump’s immigration crackdown as “racist government policy.” At that moment, Rivera was clearly on Leavitt’s list of critics, not admirers.
What shifted? Rivera has not provided a rationale for the change. Some observers have highlighted personal similarities between the two. Rivera, 82, is married to his fifth wife, Erica Levy, who is 31 years his junior. Leavitt, 27, is married to a man 30 years her senior. Whether that shared characteristic influenced any part of Rivera’s favorable sentiments is complete conjecture, but the internet took notice.
What is not conjecture is that Rivera has long held a peculiar position in American media — a self-identified liberal who moved consistently rightward during his Fox News tenure, a former Trump associate who sometimes disagreed with him publicly, and a figure that has become progressively harder to classify. His March 25 message matches that trend. It was not a comprehensive endorsement of the administration, but acclaim for the individual — and in the present media environment, the distinction between the two can be minimal.
Leavitt, for her part, has not publicly responded to Rivera’s endorsement. She has had no shortage of other headlines to manage, including ongoing controversies over the administration’s Iran military campaign — a conflict Rivera himself has continued to weigh in on, calling Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization “alarming” as recently as April 7, confrontations with the press corps, and a separate social media furor over a White House photo she sought to have removed from news agency archives.
Rivera’s post garnered significant attention online, with many in media circles questioning his motives. For a man who once prided himself on speaking truth to power, endorsing the administration’s chief spokesperson — without prompting, and without conditions — was a move that left even some of his supporters asking the same question: who asked him?