When Karoline Leavitt shows up in a high-profile photo, the internet doesn’t just look — it leans in close enough to count pores. And after Vanity Fair published a stark, unforgiving portrait of the 28-year-old White House press secretary, social media did exactly what it always does: zoom, diss ect, and spiral. That’s exactly what happened after the magazine dropped its latest look inside President Donald Trump’s administration. The extreme close-up of Leavitt offered no soft lighting, no distance, and no mercy, instantly shifting the conversation from politics to appearance and turning her into the unexpected centerpiece of the spread. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attends a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Dec. 11, 2025. Leavitt said Thursday that the United States intends to keep the oil from the tanker the U.S. military seized Wednesday near the coast of oil-rich Venezuela. (Photo by Li Yuanqing/Xinhua via Getty Images) ‘Zoom In On the Lips and It’s Over’: Vanity Fair’s ‘Savage’ Close-Up of Karoline Leavitt Has Fans Saying the Red Dots Snitched Days later, Leavitt appeared to respond — without directly addressing the image at all. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, she shared behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram showing herself adjusting her hair before a live television interview on the North Lawn of the White House. In the images, Leavitt wore a leopard print jacket paired with a black turtleneck and red nail polish — polished, composed, and noticeably different from the Vanity Fair shot that had timelines buzzing. “Behind the scenes before a live interview on the North Lawn of the White House, captured by @anna.money,” Leavitt wrote. The timing raised eyebrows. View this post on Instagram A post shared by KAROLINE LEAVITT (@karolineleavitt) Just a day earlier, Vanity Fair had released its two-part feature centered on White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and several senior figures in Trump’s inner circle. The magazine assigned sharp nicknames to its subjects — Wiles as “The Enforcer,” Vice President JD Vance as “The Heir Apparent,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “The Hawk,” Stephen Miller as “The Zealot,” and Leavitt herself labeled “The Mouthpiece,” according to People. But while the interviews focused on power, loyalty, and political retribution, it was the photos that hijacked the entire moment for superficial observers. Leavitt’s portrait, shot at extremely close range by photographer Christopher Anderson, appeared to show what many online believed were visible lip filler injection marks. The reaction was immediate and brutal. Anderson quickly found himself part of the story. Known for intimate portraits published in The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal, he defended his approach in an interview with The Independent. View this post on Instagram A post shared by VANITY FAIR (@vanityfair) “Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years,” he said. “Particularly, political portraits that I’ve done over the years. I like the idea of penetrating the theater of politics.” He also rejected claims that the images were designed to embarrass their subjects. “I know there’s a lot to be made with, ‘Oh, he intentionally is trying to make people look bad’ and that kind of thing — that’s not the case,” Anderson said. “If you look at my photograph work, I’ve done a lot of close-ups in the same style with people of all political stripes.” The White House wasn’t buying it. Responding to People, spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said it was “clear that Vanity Fair intentionally photographed Karoline and the White House staff in bizarre ways, and deliberately edited the photos, to try to demean and embarrass them.” She added, “Karoline is a beautiful person and truly one of the most incredible people you will meet in politics, and she is doing an extraordinary job serving the American people as the White House Press Secretary.” Leavitt has not publicly commented on the Vanity Fair portrait itself. But when she posted her behind-the-scenes images, critics filled the comments anyway. “The distance required for a flattering photo is diabolical,” one person wrote. Another jabbed, “Behind the scenes, but airbrushed to hell and back!” A third added, “ohh karoline, did vanity fair hurt your feelings? going for an ego boost, trying to save face?” Others went further. “The goal was always reaching to achieve Mar-A-Lago face,” one commenter wrote. Another joked, “We all know how you really look like.” One blunt reaction tied it all back to the original image: “Turns out this is not what you really look like lol.” Leavitt sharing her behind-the-scenes pics arrives just weeks after Trump’s latest remarks about her “machine gun lips.” “It’s ironic that trump comments on your lips and then you attempt to make them bigger. Now convince me that you’re not his Monica Lewinsky,” said one person. Still another asked, “So, which one are we suppose to believe?’ In the end, one unfiltered photograph did what years of speculation couldn’t. It dragged Leavitt’s appearance into the spotlight, sparked a culture-wide pile-on, and reminded everyone that in today’s media cycle, a single image can overpower even the loudest political message for shallow media consumers. And even when the subject seems confident, social media shows how fast they are to try and control the narrative the best way they can. ‘Trying to Save Face’: Karoline Leavitt Does a Complete Reset After Viral Work Images Left Her ‘Hurt’ and Exposed Weeks After Trump’s Creepy Comment ...read more read less