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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that young Americans frustrated with the cost of living should be sent to Cuba or Iran to appreciate what they have back home, during a Fox News appearance Thursday that quickly made rounds on social media (1). The remark came after host Jesse Watters floated the idea of drafting misbehaving twentysomethings into the military.
“If they misbehave, just make all these young kids join the army,” Watters said on “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “Shape them up.”
“Or send them to Cuba. Send them to Iran,” Leavitt replied. “They’ll want to come back real quick.”
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Leavitt has spent the last several months as the Trump administration’s public voice on Iran. Between February and April, the U.S. and Israel waged a 38-day air and naval campaign against the country, code-named Operation Epic Fury (2), that killed Iran’s supreme leader in its opening hours and ended in a ceasefire that still remains unsettled (3). Talks between Washington and Tehran were still stalled as of this week, with Iran’s chief negotiator saying his country was “currently not negotiating with the United States at all.”
Leavitt vs. her own generation
The exchange began when Watters said it was rich that young people were rankled about the economy when they “have never had real jobs,” yet complain that “things are expensive.” He asked Leavitt if there was any merit to his complaint.
“Unfortunately, I do,” Leavitt said. “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, just getting everything handed to them.”
Born in August 1997 (4), Leavitt is 28 and, at 27, became the youngest White House press secretary in history when she took the podium in January 2025 (5).
Leavitt said the U.S. “was built on meritocracy and hard work, pulling up your sleeves, pulling yourself up from your bootstraps.” When Watters asked whether the problem was laziness, she answered, “a little bit,” before adding, “It’s laziness, and it’s the liberal indoctrination.” She went on to praise parents turning to homeschooling, private education and Christian schools, and credited President Trump’s push for school choice.