This year, I’ve made an effort to not give a crap about the wannabe fascists populating the second Trump administration. In Donald Trump’s first term, I paid attention to the palace intrigue and followed their public statements and activities. This time around, I’m protecting my peace. As such, I’ve given zero attention to Karoline Leavitt, a woman with the vibe of someone who dropped out of Bible college because it was too hard. Leavitt is the 28-year-old White House press secretary and she’s married to a much-older man. She puts a dead-eyed cult spin on the administration. Well, alongside Vanity Fair’s big exclusive with Susie Wiles and the Trump senior staff, VF hired photographer Christopher Anderson to capture some portraits of Trump’s inner circle. One of Anderson’s things is “extreme close-ups” of his subjects. Long story short, the Trump people are ugly. And the close-up of Leavitt exposed her lip injections and that fact that she’s aging in dog years. She’s absolutely furious about it too.
When Vanity Fair published its two-part interview series with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, the magazine also featured other prominent members of President Donald Trump’s second administration, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt, 28, who is described as the Trump administration’s “mouthpiece” by Vanity Fair, was photographed up-close for a portrait in which apparent lip filler injection sites were clearly visible. The image sparked near-immediate disbelief online, with one commenter writing, “jumpscare” and another remarking, “no trigger warning is insane” on Vanity Fair’s Instagram post.
The image was taken by photographer Christopher Anderson, who is known for his close-up portraits, which have also been published in The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
“Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years,” he told The Independent after the Vanity Fair story — and its accompanying images — went viral on Tuesday, Dec. 16. “Particularly, political portraits that I’ve done over the years. I like the idea of penetrating the theater of politics.”
Anderson also photographed Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs James Blair. While all of their portraits were taken in a style similar to Leavitt’s, the photographer insisted he was not trying to portray anyone in an unflattering manner.
“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 told The Independent. “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.”
He did say he “found it interesting to be even closer” to Leavitt than the other White House officials featured in his Vanity Fair portfolio. “Above all else, [I] try to cut through the image that politics want to project and get at something that is more truthful,” Anderson added.
When reached for comment about Anderson’s interview with The Independent, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told PEOPLE, “It’s 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….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.”
“…To try to demean and embarrass them…” Anderson simply photographed them close-up. They’re mad because Anderson did NOT edit them or Photoshop them. They’re mad that Leavitt’s lip injection scars are visible to the naked eye. I love how all of the right-wing dumbasses are crying about the Vanity Fair piece and the photos, like all of these people didn’t know that they were speaking on the record and POSING FOR PHOTOS.
Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair’s IG, Cover Images.
-
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House Featuring: Karoline Leavitt Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 24 Nov 2025 Credit: Aaron Schwartz/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
-
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to members of the media on the driveway outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on December 16, 2025. Featuring: Karoline Leavitt Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 16 Dec 2025 Credit: Yuri Gripas/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
Does she make herself look like Ivanka for her boss? “Those lips that don’t stop-op-op-op, like a little machine gun.”
I can’t imagine a boss saying that about you let alone when your boss is the POS.
I would be going straight to HR.
Hmm, I think she likes it. She is always fawning in his presence. The whole thing is deeply disturbing.
So I’ve never had injections. Not against it but just havnt. Is it normal to have injections scars on your lips? Are magazines editing out everyone’s scars? Legit confused.
I know a few women who have had injections, one of them has huge duck lips but no scars like that. Frankly, they look inflamed or very recent maybe?
Those marks are just the injection sites, she must have had them done the day before the photo shoot. She has a terrible dermatologist. Lip filler should never look like duck lips.
I’ve had them–they looked really natural. (I did say “Not Kylie Jenner” to the aesthetician.) I have no scars.
Right? I’m a free range old, for better and for worse and I thought it was badly applied lip liner…TIL
“free range old” is my new favorite thing! LMAO!
Also – never had lip filler but I have seen lots of women who do. Hey – you do you. Nothing against it. But I have NEVER seen a scar….thats odd….
yes, “free range old” is very funny! I am too! Although, I did consider something like botox, I can’t remember the name, whatever my derm’s office has, but it was really just more than I wanted to spend.
Yeah, I’ve never seen that before either. I’m betting she recently had it done because of the photoshoot. But knowing THAT is a possibility has now completely convinced me I will not do it, because that would happen to me for sure.
I’m not free range old and I’m not trying to look younger than my age. I just look good for my age.
I thought the dots were freckles! Also a ‘free-range old’. Great term!
I am stealing “free range old”, because I completely am and it’s the perfect description!
Those are fresh injections is why they’re showing up, and not particularly well done. She would’ve been told about swelling and bruising, and still scheduled it right then.
And, if she’d worn a matte lipstick with lip liner we probably wouldn’t have seen them. It’s the gloss highlighting them that makes them prominent. Vanity Fair was asked, and said she was the only one with a full time groomer (their term) who was there for everything. So she’s pretty hated.
Her skin and mine don’t look that different, but I’m a 44 year old with no work or lasers (yet on the lasers), not the 28 year old wife of a billionaire.
The “vibe of someone who dropped out of Bible college because it’s too hard” made me HOWL, and it is accurate. Bravo!
And let’s overlook the orange on her nose. That was a choice she made.
So they’re fresh injections and that’s why they stand out?. And they’ll go away? Or are they scars? That’s what’s got me thrown. Are people just walkng around with injection scars. Do Hollywood stars have injection scars that are air-brushed out?
I’ve been getting lip injection’s since my early 50’s when the definition and defined border starts to decrease, which also leads to those lines above your lips (similar to smokers lines). I am also fair skinned and bruise easily so I take preventative measures prior to my appointments, no alcohol in the days before and day of injections, I apply an ice pack to the area right before and after.
Mrs Leavittes biggest mistakes are:
1. Getting this done less than a couple of days before an important event (always give yourself a few weeks just in case and to allow it to settle).
2. Not taking care of her skin. It lacks hydration and exfoliation.
3. She either did her make up herself (poorly) or the make up artist did her dirty, skin was not prepped properly (or at all), inferior make up used and/or make up was caked on to try and hide the injection sites.
4. A poorly skilled injectionist, it is poorly done and not symmetrical.
The lip injection holes obviously look terrible, but tbh, I don’t think she even looks that bad besides that.
The problem on the close up looks more like bad make up. She should have moisturezed and used a primer before applying a ton of foundation. Why is there an orange streak on her nose? Now we know for sure that there is no competent MUA in the WH.
As one person quipped on tiktok, its good they captured that she orange nosed as opposed to brown nosed.
Is it bronzer on her nose? I’ve seen this kind of extreme contour where people sort of highlight the bridge between the eyes and then just the very tip of the nose to give cutesy upturned appearance. But obviously it looks more convincing from afar. I’m definitely not an expert!
She’s 28.
Going on 48.
Until I read it today, I genuinely thought she was in her 40s
Wow, I mean few of us look amazing at that level of magnification but yikes.
SHE’S 28?!?!!!!!!
I fully did not notice/clock the lip injection holes, I just thought her lips looked chapped and badly lined. I thought their problem with the pic was that she looked hella old. Girl isn’t even 30.
Ouch! But she’s walking around like that so everybody and anybody who’s standing in front of her sees them plain as day…
If she wants to make herself up to look like a 50-year-old woman, why are we to blame?
The photographs are brilliant. These are small, vain, self-important, immoral, mediocre people photographed as they are in their everyday work habitat, not in a studio.
The interview itself with Wyles captures her clueless, enabling, self delusion perfectly.
They really are. Vanity Fair nailed this whole thing – from the interviews to the photographs.
You nailed it, @Mairzy Doats.
I imagine the SNL writer’s room is pitching how they want to cover this for the upcoming 🎄episode. Cold Open photo shoot? … PressSec appearance on the WeekendUpdate segment? Revisit the Maybelline Lip Gloss commercial skit from Ariana’s 2024 🎄ep? [which should still be on YT & is hilarious, btw]
Yes! Hoping for the SNL interpretation.
At first I thought that deep close up must be Susie Wiles. The nastiness on the inside of these people is manifesting on their faces.
“The nastiness on the inside of these people is manifesting on their faces”
This.
100%
I legit thought it was one of the older ladies in the administration too.
Conservatives age like warm milk.
Nothing like a good laugh to start the day 😂
I literally just read an interview with Christopher Anderson in the Washington Post. Anderson was questioning what the reaction would have been if he had edited the photos. He also talked about the two worlds of Vanity Fair, the glossy celebrity part and the real hard journalism part. I always thought about Vanity Fair as a Celebrity magazine.
There were two other things which caught my eyes. In the photo of Marco Rubio Rubio does not look in the camera, everyone else does. And Anderson shared an anecdote about Stephen Miller.
Stephen Miller was the most concerned about the photo session. At the end of the photo shoot Miller went over to Anderson and said:” “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” Anderson looked at him and said, “You know, you do, too.”
This interview is available on archive.ph.
VF is a celebrity focussed magazine, but they generally have at least one deep hard journalism article per issue.
Yeah, there are v few publications that I feel aren’t corroded from the top. That includes VF, WP, NYT, etc. But within that, there are always a few real journalists doing the work.
Bezos owns WP so to me it’s corroded from the top. Cancelled my subscription and now it’s mostly the NY Times and Daily Beast (minus the Royals section) for me…. Might have to subscribe to VF now.
And just like that….Anderson became braver than nearly 90% of any of the Main Stream Media journalists in the past few years… (except for those bad ass women who called out Trump while their male counterparts stood there mutely)
Vanity Fair’s photos illustrate that hate ages and they captured the ugliness of these people. Just like looking at the portrait of Dorian Grey.
Caroline looks like a hard 45
I mean…we all have eyes, right? We can see the Mar-a-lago face, it’s right in front of us.
Leavitt could just say that she feels pressure to look good because she is on camera and this helps her do her job. She has lip injections because she loves AMERICA!
It’s the denial and insistence that MAGA women all just “naturally” look like this that shoves it over into creepy Nazi/North Korea territory.
There is a porn star quality to Maralago face which few actually discuss.
There’s a JD Vance picture with a couch that had me CACKLING.
LMFAO! I need to go back and find that one!
And his brown eyeliner, omg.
there is another of Vance standing against the wall, right next to the thermostat — like that isn’t a rookie photographer mistake.
The long shot of Leavitt is a masterclass as well from the poorly fitted pants, to the ruffled blanket, vase behind her head and the butt mark and stain in the chair she’s standing next to — with the I’m a little teapot pose.
I have found a couple of breakdowns online done by professional photographers that point out all of the subtle hits.
Hey Kkkaroline, lip injections are gender affirming care.
Bravo to this photographer, showing what real art can do in times when we need all forms of resistance. I saw an interesting Instagram reel discussing the staging choices in these photos. I don’t know much about art composition…unsure if I can post that link https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSXztOikbjQ/?igsh=MTgzaGpsMXhrMjZkYQ==
That was a great breakdown, thank you for sharing it!
That was a very nice photo essay. Thanks for posting it!
Jumpscare is the best word to describe my reactions throughout that VF story. I was somewhat prepared for photos of Susie Wiles, but did not expect the extreme closeup photo of her and her hard, crazy-eyed stare. I literally startled at seeing the other photos, JFC. The shots are brilliant and disturbing.
Keep in mind that she’s only 28. She’s only 28. She’s only 28.
She already has those deep lines on each side of nose that run down to her mouth (marionette lines). And the skin under her eyes is so thin and wrinkly – I didn’t get that until well in my 40’s, but then I used sunscreen, tried to stay out of the sun, eye cream and I’m not evil.
KKKaroline is in need of a good skin care routine!
The evil just keeps bleeding through. Miller’s portrait was chilling.
Everyone needs to know that karoline has no top lip naturally. The injectionist has done a great job giving her a lip. Ive never had injections but i assume there was no where to hide the marks. Karoline natural lip line is like a straight line. Karoline should not be mad at the injectionist.
I further think that injections are the best she can do. I dont see how she could place an implant. There isnt enough skin.
How does karolines nose job play into all this? I assume its a nose job and maybe an implant????
Tom, I get fillers. I have very pale pink, thin as fuck lips. I have no upper lip. It’s sad. So, I get fillers. It takes 3 appointments over 1.5 months for my derm to apply the whole syringe, with most of it going into my upper lip. Karoline’s looks like they were done in one appointment, that’s why she has so many injection marks. To top it off, because there is very little lip and too much filler in one go, it is migrating and clumping in different parts of her lips.
For the amount of volumen she wants and the very little lip she has to work with, she should have worked up to the volume, in incrementals. Women like us will never have full lips, not even with all the HA in the world.
Twenty-eight? Okay. And her picture in the red suit? Okay again. Like someone said, the evil just oozes out of the pores with all of these folks.
Anderson took a close-up photo of Barack Obama and Obama looks great … because Obama is naturally good-looking and his humanity shows in his eyes.
Soulless vampires aren’t going to look good close up.
Well the sayings ‘You get the face you deserve’ & ‘Ugly is as ugly does’ have never rang so true as in this muppets case.
How can they be angered by this? It’s her skin, she shouldn’t have had lip injections so close to the photos being taken. Plus, 28? Are we sure? That’s some dehydrated, wrinkly skin.
Vanity Fair woke up and chose violence.
If anyone needs a laugh, this is hysterical. I cried laughing so hard. “Racist Care Bear” 🤣
https://x.com/mistergeezy/status/2001188273297768571?s=20
Hilarious!😆
Tbh I didn’t even notice the lips when I first saw her closeup on the internets. I noticed her orange-brown nose however and the fact that she looked 20 years older than her age. Evil does that I would guess.
I’d almost bet good money that Karoline is or was a smoker. If not, maybe she’s addicted to whistling. She has the wrinkles around her mouth and uneven skin texture
Or maybe, she simply lost the genetic lottery.
Or she drinks everything with a straw. I see this is a very american thing to do. Every drink comes with a straw.
It’s because we have ice. When you upend a glass with ice in it, that ice falls right into your face. Straws prevent that.
It also helps prevent stains on your teeth.
MAGA women all look older than their ages due to hideous make up and applications of the layers of it they wear…almost as if they did it on purpose. I don’t get it.
I hadn’t yet clicked into these photos because, like Kaiser, I am trying to protect my peace this go-round. But I couldn’t help myself and so here I am and damn, these are gold. Big LOLs. As for the lips, they are 100% injection sites. Which, who cares, so she gets lip fillers? BFD. That said, what kind of dumbass gets the treatment right before having the photos taken? These people are the dumbest people on Earth, I swear. And girlfriend is a very old-looking 28. Are we sure that’s her actual age? Anyone check her birth certificate? 😉
I’ve seen on social media people saying this is something else (which I’m not going to repeat). I don’t know much about injections but I have seen people close up who obviously had them and never saw this. How often does she get them to have so many scars? It just looks terribly painful.
I’d have to see her original lips but this happens when derms try to apply a whole syringe in one go. They over inflate the lips and need a million tiny injection sites.
A good derm would slowly build up volume to ensure 1) minimal injections, 2) a natural look
I get fillers in my lips (and that’s how I was able to clock Kate Middleton’s use of them – our lips are similar, ha!) and this woman needs to change derms. Not only are the injection sites clearly visible, the filler she is getting is shit. You can see how it is migrating and her lips have that waxy, over inflated, sausage look.
She also needs to purchase some face cream!
God, I was cry laughing looking through that spread the other day. Best Christmas present ever.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer gal.
If that woman is 28, then I must be like two because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 28-year-old looking that rough. Not even English folks who age like milk. Damn.
Kaiser, you are a goddamn treasure. You never miss! Bless you.
28? Rrrrrright…
Age 28 seems young for such interventions. What will she look like in another 30 years?!?!?
A Washington Post reporter interviewed the photographer who was at a Paris airport when they spoke. The man is brilliant and eloquently defended the integrity of his work and also the overlap between celebrity shoots and editorial assignments.
‘…dropped out of Bible college because it was too hard.’ 🤣💎👏