'Your Mom': How White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt raised eyebrows with snap response on Trump-Putin summit in Budapest

The White House drew widespread attention and raised eyebrows after officials responded with a surprising 'Your Mom' remark when asked about US President Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapest. Trump is promoting another meeting with Putin to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this time in Budapest, Hungary - the same city where, three decades ago, Russia pledged not to invade Ukraine in exchange for the country giving up its nuclear weapons.

When HuffPost reporter inquired about who chose the location for Trump’s upcoming meeting with Putin, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied, "Your mom did." White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also came up with the same response, “Your mom.”



According to HuffPost, it remains unclear whether Trump is aware of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia committed to respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Putin first broke that pledge in 2014 by invading and annexing Crimea, and again in 2022 with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

When The Independent asked the White House whether “your mom” was an appropriate response, spokesperson Taylor Rogers replied that it was “more than appropriate.”

"The individual who received these texts is not a real reporter, they’re a Democrat activist. As a result, the response they received was more than appropriate,” Rogers said. “The White House press team fields and responds to hundreds of serious requests every day from actual reporters – we don’t have time to waste on partisan hacks!”

“We’re going to be meeting in Hungary. Viktor Orbán is going to be hosting,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday. Trump made the announcement following a phone call with Putin and just one day before his scheduled White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump took to Truth Social, after a call with Putin, and posted a long message, stating the conversation was a very productive one.


Initially, Trump praised Putin as 'genius' and “savvy” for his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, later shifting blame to Zelenskyy for the invasion and to President Biden for allegedly allowing it.

In recent months, however, Trump has criticised Putin for attacks on civilians, including nightly missile and drone strikes on residential areas. He has also expressed support for supplying US weapons to NATO allies to aid Ukraine, including Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking deep inside Russia.

Yet on Thursday, Trump questioned why Zelenskyy, whose citizens face daily attacks, and Putin, accused of war crimes, cannot find common ground.

"I mean, we have a problem. They don’t get along too well, those two,” Trump said. "This is a - this is a terrible relationship the two of them have, and it’s one of those things.”