Critics mockingly declared the Trump White House an irony-free zone on Thursday following talk of totalitarian regime tactics by press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt was asked during a briefing to respond to remarks from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in his first comments since the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities and the announcement of a ceasefire with Israel had defiantly declared that Iran would “never surrender” to the United States.
“Look, we saw the Ayatollah’s video, and when you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face,” Leavitt replied.
“I think any commonsense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night. They were wildly successful,” she added, despite ongoing debate over the actual claimed effectiveness in destroying Iran’s capabilities to build nuclear weapons.
The “totalitarian regime” having to “save face” line was too ironic for many critics online:
