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| - In late January and early February 2025, a rumor spread online that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cited the life of Jesus as a reason Americans shouldn't worry about the possibility of Canada cutting off electricity imports in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy.
The full quote attributed to Leavitt was: "They want you to panic, but Trump wants you to remember Jesus didn't have electricity either, and he did just fine."
(@BraddrofliT on X)
The claim that Leavitt said these words appeared in posts on social media platforms including X (archived), Reddit (archived), and Bluesky (archived). Numerous readers also wrote in to ask us to look into the veracity of the claim.
In short, there was no demonstrable evidence that Leavitt ever made such a statement. Instead, as we'll explain below, it appeared to have originated from a meme intended as satire. As a result, we've rated this quote as misattributed.
Because none of the claims we encountered included the date on which Leavitt allegedly made the remark, we consulted video footage available on C-SPAN's website of her Jan. 28 White House press briefing — the first she delivered as press secretary — as well as two question-and-answer sessions she participated in on Jan. 29. We also consulted footage of her Jan. 31 briefing via the White House's official YouTube account.
The quote in question appeared in none of these videos, and we found no evidence to suggest that any of the videos had been altered to remove footage of Leavitt saying it.
How the Rumor Started
The earliest instance of the claim we found dated to Jan. 29, when a meme featuring the quote superimposed over a photo of Leavitt from her Jan. 28 press briefing appeared in a post (archived) on Reddit's r/PoliticalMemes subreddit.
In a comment (archived) responding to another Reddit user asking if the quote was real, the user who made the post answered "No." They then explained that they created the meme to draw attention to a perceived lack of media interest in interrogating the seriousness of Canadian threats to cut off electricity imports. That comment read in full:
No, actually I'm making light of the fact that nobody even asked the question to begin with. Canadian premiers, like Doug Ford, are publicly threatening to shut down electricity to the Northeastern U.S. in response to Trump's tariff trade war, and not a single reporter has asked if Trump is calling their bluff. Seriously, why aren't people talking more about this? What the hell would be the response?
We've reached out to that Reddit user for confirmation that they personally originated the fake quote, and will update this story if and when we hear back.
How the Rumor Spread
Within hours of the r/PoliticalMemes post, the quote appeared on X (archived) in a post that gave no indication that it was satirical. It gained further traction on Jan. 31, when the media outlet Irish Star published an article reporting on the rumor as if it were fact, with a headline reading "Karoline Leavitt shocks as she tells press 'Jesus didn't have electricity either.'"
The following day, Feb. 1, the Irish Star updated that story to say that the claim was actually false and had stemmed from unfounded rumors on social media. The updated headline read: "Karoline Leavitt hit with false claims she told press 'Jesus didn't have electricity either.'" A side-by-side comparison of the two headlines can be seen below.
Left: Irish Star headline on Jan. 31, 2025/Right: Irish Star headline on Feb. 1, 2025 (Irish Star)
While some internet users who had spread the rumor retracted (archived) their claims after the Irish Star's update, others asserted in posts on social media platforms including Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived) that they were certain they had seen video footage of Leavitt delivering the quote. However, we found no demonstrable evidence that such a video existed.
Ultimately, the claim that Leavitt said Americans shouldn't worry about Canada cutting off electricity imports because "Jesus didn't have electricity either" was not factual. Instead, the quote appeared to have originated from a satirical meme a Reddit user created and shared in the r/PoliticalMemes subreddit.
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