White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a chilly response when confronted directly with the harrowing reality facing innocent civilians trapped in Iran.
Confronting the threat of devastating military strikes after Trump’s vow to wipe out an ‘entire civilization’ on Tuesday, terrified civilians told the Daily Mail they were frantically evacuating major cities and saying goodbye to loved ones.
Defiant government leaders even deployed a horribly chilling tactic: ordering their own citizens onto the streets as human shields.
Hours later, Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire with Iran’s new regime, he called more reasonable, to work together on a peace deal.
But many Iranians tell the Daily Mail they remain confused and terrified – with no real guidance from the US administration, or their own government, on what to do next.
During a tense exchange in the White House briefing room on Wednesday, the Daily Mail pressed Leavitt on what message the administration has for terrified Iranians who are currently suffering under a communications blackout and are unsure of how to survive.
The President’s own directives have included telling Iranian civilians to ‘stay inside their homes,’ while also urging them to ‘take back their country.’
But the top White House spokeswoman bluntly pivoted away from addressing the humanitarian crisis and conflicting messaging.
‘I think the President’s main priority, and my main priority, is to make sure that clear messages are sent to the American people, of course, which is my job today,’ Leavitt stated.
The US has confirmed 13 service members killed and over 380 wounded, according to data provided Wednesday by US Central Command.
On the Iranian side, the figures are far more severe and heavily disputed, with estimates of military fatalities ranging from 1,200 to over 3,000, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran.
She then turned to the administration’s military objectives, claiming the President has successfully eliminated ‘the imminent threat that was posed by their military, to the United States, to our allies in the region to our forces in the region.’
Leavitt added that the President hopes Iran will become a ‘country of peace and prosperity,’ noting that the administration is ‘moving into this next round of negotiations to hopefully come to an agreement with this new regime that will create long-term stability.’
However, Leavitt’s response glaringly sidestepped the mixed messages the White House is currently broadcasting to the Iranian public.
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The Daily Mail followed up, pointing out a stark contradiction in the President’s own directives asking civilians to stay indoors while simultaneously encouraging a civilian uprising.
But Leavitt dodged the question.
‘Again, we are moving into this next round of negotiations with the remnants of the regime and those that we are speaking with now, to hopefully reach a place of peace long-term for the region,’ she repeated, adding that this long-term peace would ‘include the Iranian people as well.’
But the chaos on the ground continues after a harrowing lead-up to the ceasefire agreement.
‘My internet connection keeps cutting out for long periods. If our chat stays on Instagram, it could put me in serious danger – the regime randomly connects people’s phones to the internet in the streets and checks their apps. I have to delete our chat. Wishing you a path full of success,’ one Iranian messaged the Daily Mail yesterday following the President’s threats to the country.
Beyond her remarks toward Iranian civilians, Leavitt spent much of the briefing touting the scale of ‘Operation Epic Fury.’
She characterized the 38-day campaign as a ‘historically swift and successful military triumph’ that exceeded its core objectives.
‘The US military destroyed Iran’s defense industrial base, crushing the regime’s ability to manufacture weapons that they and their proxies use to maim and kill Americans and terrorize the world,’ Leavitt stated.
She provided a grim tally of the destruction: ‘Iran now has zero submarine vessels,’ she said, and its Air Force is ‘functionally and operationally irrelevant’ — daily flights having plummeted from nearly 100 to zero.
The briefing also shed light on how the ceasefire came about. Leavitt revealed that the administration had ‘literally thrown in the garbage’ Iran’s initial 10-point plan, opting instead for a ‘modified’ version of the President’s own 15-point proposal.
‘The President’s red lines – namely, the end of Iranian enrichment on Iranian soil – have not changed,’ she warned. Vice President JD Vance will lead a negotiating team to Islamabad this Saturday for formal talks.
But the administration remains on high alert.
Echoing Vance’s own words, Leavitt called the agreement a ‘fragile truce,’ warning that ‘the Pentagon had a target list that they were ready to hit go on at 8pm Tueday night if the Iranian regime had not agreed to open the strait.’
