Mediaite83%

Trump Rages at ‘Leakers’ After WaPo Report of His Clash With Hegseth  Which Karoline Leavitt Denied 56%

By Tom Durante77%

8/6/2026, 4:40:01 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Begging the Question, Quote-first Misdirection, and Fundamental Attribution Error, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 11.3% saturation with 52 hits. Analysis detected 444 faulty-reasoning hits from 460 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 45.7% and a BS Rank of 56% (13,487 of 30,584 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 55.90% of the article peer group.

President Donald Trump vowed to punish the “leakers” in a Washington Post report who claimed he blew his top at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over weapons shortages in the Iran war  but never contended the piece was “fake news.” 
The Post reported on Wednesday that Trump lost it on Hegseth at Camp David last week, demanding to know “why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran.” 
The report, citing two people familiar with the situation who spoke out anonymously in fear of retaliation, added that Trump “vented at Hegseth that he thought the munitions issue ‘had been fixed. 
'” 
Addressing the report on his Truth Social account after midnight on Thursday, Trump raged against the “leaker” who supplied The Post with the story, but there was no denial of the munition shortage claim in his tirade. 
“The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,” he said. 
“Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. 
Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.” 
He ended with a grave threat: “The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. 
Long term jail sentences will be sought!” 
Trump’s remarks came after strong denials of The Post report from the president’s communications team, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communication director Steven Cheung . 
Leavitt told the paper, “This is 100% fake news. 
Literally never happened. 
And President Trump has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth.” 
She later posted to X: “I was at Camp David with President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. 
This literally never happened, and we told the Washington Post that repeatedly. 
This B.S. story was shopped to many outlets by someone clearly out to disparage the Secretary, for whatever reason. 
Unfortunately for them, the President loves the Secretary and thinks he’s doing a tremendous job. 
FAKE NEWS!” 
I was at Camp David with President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. 
This literally never happened, and we told the Washington Post that repeatedly. 
This B.S. story was shopped to many outlets by someone clearly out to disparage the Secretary, for whatever reason. 
Unfortunately for… https://t.co/BUwn11nC52 
- Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) August 6, 2026 
In a reply to Leavitt’s X post, Cheung added, “FAKE NEWS WASHINGTON POST.” 
FAKE NEWS WASHINGTON POST https://t.co/gC1QRXYnTG 
- Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) August 6, 2026 
The report, and Trump’s response, comes as the Iran war has dragged on for more than five months. 
The post Trump Rages at ‘Leakers’ After WaPo Report of His Clash With Hegseth  Which Karoline Leavitt Denied first appeared on Mediaite . 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 7.2%Tom Durante: 1.0%Mediaite: 4.3%Confirmation Bias7.2%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.7%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.6%Mediaite: 3.3%Availability Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 1.2%Mediaite: 0.9%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.6%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 5.7%Mediaite: 2.1%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 9.9%Mediaite: 8.0%Framing Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.4%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.0%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 3.3%Tom Durante: 3.2%Mediaite: 1.3%Optimism Bias3.3%This article: 0.7%Tom Durante: 0.1%Mediaite: 1.4%Pessimism Bias0.7%This article: 11.3%Tom Durante: 7.8%Mediaite: 13.3%Negativity Bias11.3%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 1.2%Mediaite: 1.9%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 8.3%Tom Durante: 2.9%Mediaite: 1.6%Fundamental Attribution Error8.3%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 2.2%Tom Durante: 5.3%Mediaite: 1.9%In-Group Bias2.2%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.6%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 5.4%Tom Durante: 4.1%Mediaite: 1.1%Halo Effect5.4%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.6%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 3.9%Tom Durante: 3.0%Mediaite: 2.2%Recency Bias3.9%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.5%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 2.9%Mediaite: 3.8%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.4%Tom Durante: 0.1%Mediaite: 0.9%Straw Man0.4%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 2.6%Mediaite: 3.1%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 2.2%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 3.3%Tom Durante: 4.0%Mediaite: 6.4%Hasty Generalization3.3%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.4%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.8%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 8.3%Tom Durante: 3.6%Mediaite: 5.9%Appeal to Emotion8.3%This article: 11.1%Tom Durante: 3.6%Mediaite: 1.4%Begging the Question11.1%This article: 3.9%Tom Durante: 0.8%Mediaite: 2.3%Post Hoc (False Cause)3.9%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.2%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 4.1%Tom Durante: 1.2%Mediaite: 2.6%Anecdotal4.1%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.7%Tom Durante: 1.3%Mediaite: 2.3%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.7%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.2%Mediaite: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 5.9%Tom Durante: 0.8%Mediaite: 0.3%Personal Incredulity5.9%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.4%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 1.6%Mediaite: 3.4%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 8.7%Tom Durante: 2.9%Mediaite: 2.9%Quote-first Misdirection8.7%This article: 8.0%Tom Durante: 4.2%Mediaite: 7.1%Biased Writer Voice8.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.6%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.8%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tom Durante: 0.2%Mediaite: 1.0%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

460 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers24%attributed speech349writer words
Selected voice

Karoline Leavitt

100%flagged-word coverage
86 attributed words77% of attributed speech42% writer coverage
0%10.0%20.0%Quote-first Misdirection+11.7 ptsWriter: 6.9%Karoline Leavitt: 18.6%18.6%Biased Writer Voice-10.6 ptsWriter: 10.6%Karoline Leavitt: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.