'Fake News': Karoline Leavitt Sets the Associated Press Straight on Story About FAA Firings and DOGE

As RedState has documented, the Trump White House and the Associated Press (AP) have been at odds in recent weeks over the latter's refusal to use the term "Gulf of America" to refer to the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed via an executive order on his first day back in office.

The dispute has cost the AP access to the Oval Office for the informal pressers (known as "gaggles," which President Donald Trump holds often) as well as Air Force One, but they still retain access to the White House complex, including the press briefing room.

Further, in remarks reported on Monday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich indicated that the larger issue with the AP has been in how they've conveniently adjusted their stylebook over the years to accommodate leftist dogma.

On Monday, the AP inadvertently was in some ways proving the Trump White House's points in a piece they published on FAA firings and DOGE. In the story, they quoted one person who allegedly worked for FAA National Defense Programs and who said they were harassed by what the person called the "official DOGE Facebook page" and were fired a short time later:

[Charles] Spitzer-Stadtlander suggested he was targeted for firing for his views on Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, not as part of a general probationary-level sweep. Both companies are owned by Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s effort to cut the federal government.
Spitzer-Stadtlander is Jewish and was angered by Elon Musk’s straight arm saluting at Trump’s inauguration. On his personal Facebook account he urged friends to get rid of their Teslas and “X,” or Twitter, accounts in response.
That post drew the attention of a DOGE Facebook account, which reacted with a laughing emoji. Soon after, he saw the same account reacting to much older posts through his personal Facebook feed.
“The official DOGE Facebook page started harassing me on my personal Facebook account after I criticized Tesla and Twitter,” Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote in a post over the weekend on Linked In. “Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security.”

Here's how they framed the story on Twitter/X:

.@FAANews: FAA staff fired over the weekend included personnel that worked radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, among others. Hundreds were fired, just weeks after a fatal mid-air collision in DC killed 67. One employee said they were harassed on Facebook by @DOGE…
— Tara Copp (@TaraCopp) February 17, 2025

Here's what Tara Copp didn't tell readers, not in the story nor her tweets: There is no DOGE Facebook group.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt corrected her on that and more in a tweet response:

More fake news from the @AP

1. DOGE doesn’t even have a Facebook page

2. No air traffic controllers nor any professionals who perform safety critical functions were terminated https://t.co/vhrusRu3NS
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 17, 2025

Former NBC News anchor Chuck Todd also tried to chime in by claiming the AP never directly said DOGE had a Facebook page, so of course, I had to respond:

Classic "our sources told us" trick. But the report never noted that DOGE doesn't have a Facebook group, which is kinda critical information to put in a story where a source is alleging DOGE's Facebook group (which doesn't exist) targeted him. #Journalism
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) February 17, 2025

Also, the headline on the story as of this writing reads "Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash," but yeah, Chuck, please continue to act like you are the smartest guy in the room on this even though you clearly didn't read the story.

In any event, surely there will be debate and discussion in the coming days and weeks about the Trump administration's decisions regarding the FAA amid the investigation into the tragic mid-air crash over Washington, D.C.. In the meantime, though I know it's too much to ask I would hope the mainstream media would switch gears just this once and report these events on the straight and narrow for a change.