Karoline Leavitt was home on maternity leave when Donald Trump secretly swapped planes in Turkey.
That didn't stop MS NOW from plastering her name on a chyron calling her out as someone "LEFT ON THE DECOY PLANE."
What happened next – live on their own air – is something the network clearly hopes you never see.
What MS NOW Actually Put on Screen
Jacob Soboroff was running a segment on Connect with Jacob Soboroff about Trump's security maneuver in Ankara on July 8 – when the president was loaded into a catering truck and transferred to an Air Force C-32A before takeoff, leaving a decoy plane behind to protect him from a credible Iranian assassination threat.
The same false narrative MS NOW aired was already being pushed by Iranian state media and Iran's embassy in South Africa – who were using it to mock Trump's security operation and smear Leavitt as someone left behind and betrayed.
Soboroff asked New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman about "the people that he brought with him in the catering truck" and why "not all these other folks like Marco Rubio, or Stephen Miller, or Karoline Leavitt."
Haberman stopped him cold.
"Karoline Leavitt, by the way, wasn't on this trip," Haberman said live on air. "It's actually important. There's like a huge internet rumor that she was there, and that's why she's leaving. She was not on the trip."
https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/2089503676163293264?s=20
Haberman even named the actual press aide who made the trip – Steven Cheung.
Soboroff later admitted he hadn't realized Leavitt wasn't on the trip at all.
The Network Refuses to Correct Its Own Record
NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck posted the clip and called out MS NOW directly.
"This weekend, MS NOW aired a completely incorrect graphic saying Karoline Leavitt was on plane on way back from NATO trip," he wrote.
"Notice NYT's Maggie Haberman corrected Jacob Soboroff live on air, but MS NOW won't put out a tweet apologizing for the error from their PR account," Houck added.
Deputy Assistant to the President Pat Adams piled on.
"MS Now is such a sloppy and biased media organization that the reporter they booked as a guest for their segment had to fact-check the host of their show about his completely incorrect graphic live on air," Adams wrote on X.
Leavitt didn't mince words.
"More Fake News from MS Now and the libs online," she posted on X.
A Standard MS NOW No Longer Meets
The facts aren't complicated: Leavitt welcomed her second child in early May and was still on maternity leave when Trump departed Ankara on July 8.
She didn't resume full podium duties until July 16 – more than a week after the flight.
She wasn't on the manifest.
She wasn't on the plane.
She wasn't anywhere near Turkey.
This isn't a stumble.
This is the model.
https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/2088295754242625539?s=20
Brian Williams lied about being in a helicopter that came under fire in Iraq – and NBC at least launched an internal investigation and suspended him for six months.
That standard apparently no longer applies at MS NOW.
When your own invited guest corrects your on-screen graphic in real time and you still don't issue a correction, that's not a mistake.
That's editorial policy.
Leavitt is leaving the press secretary role at the end of August – on her own terms, to spend more time with her two young children.
Trump called her one of his most trusted aides and said she would remain an outside adviser.
They put false words on the screen to tell a story that wasn't true.
And four days later, they still won't take them back.
Sources:
- Nick Gilbertson, "MS NOW Roasted for Falsely Reporting Karoline Leavitt Was on Return Plane from Turkey Without Trump," Breitbart, August 18, 2026.
- "Karoline Leavitt Bashes MS NOW for Incorrect Report She Was on Trump's 'Decoy' Plane: 'More Fake News,'" Mediaite, August 18, 2026.
- "Fact Check: Was Karoline Leavitt on the Decoy Plane?" Gazette Direct, August 2026.
- "Karoline Leavitt Stepping Down As White House Press Secretary To Focus On Children," Forbes, August 2026.