“It’s Those Lips": And Other Things No One Asked the President to Say

Well, there he goes again.

If you’ve been anywhere near a screen this week, you’ve probably heard the President of the United States praise White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a statement so cringe-worthy it could give your spine secondhand embarrassment:

“It’s those lips. The way they move, they move like she’s a machine gun.”

Nope, not a line from a bad mid-2000s romcom or a rejected Family Guy bit.

That’s Donald Trump, in 2025, talking about 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt — his press secretary, not his prom date!

And here at Hands Off United, where we believe women are more than decorative accessories in someone else’s narrative, we couldn’t help but ask: Seriously, how are we still doing this?

From “Face” to “Brain” to… “Those Lips”?

This isn’t new territory for Trump.

We’ve seen the Access Hollywood tapes.

We’ve read the deleted tweet about Hillary Clinton and her marriage.

The list is longer than a CVS receipt. But this time, with a smirk and a wink, he reduced one of the youngest White House press secretaries in history to a facial feature.

Let’s be real: when you start a sentence about a female professional with “It’s that face, it’s that brain,” and then immediately swerve into “those lips” — you’re not complimenting her rhetorical skill. You’re being a walking HR violation.

And the sad part? This isn’t even surprising anymore.

We’ve collectively reached a point where Trump's objectification of women has become so normalized, people just roll their eyes and keep scrolling. But maybe it’s time we stop scrolling and start shouting.

Karoline Leavitt: Press Secretary or Collateral Damage?

We’re not here to defend Karoline Leavitt’s political views.

She’s gone to bat for Trump harder than anyone not on his legal team, even campaigning for him to get a Nobel Peace Prize (we wish we were joking).

She’s stood by him through Epstein allegations, hush money trials, and more verbal disasters than a malfunctioning AI chatbot.

But the point isn't whether you like her politics. The point is: She doesn’t deserve this.

No woman does. Not your intern. Not your boss.

Not even someone actively lobbying for the guy who said women should be “punished” for getting abortions.

Because when a 78-year-old man with a long, documented history of misogyny makes comments like these about a young woman who works for him, it’s not just tone-deaf—it’s dangerous.

It feeds into a culture where women are expected to smile and nod when they’re sexualized in the workplace, where harassment is brushed off as "just a compliment," and where power always has the last word.

We don’t care what party you belong to.

If you think “those lips” is an appropriate way to praise a colleague in public, you don’t belong in leadership. You belong in a remedial sensitivity training session with a side of “read the room.”

The “Epstein Echo”

And then, of course, came the Twitter/X backlash. The internet is nothing if not fast, furious, and merciless.

From hashtags like #CreepyTrump and #SexistPresident to deeply uncomfortable reminders of Trump’s long-time ties with Jeffrey Epstein, social media lit up like the Fourth of July.

Users pointed out the obvious: This isn’t just about one bad comment.

This is about a decades-long pattern of Trump reducing women to sex appeal, undermining their credibility, and then retreating behind the smokescreen of “humor” when called out.

Sure, this was "just a joke". And Epstein was just a party planner.

“Is She in the Room?”

Let’s not skip over what might be the most bizarre part of Trump’s rant: right after making the "lips" comment, he looks at the camera and asks, “Is she in the room?”

What is this — a horror movie? A séance?

According to body language analyst Judi James (yes, we now need experts to decode this man’s facial tics), this was a moment of “affected guilt.” In other words, a performative flash of “oops” that came way too late to do any good.

Because by the time you’ve said something creepy and doubled down on it with a metaphor about a “machine gun mouth,” you’re not saving face. You’re just digging the hole deeper.

This Is Why We Make the Shirts

At Hands Off United, we don’t just sell t-shirts. We sell messages that you can wear with pride. Messages like:

Because honestly? We’re tired.

Tired of powerful men treating women like punchlines.
Tired of having to explain why a comment about someone’s lips is sexualizing.
Tired of defending basic human dignity like it's up for debate.

So we make the shirts. We make them loud. We make them bold. And we wear them so no one forgets where we stand — especially when leaders forget how to behave.

Keep Your Compliments… and Your Comments

Let’s call this what it is: a symptom of toxic power structures where women’s worth is still measured by how attractive or amusing they are to the men in control.

Where being “a star” means fitting into someone else’s mold. Where equality is still fighting to be heard over the sound of another comment about “those lips.”

But we hear it.

And we won’t shut up about it.

If you’re with us, then maybe it’s time to start wearing that belief. Literally.

So yeah. Shop with us. Rock a tee. Make a statement.

Because creepy men in high offices don’t deserve silence.
They deserve t-shirts calling them out.

Wear our t-shirts if you choose equality — and maybe send one to the White House.