A little filler can be transformative, which nobody knows better than Karoline Leavitt. The White House press secretary is almost unrecognizable in throwback pics, and while she’s certainly also made massive improvements to her eyebrow game over the years, there’s no question that having her lips done has played a major role in her transformation. Nowadays, Leavitt is one of President Donald Trump’s most valued staffers, but once upon a time, she was a young up-and-comer who looked remarkably different.

Of course, everyone’s face changes as they age, but what doesn’t typically happen over time is a fuller pout. Back when she first started working at the White House, Leavitt’s lips were very much on the thinner side, and when she smiled, even imperceptible. Now, the smile Leavitt flashes today generally reads less “I-am-genuinely-happy” and more “I-am-ready-to-spit-fire-at-any-given-moment,” but even in pics of her pouting back in the day, her pout was considerably less full. So, when did things change? 

We first saw the beginnings of the government employee’s new look around November 2022. That said, things remained subtle for some time after that — we even caught ourselves wondering if we were imagining the changes. After all, Leavitt was over-lining her lips very obviously circa 2023, so there’s a possibility that played a role. By 2025, however, it was clear that she’d had a little something done. And, as you probably recall, even the president noticed. If you have a sick bag handy, now would be the time to take it out.

Karoline Leavitt’s lips made headlines in 2025

Just in case you forgot, or blocked it out (and we wouldn’t blame you), in October 2025, President Donald Trump went gaga over Karoline Leavitt’s lips, grossing everybody out in the process. During a press gaggle onboard Air Force One, he infamously enthused, “Those lips. They move like a machine gun, right?” (via YouTube). As if that wasn’t bad enough, the divisive politician clearly thought the line was enough of a standout to repeat it again in December – at a rally, no less. “She gets up there with that beautiful face and those lips that don’t stop, bop bop bop […] Like a little machine gun,” he proudly told the crowd (via X, formerly known as Twitter). 

But, just a few days later, Leavitt’s rookie lip filler mistake was jarring in a Vanity Fair snap that instantly went viral. The outlet published a jaw-dropping, tell-all piece on the White House press secretary alongside several other prominent Trump staffers like Stephen Miller and Susie Wiles, but all eyes were on her lips. Leavitt slammed the up close look at her face in a petty Instagram Story, reposted from her hairstylist, who hyped her up as completely natural. The White House staffer also shared behind-the-scenes photos of her pouting into a TV camera to her IG feed. 

Sadly, if Leavitt was trying to deny the fact that she’d had injectables, it had the opposite effect. Her fillers did look slightly better, though, so small wins. At the end of the day, if the press secretary feels more confident with plumper lips, so be it. However, there’s no denying there’s been a very big change, and that filler likely had a lot to do with it. Bop bop bop, and whatnot.

Nickiswift.com

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received a phone call today from Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia.

During the call, the two leaders discussed developments in the region and the blatant Iranian attacks that targeted the territory of the UAE and a number of sisterly countries.

The Saudi Crown Prince expressed the Kingdom’s condemnation of the attacks and affirmed its full solidarity with the UAE, standing by it and placing all its capabilities at its disposal in support of any measures it may take.

For his part, the UAE President expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the fraternal stance of the Kingdom, its solidarity and its support for the UAE.

Both leaders warned of the serious consequences of continued violations of state sovereignty and international law through such attacks, stressing that these actions represent a dangerous escalation that threatens the security and stability of the region.

They also called for restraint and for resorting to diplomatic solutions to preserve regional security and stability.

GN

“It was already baked into the market reaction.” It’s something we at Marketplace, and other business news journalists, say when big news happens and the markets don’t seem to care.

But why not?

“I would say that the analogy to baking, when we talk about ‘baked in’ is pretty appropriate,” said Sasha Indarte, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

It’s a bit on the nose, but stay with us. Once all the ingredients are mixed together and the cake is in the oven, what’s going to come out when the timer goes off is already decided. It’s baked in.

The market works kind of the same way. Once news — or more accurately, anticipated news — is incorporated by stock market traders and other economic decision-makers, the news isn’t really new when it happens.

“For example, when the [Federal Reserve] makes its announcement about monetary policy rates and the path of monetary policy going forward, we don’t always see a big market reaction,” said Indarte. “Sometimes mortgage rates or stock prices don’t move a whole lot.”

Take the analogy just a hair further: When markets don’t move a whole lot on what otherwise would be big news, it means Wall Street has a pretty good recipe for what the future market is going to look like.

“What are the ingredients here? That would be the data that would be things like job reports, the latest inflation numbers,” Indarte said.

Right now, traders are baking in the January jobs report, the latest consumer price index, the personal consumption expenditures price index, and tons of other data points they might use to, say, take a guess at what the Fed is going to do in March at their next interest rate-setting meeting.

And all those ingredients taken together? When mixed, they make a forecast. And that’s kind of like the batter, Indarte said. So long as they get the batter right, when the Fed announces interest rates, there’s not going to be a big market reaction.

But, as anyone who’s baked can probably relate to, sometimes you get the batter wrong.

“If we forgot a crucial ingredient, maybe if we overlooked house prices, then our cake might fall flat,” Indarte said.

Get the ingredients wrong or leave one out, and what comes out of the oven might be a surprise. It happened at the beginning of the pandemic: Nobody had an emergency interest rate cut on their list of ingredients in March 2020, and traders reacted with extreme volatility.

But there’s nuance, too. Sometimes it’s not that you’ve got the wrong ingredients, it’s that the measurements aren’t right.

“You could have the same people looking at the same information, but if we can’t agree on how to put that information together, if we have different narratives about the significance of the jobs numbers versus consumer sentiment and so on, we can come up with different forecasts,” Indarte said.

And lately, between government shutdowns that have delayed the release of data reports and staffing cuts at the very agencies that produce those reports, we’re kind of just eyeballing the ingredients.

“If you don’t have a complete recipe — maybe you have all the right ingredients in front of you, but you don’t know the proportions,” said Indarte. “You might have had a chance to get to the right recipe, but if you’re if you’re missing maybe the knowledge or skills in order to get there, then it might not work out.”

That’s all to say, a cake is only as good as its recipe and a forecast is only as good as its parts. At the end of the day, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients.

Market place