# Karoline Leavitt (and her successors) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [May 9, 2025, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138 "2025-05-09T06:40:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/341 "2026-10-16T21:48:44Z")
There ought to be a related unit, the anti-Helen. Measures the Mar-a-Lago style of “beauty” that doesn’t launch ships, it sinks them. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/342 "2026-10-16T22:01:18Z")
Why would someone do all the work to get a law degree and then not do the last little bit of passing the bar exam? ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/343 "2026-10-16T22:08:32Z")
Someone from California may be able to tell us if Pepperdine is a real college. It’s a “values oriented” private Christian school, which I assume means it lacks academic rigor, but I dunno. So the “last little bit” may very well have been “most of the journey” for her. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/344 "2026-10-16T22:10:51Z")
@Ancient_Nerd, it’s not common, but it’s not unheard of either. I recall a classmate of mine at law school who had no intention of passing the bar and practising law as a lawyer. But he was a financial planner, and wanted a more thorough understanding of such things as tax law, wills, trust law, and similar, than the typical financial planning courses and classes (all of which he had taken) could. Another reason might be someone who sees a law degree as a stepping stone to graduate studies in law, with the intent of becoming a legal researcher, a law professor, or as an editor of casebooks. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/345 "2026-10-16T22:12:57Z")
I fact checked myself, Pepperdine does seem to be legit. It’s on the ABA list and has an 82% pass rate for the BAR, which isn’t Stanford’s 98.5% but it’s not the dregs either. She’s just in the bottom 18%. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/346 "2026-10-16T22:18:45Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > Why would someone do all the work to get a law degree and then not do the last little bit of passing the bar exam? Apparently she took the bar exam in California but did not pass. I am not a lawyer but I understand that’s not unusual; some people take it multiple times before passing, and many study for months to prepare, and this is all after attending law school. In short, passing the bar exam is hardly “the last little bit.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/347 "2026-10-16T22:33:42Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Someone from California may be able to tell us if Pepperdine is a real college. Yes, it’s a real college. It’s been around since the 1930s, and its undergraduate program, MBA program, and law program are all reasonably well-regarded. It is usually ranked in the top half to top third of various college ratings (US News, Forbes, etc.). I’ve known of Pepperdine since the late '70s, and I had not known until today that it was church-affiliated…though, to be fair, the Churches of Christ, with which Pepperdine is affiliated, is a pretty conservative denomination. That said, compared to other conservative Christian groups like various Baptist groups, many of its members identify as Democrats. So, it seems to me that, despite this, Pepperdine students appear to get a reasonably good education, and unlike schools like Liberty University and Oral Roberts University, they are not as blatantly public about being affiliated with conservative Christian churches. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/348 "2026-10-16T22:39:36Z")
Also Pepperdine is famous for its campus, supposedly one of the most beautiful in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/349 "2026-10-16T22:39:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Apparently she took the bar exam in California but did not pass. I am not a lawyer but I understand that’s not unusual; some people take it multiple times before passing, and many study for months to prepare, and this is all after attending law school. By her own words, she didn’t try very hard because she was about to travel to China and so she didn’t really care about it. (China doesn’t allow someone to practice law there if they received their license from outside of the country, which of course makes sense; why should China care if California confirms that a person is skilled in United States law?) > **[White House press secretary Katie Zacharia says she did not pass bar exam](https://abcnews.com/Politics/white-house-press-secretary-katie-zacharia-pass-bar/story?id=137299415)** > > Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer; Trump called her "an attorney." Which seems kind of wild to me because it’s not cheap to take the exam, it looks like over $1,000 added up if I’m reading it right. > **[LibGuides: California Bar Exam and MPRE: 5. Bar Exam Fees](https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=183367&p=1209052)** > > This California Bar Exam guide provides an overview of steps law students can take to prepare for the California Bar Exam and the MPRE. Information regarding deadlines, topics covered on the California Bar Exam, and other helpful resources are... Not to mention the time and expense to get the degree in the first place. All that time and money and you just say “fuck it” because you’re going to China. My guess is that she failed because she wasn’t capable of passing (at least at that time, maybe she could have taken another stab at it later) and is just trying to give the impression that she could have if she wanted to. After all, she’s trying to pretend to have experience and capabilities she clearly does not have. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/350 "2026-10-16T22:41:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > untry. Those of us of a certain age, and who can remember the _Battle of the Network Stars_ specials in the 1970s, may remember that those competitions were held on Pepperdine’s campus. (It’s in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway. I visited it once, in the '90s, when I was in the area for work, and yes, it’s gorgeous.) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/351 "2026-10-16T22:43:02Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > All that time and money and you just say “fuck it” because you’re going to China. We don’t know how she did in law school - though clearly she did well enough to earn her J.D. She might well have realized that she wouldn’t have passed the bar easily, or was just more interested in chasing a paycheck at that moment. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/352 "2026-10-16T23:07:22Z")
Or an alternate theory - she’s also lying about her reasons for failing, just as she’s lied about nearly every detail of the whole imbecilic mess. “I could have gotten the top score if I wanted but I didn’t want to try very hard” is a stupid but very Trumpian excuse ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/353 "2026-10-16T23:13:27Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I fact checked myself, Pepperdine does seem to be legit. Pepperdine is old-time conservative but, it is legit. California being a blue state is really pretty recent. We unleashed Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan on the world. Southern California was historically more conservative than the north. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/354 "2026-10-16T23:51:42Z")
The longest unit of time in his universe is a putin. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/355 "2026-10-17T00:06:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Those of us of a certain age, and who can remember the _Battle of the Network Stars_ specials in the 1970s, may remember that those competitions were held on Pepperdine’s campus. I was going to mention that. It remains my primary association with Pepperdine. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/356 "2026-10-17T00:07:07Z")
Tough time trying to figure out a replacement. Candace Owen - too dark. Not blonde. Kari Lake - being doing too much losing, and you know what Trump thinks of those types. Also not blonde. I can see Jeanine Pirro’s Foxblood coming to the fore again, with itchings to try something a bit more performative like judgin’, or the WHPS thingie. Oh - but not blonde, though. Damn. Hey Paula-White-Cain’s blonde! Ka-Ching! Another blonde! Erika Kirk! Yeah Niki Hailey’s dark, but probably the least shittiest so far anyway. Guessing Laura Loomer would be the best non-blonde pick? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138/357 "2026-10-17T00:26:49Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Another blonde! Erika Kirk! This seems like a very likely one to me. And she has public speaking experience. If anyone in the press really pushes her with questions, she can deflect saying, “I’m a grieving widow!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karoline-leavitt-and-her-successors/1018138.md?page=17)