Dem Rep Crockett: “I’m Rooting for Canada”; Leavitt to NBC: “Why Is the Media So Against Cutting Waste?”

A February 2025 compilation captured the deepening divide between the Trump administration’s supporters and its critics. Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas told an interviewer she was “rooting for Canada and rooting for Mexico,” calling foreign governments “the ones that are speaking truth to power right now.” At the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confronted NBC’s Peter Alexander after he attempted to challenge DOGE’s fraud claims, asking: “Why is the media so against cutting waste, fraud, and abuse? I don’t get it.” Leavitt cited a Social Security IG report documenting $71 billion in fraud and the CBS poll showing 70% of Americans believed Trump was delivering on his promises.

Crockett: “Rooting for Canada and Mexico”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) made headlines with remarks that critics immediately seized upon as an example of opposition to the Trump administration crossing into opposition to America itself.

“The fact that I’m rooting for Canada and I’m rooting for Mexico a lot is really wild,” Crockett said. “But they are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now.”

She described the foreign governments’ resistance to Trump’s tariff and trade policies in approving terms. “They can see what it is. And they were like, ‘We are not messing with this crazy regime from Mar-a-Lago’ and basically calling them thugs,” Crockett said. “That’s what it is.”

She then shifted blame to voters: “But I’m like, y’all knew who he was when y’all elected him. So don’t act surprised.”

The remarks were politically explosive because they represented a Democratic officeholder explicitly rooting for foreign governments against the United States in trade disputes. Regardless of one’s views on tariff policy, the framing — celebrating foreign resistance to American trade demands while describing the American president as leading a “crazy regime” — struck many observers as a remarkable departure from the traditional expectation that domestic political disputes stopped at the water’s edge.

The “rooting for Canada and Mexico” clip circulated widely on social media, where it was used to illustrate what critics described as Trump Derangement Syndrome reaching the point where partisan opposition overrode national loyalty.

Alexander Challenges DOGE Fraud Claims

At the White House, NBC’s Peter Alexander attempted to draw a distinction between “wasteful” spending — which he acknowledged was a matter of opinion — and “fraud,” which was a crime.

“We can all have our own opinion about what is wasteful spending. And Republicans have praised the president for cutting wasteful spending,” Alexander said. “But fraud, of course, is a crime. So have you turned over evidence of fraud to the Justice Department? And when should we expect to see those indictments?”

Leavitt first addressed the “wasteful” versus “fraudulent” distinction. “I think all Americans would agree that funding mastectomies in Mozambique is not something that the American people should be funding, or DEI programs,” she said. “I think it’s fraudulent that the American government has been ripping off taxpayers in this way.”

She then cited specific data. “We also do know there has been extensive fraud, particularly if you look at Social Security,” Leavitt said. “In fact, according to an IG report from the Social Security Administration, there was $71 billion worth of fraud in one single fiscal year that we know about.”

Alexander interjected with a correction: “To be clear, that $71 billion was from 2015 to 2022. So it wasn’t in just one year.”

Rather than retreating, Leavitt turned the correction into an attack. “So are you defending $71 billion in fraud, Peter?” she asked. “That’s a lot of money, far too much. And that’s why this administration—"

"Why Is the Media So Against Cutting Waste?”

The exchange then escalated into the defining moment of the briefing. Leavitt posed the question that reframed the entire debate.

“Why is the media so against cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from the government?” Leavitt asked. “I don’t get it.”

Alexander attempted to interject with another question, but Leavitt continued: “We will not be deterred from people like you and the press who are clearly adamantly opposed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.”

She then connected the issue directly to the voters who were watching. “We know that American taxpayers at home who have been struggling with an inflationary crisis don’t want their tax dollars going towards crazy DEI programs in countries overseas,” Leavitt said. “They also don’t like the fact that there has been $71 billion worth of fraud in Social Security and improper payments going out the door.”

Leavitt concluded: “That’s a problem that needs to be fixed. And President Trump is going to fix it.”

The exchange illustrated Leavitt’s approach to hostile questioning: rather than defending against the premise of the question, she challenged the premise itself. Alexander’s question assumed that the administration needed to prove its fraud claims met a criminal standard. Leavitt’s response reframed the reporter as defending the fraud by challenging the administration’s efforts to stop it.

The CBS Poll: 70% Say Trump Is Delivering

Earlier in the briefing, when Alexander raised the topic of constituents in “traditionally red districts” complaining about DOGE’s “chainsaw approach,” Leavitt had pushed back with data.

“I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing,” Leavitt said. “If you look at the public polling, 70% of Americans, according to CBS, believe that President Trump is delivering on the promises he made.”

She framed the DOGE mission in historical terms. “There should be no secret about the fact that this administration is committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse,” Leavitt said. “The president campaigned on that promise. Americans elected him on that promise, and he’s actually delivering on it.”

Then the pointed comparison: “And this is something that Democrats promised they would do for decades. President Trump is just the first president to get it done.”

The 70% figure was a recurring reference for the administration, deployed whenever media coverage suggested the president’s agenda was unpopular. The number was particularly powerful because it came from CBS, a mainstream outlet that the administration’s supporters would not consider sympathetic. If even CBS’s polling showed 70% approval for Trump’s follow-through, the media’s focus on scattered critics appeared disconnected from public opinion.

The $71 Billion Figure in Context

The Social Security fraud figure that became the center of the Alexander exchange deserved context that both sides selectively provided. The IG report had documented $71 billion in improper payments over the period from 2015 to 2022 — not in a single year, as Leavitt initially stated, and Alexander was factually correct to note the multi-year timeframe.

However, even spread over seven years, $71 billion in improper payments averaged over $10 billion annually — a staggering sum that represented real money flowing to individuals who were not entitled to receive it. Whether each improper payment constituted criminal “fraud” in the legal sense or represented administrative errors, duplicate payments, or payments to deceased individuals, the scale of the problem was difficult to minimize.

The administration’s point — that tens of billions of dollars in improper payments demanded urgent attention regardless of the precise legal classification — was substantively strong even if the specific figure required clarification. Leavitt’s rhetorical move of asking “are you defending $71 billion in fraud?” forced Alexander into a position where quibbling over the timeframe looked like defending the underlying waste.

Key Takeaways

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said she was “rooting for Canada and rooting for Mexico,” calling foreign governments “the ones that are speaking truth to power” against the Trump administration.
• Leavitt confronted NBC’s Peter Alexander: “Why is the media so against cutting waste, fraud, and abuse? I don’t get it.”
• She cited a Social Security IG report documenting $71 billion in improper payments (2015-2022) and asked Alexander: “So are you defending $71 billion in fraud?”
• Leavitt cited a CBS poll showing 70% of Americans believed Trump was delivering on his promises, calling DOGE the fulfillment of what “Democrats promised they would do for decades.”
• Crockett described the Trump administration as “this crazy regime from Mar-a-Lago” and praised foreign governments for “calling them thugs.”