A young conservative commentator who became a viral talking point this week after appearing beside Donald Trump in the Oval Office is pushing back on the wave of speculation surrounding Monday’s White House event.
Jayme Leagh Franklin, 26, a podcaster and journalist, told Our News Outlet that she had been invited to the White House appearance with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the administration moved to revise long-standing federal guidance on childhood vaccines.
Franklin said she did not expect to become part of the visual center of the event. Once she arrived in the Oval Office, she was caught off guard when White House staff directed her to stand next to the president while he delivered his remarks.
During the announcement, Trump outlined new guidance recommending that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be separated into three individual shots, citing concerns about possible links to autism.
‘It looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body, and bad things happen in many cases,’ Trump said on Monday.
The Oval Office appearance quickly drew scrutiny online. Social media users studying the footage claimed that, at several moments while other health officials were speaking, Trump appeared to shut his eyes and briefly nod off.
Franklin rejected that interpretation, telling Our News Outlet that the moment may have been distorted by the camera angle rather than reflecting what was happening in the room.
Trump, accompanied by HHS Secretary RFK Jr and Jayme Leagh Franklin with The Conservateur in the Oval Office
Jayme Leagh Franklin stands behind Trump with his eyes closed before he signed an executive order calling for childhood vaccine shots to be spaced out
From her point of view, she said, the president was merely looking down toward his desk as officials from his administration spoke, rather than staring directly at the reporters or the cameras.
‘I didn’t understand that,’ she said about the controversy. ‘From my perspective, he was looking down. This president is the most active we’ve ever had, so that narrative is just so fundamentally false.’
Franklin revealed that after the event wrapped, she told the president and the audience in the Oval Office that she is pregnant with her second child. She said she is 23 weeks pregnant and due in December.
And Trump’s announcement hits home for her. She’s fully supportive of the new executive order recommending spacing out the number of vaccine shots for children.
Franklin told Our News Outlet that she vaccinated her first daughter on her own schedule and appreciated the president’s executive order on vaccines.
‘Every child is different, it’s really all just about freedom, and so I’m very passionate about that,’ Franklin said.
‘I think what’s really cool about this White House is they try to bring in people who are normal, everyday people to be able to see what they’re doing for the American people.’
Franklin is a co-host on the Sincerely American podcast and a co-founder of The Conservateur, an online platform for women covering culture, fashion, faith and politics.
Her husband Drake Franklin works for the America First Policy Institute, a think tank staffed with many former Trump administration officials.
Conservative podcaster Jayme Leagh Franklin in the White House briefing room
Conservative podcaster Jayme Leagh Franklin and her family with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance
Last year, Franklin attended the White House press briefing in the special New Media seat, created by the administration for rotating podcasters and influencers.
Franklin has also interviewed RFK Jr and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on her podcast. She also attended a White House listening session in April with influential figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Growing up in California, Franklin said she was raised to be very conscious about choices about health and food, calling her mother ‘the most passionate MAHA woman you will ever meet.’
After her visit to the Oval Office this week, however, people speculated about Franklin’s appearance and demeanor on camera, accusing her of acting as a ‘robot’ by nodding in agreement with the president and health officials as they spoke.
‘Is this the first fully autonomous MAGA Robot?’ wrote left-wing Executive Director of NewBlueUSA Marty Taylor on X. ‘MAGA 2.0 robot is programmed to nod at every word coming out of Trump’s mouth.’
Meanwhile, other critics made comments about her placing her hand on her stomach, joking that she was concealing a button to ‘wake’ the president if he appeared to doze off, nicknaming her ‘The Zapper.’
In response Tuesday night, Franklin responded on X: ‘I’m just pregnant you weirdos.’
And she told Our News Outlet that she has taken all the criticism and mockery in stride.
‘Being a conservative woman, I’ve gotten a ton of hate over the years, and I honestly take it as a compliment,’ she said. ‘I think it means that you’re doing great things, and I don’t take myself too seriously so I can laugh at stuff.’
