Claims circulated online in August 2025 that the business and finance news outlet Bloomberg reported that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hired Haliey Welch, better known as the "Hawk Tuah" girl, to be her assistant in the White House press office .
Welch rose to internet fame in 2024 when a humorous clip of her making a sexual innuendo went viral on TikTok, resulting in Hollywood representation, the launch of a podcast and even a cryptocurrency.
Users across social media platforms such as Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), X (archived) and Facebook (archived) shared an alleged screenshot of a Bloomberg article that featured the headline "Breaking: Haliey Welch, Also Known As Hawk Tuah, to Join White House Press Team as Karoline Leavitt's Assistant."
The alleged screenshot also featured text that purportedly showed statements from Leavitt and U.S. President Donald Trump. The text read:
"Non-traditional forms of media are becoming more and more popular," Leavitt said. "She has expertise in podcasts and cryptocurrency. That's what we need."
When asked about the personnel change, Trump claimed he was not involved in the process. "I don't know her. I trust Leavitt's decision. From what I've heard about Haliey, she seems like a great fit for the role."
However, the purported screenshot showing that Bloomberg reported about Welch joining the White House press office was a fake. There is no evidence that Welch joined the White House press office, and no credible news outlets reported such a rumor.
A search of Bloomberg's website for such an article turned up no relevant results. Further, the alleged screenshot circulating with the claims featured grammatical and style errors that likely would not be present in an authentic Bloomberg article.
Searches for the alleged quotes given by Leavitt and Trump within the purported screenshot also returned zero results from credible news outlets. We reached out to Bloomberg and the White House press office for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
Bloomberg has reported on Welch in the past, primarily in relation to the podcast — "Talk Tuah" — she launched in 2024 before becoming embroiled in a scandal in which she was accused of participating in a cryptocurrency "rug pulling" scheme with a memecoin called HAWK. As reported by NBC News, rug pulling is "a term used in the crypto world for projects in which a coin's creators seek to build hype and drive up a coin's price only for them to sell their holdings at a profit, which then leaves other investors with devalued tokens after prices drop dramatically."
According to Bloomberg, "the cryptocurrency hit a market cap of $490 million on the day of its launch, before plummeting below $100 million within hours." Rolling Stone wrote in May 2025 that Welch said she regretted the whole situation and learned to "definitely be careful what you tie your name into and who you trust."
For further reading about Welch, Snopes previously reported on a rumor that she was fired from her job at a preschool following her newfound internet fame.