A rumor that basketball star LeBron James called press secretary Karoline Leavitt "KKK Barbie" in an interview circulated on social media in early June 2025. For example, a Facebook page called Conservative Headquarters shared the claim on June 8:
According to the post, Leavitt responded to James' supposed comments by saying that her "family fought to end slavery while yours came here from Jamaica in the 1930s."
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of James calling Leavitt "KKK Barbie" in an interview, nor was there any public reporting claiming James' family immigrated from Jamaica in the 1930s — most profiles on the basketball legend mentioned only his parents.
Rather, the rumor originated in May 2025 with a post made by the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page — one part of a network of social media pages and website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. The Facebook page's bio reads:
The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash.
Nothing on this page is real.
America's Last Line of Defense is known for making up stories it describes as satirical or humorous for shares and comments, and, according to its bio, for advertising revenue.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims originating from the page in the past, including the assertion that gymnast Simone Biles was banned from competing for Team USA over her response to an anti-transgender activist.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.