White House defends new press secretary who posed with gun in ‘Fuck Joe Biden’ shirt | Trump administration

The White House defended a newly hired press secretary who posed for a 2021 vacation photo wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle.

Beni Rae Harmony, the new White House deputy press secretary, revealed Friday that she was going to work for Donald Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing partisan news outlet originally created as a video podcast platform for the president’s former adviser Steve Bannon.

According to a LinkedIn profile, Harmony, 24, previously worked as a producer for far-right Turning Point USA host Jack Posobiec — and as a press secretary “focusing on crisis management” for two far-right Republicans: Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona and former Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida.

In 2021, when Gosar was censored by the United States House of Representatives for posting an animated video showing him killing Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden, Harmony recorded an outraged defense of his boss for his YouTube channel.

The photo of Harmony and an older man posing with guns in matching anti-Biden shirts, in front of Christmas decorations, was reportedly posted to Instagram in November 2021 by a far-right candidate for the House of Representatives, Jarome Bell, who ran a failed campaign for Congress in 2022.

A screenshot of that message, published by the Daily Mirror, shows it included the caption: “My campaign public affairs director @beniraeharmony is a beast. That’s how we roll.”

Harmony appeared to verify the authenticity of the photograph in December 2021, when it was shared on social media by an anti-Maga media outlet, PatriotTakes, which also identified her as a Gosar aide.

The next day, Harmony responded to PatriotTakes’ post of the image with another image of herself, wearing the same shirt in the same location and smiling at the camera. When another social media user posted a sarcastic question about the relationship between the older man and the younger woman seen in the image, asking: “Girl or date?” “, Harmony responded with a single word: “Uncle.”

Biden was serving his only term in the Oval Office at the time, and Trump supporters chanting “Fuck Joe Biden” during a Nascar race that fall inspired a viral meme featuring a variation of the slogan.

Harmony did not respond to requests for comment on the photograph. But the White House press office responded with a statement from deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, who praised the new hire for supporting Trump’s Make America Great Again movement while ostensibly covering the president as a reporter.

“Beni Rae Harmony has been a trusted voice for the MAGA movement as a White House correspondent,” Kelly wrote. “She will be an exceptional addition to President Trump’s communications team as Deputy Press Secretary – we look forward to having her on board!” »

Harmony joins a White House press office that has taken unprecedented steps to ensure that the president is surrounded at all times by partisan media correspondents who shower him with praise, and limit or deny access to journalists from nonpartisan media outlets who challenge him.

Trump has attempted to completely ban CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House for what he sees as too much negative media coverage, and his aides now cherry-pick incumbent media outlets to ask him questions, with frequent slots reserved for correspondents who openly support him.

Harmony became a White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice after her predecessor, Brian Glenn, fell out of favor with Trump when his partner, Marjorie Taylor Greene, broke with the president and accused him of betraying the Maga movement.

Glenn had already been working hard to advance Trump’s political agenda when Trump invited him to ask questions. In 2025, for example, Glenn pointedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy why he refused to wear a suit in the Oval Office, a question that inflamed an already explosive meeting.

At a press briefing on Air Force One last month, Trump approached reporters with a sheaf of papers in his left hand. Harmony asked Trump a series of friendly questions that seemed designed to help him score political points. As TMZ reported Friday, Associated Press photographs taken during that exchange showed Harmony’s name appeared at the top of the front page in the president’s hand, suggesting he may have been holding his resume while answering questions.

Harmony achieved some fame in right-wing media in 2025, when she left her job as an on-air host at a local television station in Springfield, Illinois, after performing an on-air tribute to the late Charlie Kirk, describing him as her first boss and mentor.

The channel’s news director denied that Harmony had been suspended over the tribute, as she claimed, and clarified that she had never been a member of its news team and had instead hosted a show run by the channel’s sales department featuring clients who had paid to be interviewed on television.