The knives were out for Karoline Leavitt on The View on Wednesday when hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin railed against the 28-year-old White House Press Secretary for describing her generation as entitled and 'lazy.' 

'My generation, I hate to say it, Gen Z and those younger than me, have been raised with just… silver spoons in their mouth. Just getting everything handed to them,' said Leavitt during an appearance on Jesse Watters' Primetime on July 2. 'They're just a little bit lazy.' 

But it seems that Leavitt, despite performing one of the toughest jobs in Washington, has no right to critique her fellow Gen-Zers because she happens to be married to a wealthy older man. At least according to Behar and Hostin. 

'She got an education. She married a rich guy. Talk about a DEI hire,' said 83-year-old Behar of Leavitt. Never one to remain on the sidelines, Hostin, 57, piped in, 'at 28-years-old, she married a 65-year-old. He's worth $61 million… I'm not sure where she comes off saying that Gen-Zers are lazy.' 

The pair's suggestion that Leavitt is a hypocrite for criticizing her contemporaries simply because she wed someone wealthy falls flat in the face of her work ethic. At just 25 years old, Leavitt ran for Congress; less than two years later, she was appointed the youngest-ever White House Press Secretary in January 2025.

In fact, it was during her Congressional campaign that Leavitt met her future husband, real estate developer Nicholas Riccio. And yes, their controversial 32-year age gap has drawn frequent criticism and questions from the press. 

'Could you not find boys your own age who are as mature?' one New York Post Podcaster asked. 'Honestly? No,' Leavitt laughed in response. 

But it's hard to see how Leavitt's marriage invalidates her opinion of what's eating Gen Z. Far from a spoiled rich girl who lounges around her millionaire husband's estate, Leavitt spends her days deep in the bull pit, fielding questions for America's most controversial president. The mom of two barely took off two months for maternity leave when she gave birth to daughter Viviana this past May.

Hostin and Behar might not agree with her boss' politics, but Leavitt's position in the Trump administration should not make her the target of unfair character assassinations. 

At 27, I am also within Gen Z and can confirm that what Leavitt said about our entitlement problem rings true. In fact, 50 percent of Gen-Zers themselves believe ours is the laziest generation, according to a survey by workforce management platform Homebase.

It's easy to understand why. 

Gen-Zers have grown up in a world far more prosperous than any generation before us. Amid fear mongering about America's 'hollowing middle class,' the nation's upper middle class has actually tripled in size between 1979 and 2024, according to the American Enterprise Institute.

Despite this plethora of plenty, the price of achieving the American Dream has soared. AEI reported that college tuition has climbed over 160 percent since 2000, leaving the average Gen-Zer stuck paying nearly $525 per month in student loans, according to survey data from financial services company Empower.

Essentials like hospital services are up over 200 percent since 2000, reports AEI and a third of adults under 35 are now living with their parents, according to  Realtor.com, thanks to an unaffordable rental and home buying market. No wonder Gen Z's financial mindset seems so backwards. 

It's something Hostin pointed out on The View: 'I'm raising Gen-Zers. They work constantly. And I know, I can see it. They live paycheck to paycheck.' 

But two things can be true at the same time. America's economy is working against young people, while chronic Gen-Z 'checking out' is also exacerbating our economic anxieties.

Indeed, the average Gen-Zer now spends anywhere from seven to nine hours each day on their cellphones, half of that time 'doom-scrolling.' Along with our cellphone addictions, many young people have prioritized self-coddling over career growth, leaving more seasoned managers baffled by our lack of motivation and resistance to criticism.

As a result, 74 percent of managers say Gen Z is harder to work with than older generations, according to a Resumebuilder.com survey. 

From mental health support to flexible work schedule policies, companies are seeking ways to retain Gen-Z employees by reshaping workplace attitudes towards the time off and work-life boundaries they demand. 

But at what point does work become more like daycare? 

While American work culture softens itself to meet their needs, many Gen-Zers now cosplay as pseudo-socialists or front as weary union laborers 'toiling' long hours in inhumane conditions. Meanwhile, they're actually making lattes at cozy cafes or working cushy jobs from home. In branding them 'lazy,' Leavitt was merely highlighting this distorted reality.

Zohran Mamdani, the patron saint of Z-styled democratic socialism, said during his America 250th speech on July 4, 'We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands, those who toil on factory floors and chisel into stone. And we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few.'

One could hardly call the hands of 26-year-olds with laptop jobs 'calloused' or 'dirt-streaked.' As for the 'soft hands of a precious few,' that is the most apt description of Mamdani himself. Just a few years past Z-status, he barely had a job before entering City Hall and comes from the type of wealth those View hosts so blithely derided. 

Both his and my generations of silver-spoon socialists are the exact types of young loafers Leavitt was describing. 

Simply dismissing her sentiments as entitled or out-of-touch because she works for Trump or happened to marry well is the laziest thinking of all.

Maggie Anders is a commentator and content creator at Young Voices.