Chrissy Teigen defends Selena Gomez against White House jibes

Chrissy Teigen has defended Selena Gomez against criticisms posted by the White House's social-media team.

The model spoke out after a video criticising Selena was published by the Twitter/X account of the White House - the official residence and workplace of the US president, Donald Trump - describing it as "loser behaviour".

"I love her," Chrissy, 39, told TMZ on Monday.

"Empathy should never be frowned upon or made fun of, and the fact that the White House has enough time to even make a statement or a video about it is f**king preposterous and disgusting and lame and loser behaviour."

Selena, 32, had attracted the notice of the government entity's staffers after she posted a video to her social channels in which she could be seen weeping over the plight of America's 11 million undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration is currently overseeing extensive raids to uncover and deport as many such residents as it can.

"I'm so sorry. All my people are getting attacked, the children," a crying Selena, a third-generation Mexican-American, said in her now-deleted video.

"I don't understand. I'm so sorry, I wish I could do something but I can't. I don't know what to do. I'll try everything, I promise."

The White House responded by posting a video in which clips of Selena were intercut with footage of women whose children were reportedly killed by undocumented immigrants, as the women said, "You don't know who you're crying for".

A report funded by the National Institute of Justice found that "undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes."