(AFP) – White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who earned a reputation for acid putdowns of journalists, is to step down, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, adding that she would remain a senior advisor. Leavitt, 28, the youngest ever US presidential top spokesperson, has been a fiercely loyal Trump defender, delivering fluent and aggressive performances at often combative press briefings.
“Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family,” Trump said on social media. “Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”
In May, Leavitt announced the birth of her second child — a girl named Viviana — just days after delaying her maternity leave following an alleged assassination attempt on Trump when a gunman tried to storm the White House correspondents dinner. Her departure, just weeks after returning to the job, comes as Trump faces steadily sinking poll numbers and the Republican Party risks defeat in the November midterm congressional elections.
“I am thankful to the President for entrusting me with the distinct privilege of speaking on his behalf at the White House podium,” Leavitt said on social media as her departure was announced. “I have relished holding the liberal media accountable and ensuring the American people hear the truth about President Trump’s successes.” Leavitt wrote that after returning to the White House after the birth of her daughter, “I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve” while devoting the attention needed as press secretary.
Leavitt is a Trump veteran who served in his press office during his first term that ended in 2021 and then as his spokesperson during his 2024 election campaign. Leavitt’s tenure as press secretary saw a revival of regular briefings that had petered out during the first term, but she presided over a sea change in White House interactions with journalists.
In February 2025, she stunned the press corps when she announced that the White House itself — and not an independent association of correspondents — would choose which reporters got to cover Trump up close in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. She also facilitated press credentials from right-wing, pro-Trump media outlets, diluting the presence of traditional news media that tend to ask more challenging questions in the briefing room.
Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, Leavitt sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class. After Trump’s 2020 election loss, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform. She then won his praise for steely television performances during his 2024 re-election campaign.
She signaled her intent to pursue a political path, stating, “our country is facing an existential threat from an increasingly extremist Democrat Party that seeks to destroy everything great about America.” “My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over.”
© 2024 AFP
