Karoline Leavitt to step down as White House press secretary
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- Karoline Leavitt, 28, will step down as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced on social media, framing the move as her decision to prioritize her two young children.
- Leavitt became the youngest person ever to hold the role when she took the job last year and ranks as the second longest-serving press secretary across Trump's two presidencies behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
- Trump called her "one of my most trusted aides" and said she will stay in his political orbit as "one of my top outside advisors" and an "influential voice within the Republican Party."
- Leavitt said returning from maternity leave last month after the May birth of her daughter with husband Nicholas Riccio convinced her she "cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve" while serving as press secretary.
- During Leavitt's tenure, her office stripped organizational control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents' Association and initially barred the Associated Press over its refusal to adopt the term "Gulf of America."
- A replacement has not been named; during Leavitt's roughly seven-week maternity leave, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum took podium duties.
Why it matters: Leavitt's exit opens the most visible podium in Trump's second term at an undefined moment — no successor has been named, and her combative reshaping of press access (seizing the pool from the WHCA, barring the AP) is the inheritance the next spokesperson will manage. Her staying on as an "outside advisor" keeps her inside Trump's circle even as she exits the briefing room.
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