White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her post at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, closing a tenure that made her the youngest person ever to hold the job and leaving the administration without a clear successor as it heads into the November midterm elections.
Trump revealed the staffing change in a post on Truth Social, writing that Leavitt was resigning to spend more time with her young children and family, a decision he said he totally understood and respected. He said she would become one of his “top outside advisors” and an “influential voice within the Republican Party” as the party works to win the midterm elections in November.
The departure follows a brief return from maternity leave. Leavitt gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, on May 1, according to CNBC. She and her husband, real estate developer Nicholas Riccio, also have a two-year-old son. She returned to the White House podium for her first formal press briefing in mid-July, Al Jazeera reported. Leavitt had stepped away from her duties in late April.
A bittersweet decision
Leavitt addressed her departure in a post on X, calling the job “the honor and adventure of a lifetime.” She wrote that being a mother while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world had been the most rewarding yet challenging season of her life. “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary,” she wrote. She called her departure a “bittersweet decision.”
Trump praised her service. “Karoline has been a real leader in the White House, and has done a phenomenal job fighting for Justice, Liberty, and Freedom, since 2018,” he wrote on Truth Social. The president also called her one of his “most trusted aides,” the BBC reported. He added that Leavitt had been “one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office.”
A combative tenure
Leavitt assumed the role at the start of Trump’s second term in January 2025. She was 27 when she took the job, according to the Guardian and Al Jazeera, making her the youngest press secretary in U.S. history. The BBC and CNBC reported her age as 28. She was also the first expectant press secretary, having announced her pregnancy in December.
Her time in the briefing room was marked by friction with journalists. She frequently accused reporters of bias. Earlier this year, she called Niall Stanage, a reporter from The Hill, a “left wing hack” after he pressed her on the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in January, the Guardian reported.
Leavitt’s office seized control of the White House press pool, stripping organizational duties from the White House Correspondents’ Association, and initially barred the Associated Press from the pool over its refusal to use the term “Gulf of America.” The AP lawsuit named Leavitt as a defendant. Her team also introduced a “new media” seat in the briefing room, which often included conservative commentators friendly to the administration.
Among supporters of the Trump administration, she was widely praised for remaining “on message” and ferociously defending the president’s policies. Fox host and conservative activist Riley Gaines wrote on X after one particularly feisty briefing room exchange that watching Leavitt in person was even better than watching her online, adding that Leavitt was so good at her job.
During her roughly seven-week maternity leave, senior administration figures took the podium, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum, the BBC reported. Leavitt had delayed her leave to deliver the administration’s first on-camera response to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting in April, the Guardian noted.
Before becoming press secretary, Leavitt had a long career working with Trump, serving as an assistant press secretary and speechwriter during his first term before becoming communications director for New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a contested Republican primary but losing to Democrat Chris Pappas. She then became a spokesperson for Maga Inc, a pro-Trump fundraising group, before joining Trump’s 2024 campaign as national press secretary.
Leavitt is the second longest-serving press secretary across both Trump administrations, behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served nearly two years during the first term. Trump cycled through four press secretaries during his first term, according to CNBC, though the Guardian put the number at five.
Al Jazeera noted that Leavitt is the latest in a series of senior officials to depart the second administration. Since the start of the year, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem were fired, while former Secretary of Labour Lori Michelle Chavez-DeRemer and Todd Lyon, acting head of ICE, resigned amid scrutiny of their leadership.