Karoline Leavitt to Step Down as White House Press Secretary

WASHINGTON —

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform, ending a tenure that began when she was just 27 years old.

Trump said Leavitt is leaving "so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect," according to the Guardian. Leavitt gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May and had recently returned to the White House from maternity leave, CBS News reported.

In her own statement on X, Leavitt said she could not be "the best mom my two young children deserve" while carrying the demands of the job. "That is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life," she wrote, adding that she would keep advising Trump from outside the administration and remain "a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party," according to CBS News.

Trump called her departure a loss for the West Wing but said she would remain close to him. "Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party," he wrote, according to the BBC.

A High-Profile Run at the Podium

Leavitt became the youngest White House press secretary in the country's history when Trump named her to the job in January 2025, at 27. She is now 28. Her briefings rarely broke from Trump's talking points, though fact checkers found plenty to dispute, including her claim that tariffs amount to a tax cut, which Politifact rated false, the Guardian reported.

She could be sharp with reporters. In one exchange this year over the killing of a woman named Renee Good by an immigration enforcement agent in Minneapolis, Leavitt accused a journalist who had criticized the agent's conduct of being "a leftwing hack" and told him he did not belong in the briefing room, according to the Guardian. Trump, for his part, frequently praised her communication skills and once told Newsmax she had "become a star," the Guardian reported.

Praise, Criticism and an Open Question

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called her a "fearless voice" for the president's agenda, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said she had been "the most successful Press Secretary in history," according to the Guardian. Senator Adam Schiff of California offered a pointed jab, saying she was leaving to spend more time "with the truth."

Trump did not name a successor. Four people held the press secretary job during his first term, and their paths afterward varied widely: Sarah Huckabee Sanders became governor of Arkansas, Kayleigh McEnany went on to host a show on Fox News, and Stephanie Grisham became an outspoken Trump critic who addressed the 2024 Democratic National Convention, according to the Guardian.