WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her post at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday in a post on Truth Social, closing out a tenure that made her the youngest person ever to hold the job.
Trump said Leavitt was departing to spend more time with her two young children, a decision he said he understood and respected. He added that she would become one of his top outside advisers and a voice within the Republican Party heading into the November midterm elections, Axios reported.
Leavitt, 28, confirmed the move in a statement posted on X. She said serving in the role had been an extraordinary honor, and that since returning to work after the birth of her daughter she had come to feel she could not meet the demands of the briefing room and give her children the attention they deserve, according to NBC News.
She gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May, becoming the first White House press secretary to have a child while serving in the position. She stepped away from the podium in late April and returned for her first formal briefing in mid-July, Al Jazeera reported.
Her run of roughly 18 months is the second-longest of any Trump press secretary, behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served nearly two years in his first term. None of his other spokespeople lasted a full year.
Leavitt began her career in the first Trump administration as an intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence and later served as an assistant press secretary. She worked as communications director for Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, then ran for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District in 2022 and lost to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. She joined Trump's super PAC before becoming national press secretary for his 2024 campaign, The Hill reported.
At the podium she defended the administration through the Signal messaging controversy, the release of the Epstein files and the conflict with Iran.
No successor has been named. During her maternity leave, briefings were handled by a rotating group of senior officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, ABC News reported.