In the latest shakeup for the Trump administration, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced this week that she will leave her role at the end of August.
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, Leavitt shared on X that she is stepping away as one of the most visible faces of the Trump administration to spend more time with her young family. “Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least,” she wrote, in part.
“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 — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt added.
Leavitt’s departure comes less than three months before the midterm elections, and it is not yet clear who will take her spot at the lectern. During her maternity leave, the administration tapped Cabinet members, top officials, and even Vice President J.D. Vance to address the press.
Leavitt’s Tenure
The 28 year old gave birth to her second child in May. Daughter Viviana joined Leavitt’s son Niko, who was born July 10, 2024 – just three days before the assassination attempt against President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Leavitt cut her maternity leave short at the time and returned to her job as national press secretary for the Trump campaign immediately following the shooting. She described that decision in an interview with Megyn on The Megyn Kelly Show in February 2025.
“The president was shot on the 13th… It was my first day home with him from the hospital, and it kind of threw me right back to work much sooner than I would have probably expected or hoped,” Leavitt shared. “But becoming a mother in the midst of this very chaotic political world that I work in has been the best thing I could have ever imagined because it gives you great perspective and it humbles you.”
Leavitt’s White House tenure made history in several ways. She was just the eighth woman to serve as press secretary, the youngest person ever to hold the job, and the first to give birth while serving in the role. She also reshaped who has access to the White House press operation.
During her first briefing in January 2025, Leavitt announced the Trump administration would open access to independent journalists, podcasters, and social media influencers, while creating a rotating “new media” seat in the briefing room. She said the changes were aimed at reaching Americans who increasingly get their news outside traditional outlets.
Fond Farewell
As part of her announcement, Leavitt said President Trump had asked her to continue serving as a “top advisor to him on the outside” – something Trump himself referenced in his glowing public sendoff to his press secretary.
“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, a decision I totally understand and respect,” he wrote, in part, on Truth Social. “Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”
“Karoline has been one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office. Thank you, Karoline, for a job well done,” the president added.
Tributes also poured in from across the administration, with many praising Leavitt as a fierce advocate for the president and his MAGA movement.
Media Malpractice
While the reaction within the Trump administration has been unusually warm, the same cannot be said for the media. On Thursday’s Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn played the barb lobbed by “normally nice guy” Jimmy Fallon, who suggested Leavitt is leaving because she was aboard the legacy Air Force One that, we now know, Trump did not depart the NATO summit on last month.
“Some more big news today. Trump announced that Karoline Leavitt is resigning as White House press secretary,” Fallon said amid a smattering of applause and cheers from the audience.
“That story again. Karoline Levaitt was definitely one of these staffers left on Air Force One. ‘Oh, really? Didn’t take me?’ Apparently, she’s moving on to an easier job, working as the press secretary for Taylor Farms lettuce,” he added, in reference to the greens believed to be responsible for the Cyclospora outbreak affecting 15 states.
Whoever wrote that ‘joke’ for Fallon must have forgotten to check the calendar because the flight fake-out occurred a week before Leavitt returned from maternity leave. Megyn called the quip “not great,” and said Leavitt received more than her fair share of criticism from the corporate media and left.
“I just feel like Karoline Leavitt has taken a beating by the left-wing press, who really thinks she’s like a handmaiden to the devil,” she lamented. “And all she really is a 28-year-old, extremely talented young Republican who did her patriotic duty and served a president she loved and managed the very difficult dual role of mother to two babies while doing one of the most difficult jobs in the world.”
In Megyn’s view, Leavitt’s resignation is “totally foreseeable” given the nature of the role. “I think she genuinely wants to be at home with her baby daughter and her son, who is only now about two, and good for her. We are in her debt,” she concluded.
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