President Donald Trump announced Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month,” capping an incredible run that revolutionized the White House press briefing to democratize the voices in the Brady Briefing Room and bring this normally elitist, liberal confab closer to the people.
A mother to a two-year-old and three-month-old, the President said she’ll be leaving to “spend more time with her beautiful young children and family,” but remain “one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”
The President said he “totally understand[s] and respect[s]” her decision, adding she will help the GOP “defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”
Trump concluded:
Karoline has been a real leader in the White House, and has done a phenomenal job fighting for Justice, Liberty, and Freedom, since 2018, including our Historic Re-Election Campaign of 2024. 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!
Regardless of her exact date of departure, Leavitt will have concluded the second-longest-run for anyone to serve in this crucial role at the pleasure of this President, topped only by now-Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who served 20 days shy of two years).
For her part, Leavitt posted on X that the role “has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime,” and that’s “incredibly grateful to President Trump for granting me so many extraordinary opportunities, such as working in the West Wing and spending countless hours in the Oval Office, flying around the world and meeting foreign leaders, and traveling across our beautiful country and meeting Americans from all walks of life.”
Leavitt added she’s “relished holding the liberal media accountable and ensuring the American people hear the truth about President Trump’s successes” through “the distinct privilege of speaking on his behalf at the White House podium.”
Leavitt confirmed the reason for her departure, explaining that, “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[.]”
Later, she offered a series of thanks and expanded on the importance of her new, undefined role: “President Trump has asked me to continue serving as a top advisor to him on the outside, and I will always remain a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party...My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over,” she said, addressing her new, undefined role.
Leavitt announced in her first briefing on January 28, 2025, that it would be a new era in the Briefing Room with the creation of a “new media” seat, and invited bloggers, influencers, and independent journalists to apply for consideration. This would later cause outlets such as The New York Times to pitch hissy fits.
She also was known for crisp, tight briefings of well under an hour, and calling on an expansive number of reporters. In that January briefing, for example, she called on 21 reporters credentialed with 20 different outlets.
Nearly a month later, on February 25, 2025, Leavitt shared another monumental change as she said the White House Communications Office — not the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) — would be taking over press pool assignments (meaning, the small band of reporters that travel with the President or attend events in tighter confines, such as the Oval Office).
Unsurprisingly, this created some cataclysmic meltdowns on the part of legacy media, fearing their access would be ripped away and be entirely replaced by Trump sycophants. In actuality, Leavitt and her team expanded the pool.
While continuing to rotate the TV crew between the six networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC), they instituted a spot for a second TV correspondent that allowed organizations such as NewsNation and Newsmax to join the pool when, under past presidents, they had been excluded.
As part of that, the Associated Press lost its consistent presence in the pool over its refusal to use the term “Gulf of America,” causing a whole other set of hand-wringing. Eventually, the AP returned to the pool.
Leavitt was also not afraid to use the Briefing Room podium to name names when it came to media misconduct.
Whether it was MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, the BBC, CNN Business, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins (more than a few times), The Hill’s Niall Stanage, The New York Times’s Katie Rogers, or the press’s repeated pro-Iranian tendencies to name a few, Leavitt represented President Trump well and was not there to schmooze or ingratiate herself to the far-left media class.
