Karoline Leavitt is leaving her role as White House press secretary, President Donald Trump announced. She is the second longest-serving press secretary across either of Trump's two administrations, following only Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Leavitt welcomed her second child, a baby girl, with husband Nicholas Riccio in May. She also has a two-year-old son. She returned to work from maternity leave last month.
Following the president's announcement, Leavitt wrote on X that her job had been "the honor and adventure of a lifetime."
"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.
Before serving as press secretary, Leavitt had a long career working with Trump. She first served as an assistant press secretary and speechwriter during his first term in office, before becoming communications director for New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
In 2022, Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire. She won a contested Republican primary but lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas. She subsequently became a spokesperson for MAGA Inc, a pro-Trump fundraising group, before joining his 2024 presidential campaign as national press secretary.
During her tenure at the White House, Leavitt had a sometimes combative relationship with the press corps, at times accusing reporters of bias or left-wing sympathies. In February last year, her office seized control of the White House press pool, stripping organisational duties from the White House Correspondents' Association. The Associated Press was also initially barred from the briefing room over its refusal to adopt the term "Gulf of America."
Among supporters of the Trump administration, however, she was widely praised for staying on message and forcefully defending the president's policies. Fox host and conservative activist Riley Gaines wrote on X following one particularly heated briefing room exchange: "Watching it in person was even better than watching it online. Karoline Leavitt is so good at her job."
It remains unclear who will succeed Leavitt as Trump's sixth chief spokesperson across his two administrations. During her roughly seven-week maternity leave earlier this year, a series of senior administration figures took the podium, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
