Inside Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Departure
Karoline Leavitt’s resignation as White House press secretary may have surprised Washington this week, but according to people familiar with the situation, the decision had been building for months. Leavitt announced Wednesday that she was leaving the Trump administration, ending a high-profile run as the president’s chief spokesperson. According to the Daily Mail, discussions about […]
Karoline Leavitt’s resignation as White House press secretary may have surprised Washington this week, but according to people familiar with the situation, the decision had been building for months.
Leavitt announced Wednesday that she was leaving the Trump administration, ending a high-profile run as the president’s chief spokesperson. According to the Daily Mail, discussions about her departure had been taking place since at least May, when Leavitt gave birth to her second child.
The demands of raising two young children while serving in one of the most intense jobs in Washington eventually became difficult to balance.
“It was a very stressful job to do with her children. She never got any sleep, and she didn’t want her performance to slip either, so she decided to stay as long as she could and do the job well,” one source told the Daily Mail.
The same source said President Donald Trump tried to persuade Leavitt to remain in the position.
“The president did everything he could to keep her,” the source said.
Trump’s own statement about Leavitt’s departure made clear that the split was on good terms. In a post on Truth Social, he praised her work in both his administration and his political campaigns.
“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,” Trump wrote. He also called her “one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office.”
Leavitt, 28, became the youngest White House press secretary in history when Trump returned to office in January 2025.
She was already a mother when she took the job. Her son, Niko, was born on July 10, 2024, while she was working as a spokeswoman for Trump’s presidential campaign. Leavitt reportedly took only four days away from work after his birth.
Her return came during an especially turbulent moment in the campaign. She went back to work the day after the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.