Karoline Leavitt to Exit as White House Press Secretary, Move to Outside Advisor Role

Today’s Focus

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on August 12, according to reporting from Fox News and the BBC.

Trump wrote that Leavitt was leaving “so she can spend more time” with her two young children, calling it “a decision I totally understand and respect.” He added that she would become “one of my top outside advisors” and remain active in Republican politics through the midterm elections.

Leavitt, now 28, became the youngest person in U.S. history to serve as White House press secretary when she took the podium at the start of Trump’s second term in January 2025, the BBC reported. She surpassed Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he served under President Richard Nixon, according to The Guardian.

In her own statement on X, cited by The Guardian, Leavitt said she “cannot be the best mom” to her children “while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required” of the job. She gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May 2026 and returned from parental leave in July.

Leavitt worked as a press aide in Trump’s first administration and ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in New Hampshire in 2022, Fox News reported. She joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and served as transition spokeswoman before her appointment.

Trump did not name a successor in his announcement, the BBC reported. During Leavitt’s maternity leave earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum took turns at the briefing room lectern.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told Fox News that Leavitt is a “close friend” and said, “We’re going to continue working together every single day.”

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump allies describe Leavitt’s tenure as one of the most disciplined in the office’s recent history. Trump wrote on Truth Social that she has been “one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office,” praising her role in his 2024 campaign and administration.

Conservative commentator Riley Gaines, quoted by the BBC, wrote after one briefing that “Karoline Leavitt is so good at her job,” saying watching her in person “was even better than watching it online.” Supporters point to her willingness to take questions from a wider range of outlets, including podcasters and independent journalists, after her office restructured the briefing room pool.

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called her a “role model” in a Fox News interview and said the two would keep collaborating. Republicans note she is the second-longest-serving press secretary across Trump’s two administrations, behind only Sarah Huckabee Sanders, according to the BBC. Backers argue her move to an outside advisor role gives Trump a trusted political voice ahead of midterms without the constraints of the podium.

Critics argue

Critics say Leavitt’s briefings were often marked by combative exchanges and disputed factual claims. The Guardian noted that in her first press briefing, Leavitt pledged never to lie, then repeated a claim about U.S. condoms being sent to Gaza that fact-checkers found unsupported.

Press freedom advocates have criticized the administration’s February 2025 decision, described by the BBC, to seize control of the White House press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association. The Associated Press was initially barred from events after refusing to adopt the term “Gulf of America,” the BBC reported.

Democratic-leaning commentators, including columnists at The Guardian, have argued that Leavitt’s departure changes the messenger but not the message. Her exit comes as Trump’s approval rating sits at what The Guardian described as a historic low, with voters citing rising prices and the ongoing war in Iran.

What the experts say

Presidential communications scholars say press secretary turnover is common but the office itself has changed shape. Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project and a longtime scholar of presidential communications at Towson University, has documented in published research that the frequency of formal, on-camera briefings has declined steadily across recent administrations.

Data from the Kumar-led project and from the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, show that modern press secretaries increasingly compete with the president’s own direct-to-public channels, including Truth Social and X. That dynamic reduces the briefing room’s role as the primary source of White House news.

The Pew Research Center has reported a long-term decline in public trust in national political media, with sharp partisan splits in which outlets Americans consider credible. Historians at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center note that press secretaries who leave for outside political roles, as Leavitt is doing, often become surrogates on cable news and campaign trail events, a pattern seen with figures from Ari Fleischer to Jen Psaki.

By the Numbers

28: Leavitt’s age at her departure, according to The Guardian.

27: Her age when she took the job in January 2025, making her the youngest press secretary in U.S. history, per the BBC.

29: The age of Ronald Ziegler, the previous record holder, when he became Nixon’s spokesperson, according to The Guardian.

2nd: Leavitt’s rank in tenure among Trump press secretaries across both terms, behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders, per the BBC.

5: Number of previous chief spokespeople Trump has had across his two administrations, according to the BBC.

7 weeks: Approximate length of Leavitt’s maternity leave earlier in 2026, per the BBC.

2022: Year Leavitt ran unsuccessfully for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District as the Republican nominee, per The Guardian.