WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of August, President Trump said in a social-media post, ending a roughly 19-month run at the West Wing podium by the youngest person ever to hold the job.
Leavitt, 28, returned in July from a seven-week maternity leave after the May birth of her second child, a daughter with husband Nicholas Riccio. The couple also has a two-year-old son. Her exit removes one of the Trump administration's most visible spokespeople and requires the president to fill what will be his sixth chief-spokesperson slot across two terms.
Trump called Leavitt one of his "most trusted aides" and said her departure was "a decision I totally understand and respect." He added that she would move into an outside advisory role. "Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party," he wrote. It was not immediately clear who would replace her.
In her words
Leavitt posted on X after the announcement that the job had been "the honor and adventure of a lifetime." She said the demands of the role and of raising two small children had become impossible to hold in balance.
"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. Since returning from maternity leave, she added, she felt she could not be "the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary."
The tenure
Leavitt took the podium in January 2025 as the youngest White House press secretary in history and became the second-longest serving of Trump's press secretaries, behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She joined the incoming administration after running national press for Trump's 2024 campaign and, before that, serving as spokeswoman for the Trump-aligned fundraising group Maga Inc.
Her tenure was combative. In February 2025, Leavitt's office seized control of the White House press pool from the White House Correspondents' Association, taking over the rotation that determines which reporters travel with the president and cover his daily events. The same office initially barred the Associated Press from the pool after the wire service refused to adopt the phrase "Gulf of America" in place of Gulf of Mexico. Leavitt accused some reporters of bias and left-wing framing across her time at the lectern.
Supporters of the administration credited her with staying on message. Fox host and conservative activist Riley Gaines wrote on X after one exchange, "Karoline Leavitt is so good at her job."
Earlier in her career, Leavitt worked as an assistant press secretary and speechwriter in Trump's first term and later served as communications director for Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. In 2022 she won a contested Republican primary in a New Hampshire congressional race and then lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas.
Who fills the podium
The White House did not name a successor or set a selection timeline. During Leavitt's maternity leave earlier this year, senior administration officials including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took turns at the podium, according to the BBC, which said it had contacted the White House for comment on possible replacements and the timing of a decision.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in a Fox News interview, called Leavitt a "close friend" and "role model" and said the two would continue to work together every day. Her story, Miller added, was "just beginning."
What isn't known
No right-of-center outlet had framed the departure in its own words by press time, and Democratic leaders and left-of-center commentators had not weighed in publicly on the choice of a successor. NBC News, in its Thursday broadcast, framed the announcement as a straightforward personnel move after "more than a year and half on the job." Neither source captured any pushback on the pool takeover or the Associated Press dispute that defined Leavitt's early months, questions that will pass to whoever next stands at the lectern.
The August recess ends after Labor Day, when Congress returns and daily West Wing briefings typically resume their heavier fall cadence. That leaves roughly three weeks for the president to fill the seat.