Karoline Leavitt to become youngest White House press secretary
Donald Trump has announced that Karoline Leavitt, his campaign spokeswoman, will be appointed as White House press secretary if he wins a second term. At just 27 years old, Leavitt would become the youngest press secretary in U.S. history.
In a statement, Trump expressed confidence in Leavitt’s ability to excel at the podium, stating that her experience as a former congressional candidate and her time working in the White House press office during his first administration would enable her to effectively deliver the administration’s message. “Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven herself to be a highly effective communicator,” Trump added.
A native of New Hampshire, Leavitt studied communications and political science at Saint Anselm College. While still in college, she interned at Fox News and in the Trump White House press office. These experiences, she told Politico in 2020, gave her a “first glimpse into the world of press” and influenced her decision to pursue a career in communications.
Leavitt joined the first Trump White House in 2019, initially as a presidential writer and later as assistant press secretary. According to her campaign website, she helped prepare Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for briefings and worked to counter what she described as biased mainstream media. After leaving the White House, Leavitt became communications director for Rep. Elise Stefanik, a senior Republican congresswoman whom Trump has nominated as the next U.N. ambassador.
She departed that role to run for Congress, winning the Republican nomination for New Hampshire’s first congressional district in 2022 – becoming the second member of Generation Z to win a congressional nomination.
She would later lose in the general election to the Democratic nominee, Chris Pappas, by eight points.
Leavitt’s stated policy positions on her campaign website largely aligned with Trump’s. On the economy, she pledged to “CUT taxes” and “champion pro-growth, free market policies”.
She presented herself as a strong backer of the police and strong borders, including “ZERO tolerance for illegal immigration” and championed “finishing construction of the border wall”.
In January 2024, she joined Trump’s third bid for the US presidency as his campaign press secretary.
Now, she’s been chosen to serve as the youngest White House press secretary in US history. Ron Ziegler was the previous record holder. In 1969, he was appointed to the position by Richard Nixon when he was 29.
The public will soon see Leavitt in the iconic spot behind the podium in the White House briefing room – a space that led to countless tense exchanges between members of the press and officials in Trump’s first administration.
Trump ran through multiple press secretaries during his first four-year term, including Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany.
After departing the White House Sanders went on to win the race for Arkansas governor.
Grisham resigned after the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot and has become a Trump critic, while McEnany has continued to advocate for the president-elect as a Fox News personality.
